SPICY PUMPKIN PASTA (one pot recipe) It's autumn, so I thought at first I would tell you how I use pumpkins. Normally what we have here as "pumpkin" is the butternut squash variety, but I think every sweet-ish edible kind should work. Make super sure it's not the strictly decorative type.
Here we don't really have the canned stuff, so my first step is cutting up your pumpkin to pieces, putting them in an oven dish (I usually put baking paper under everything, to be safe), preheating the oven to 200°C (about 390°F) and letting them go for a good 40-60-ish minutes. This is not science, keep checking. Once they are soft and there is some of that nice color on it, you are done. Cool it a bit, spoon the cooked flesh into a bowl and mash it up with a fork or one of those potato molester things.
Yes, you read correct, no seasoning or sugar or anything. Why? Because that way we can use them for both savory OR sweet dishes.

From now it's easy.

• 60 g of bacon cut small (about 2 oz)
• an onion, cut small
• 2-3 cloves of garlic either through a press or chopped
• 400 g (14-ish oz) of pasta (make it one of those curly little shapes so the sauce gets all up in them cracks)
• 4,5 cups stock (I usually make it warm water + 1 chicken stock cube)
• salt, pepper, nutmeg, basil, cayenne pepper, oregano, parsley... you can add other herbs to your liking, but I live in a rosemary-phobic house, so yeah. I personally think the cayenne is a must, it works super well with the pumpkin taste
• either cream cheese or mozzarella (or both if you want, I'm not your mom)
  cream cheese makes it more creamy, mozz makes it more cheesepull-y.
  I either put in about 125 g of the squishy mozz balls (4,5 oz) or 100 g cream cheese (3,5 oz)

In a pot you fry up your bacon cubes. The key to crispy bacon is to not have the heat too high, just be patient.
Once it's done, take out the bacon bits to a plate. If you are lazy, you can leave it in, but it's going to cook soft. The flavour will stay, though, so no biggie. Add your onion and garlic and sautee them in your bacon grease.
Add your pumpkin mush and stir around a bit, then pour in the stock. Add the spices and stir it around. You just made a very watery pumpkin soup. YAY.
Add your pasta right into the soup. You are going to cook your bone dry pasta on medium heat in this stuff. As the pasta cooks, the sauce gets thickened. Stir it from time to time so it doesn't burn to the bottom. (If your pasta is not cooked, but the sauce is too thick, just add a bit of water, no big deal.)
Once pasta is cooked and sauce is thicc, turn off your heat and add your cheese product + your bacon if you took it out. Mix it in.