The cooler weather of the fall and winter seasons makes us crave creamy, comforting, hibernation-worthy meals. Baked pasta dishes fit the bill perfectly and provide enough hearty helpings for a large family (or plenty of leftovers!). These fall pasta recipes feature seasonal ingredients like butternut squash, pumpkin, chestnuts, and even turkey. Each one is an excellent choice for a Sunday dinner or a main course for your holiday table. For more autumn-inspired recipes, try these heartwarming Italian dishes.
Brown Butter Alfredo Baked Ravioli
Let’s start off with a super easy pasta bake that requires just a few commonplace ingredients: butter, heavy cream, and Parmesan cheese. For this baked ravioli recipe, you can purchase packaged cheese ravioli, or grab one of our Tescoma ravioli molds to make pasta from scratch. (If you choose the latter, you’ll also need ricotta cheese for the filling.) The trick to this fall pasta recipe is to brown the butter to the point where it develops a distinctly nutty taste. Just be careful: Taking your eye off the butter for even a minute can result in a burned batch!
Sweet Potato Pasta Bake
Sweet potato often shows up around Thanksgiving as a side dish, but it can also be a lovely ingredient in fall pasta recipes. Similar to butternut squash, it brings a tastefully sweet flavor and a vibrant orange color to the dish. InquiringChef.com uses fusilli pasta for their Sweet Potato Pasta Bake recipe, but you can use virtually any type of pasta you like! You’ll also need onions, carrots, vegetable broth, Greek yogurt, and cheddar cheese.
Three Cheese Baked Pasta with Porcini and Radicchio
Porcini mushroom is an earthy ingredient that embodies the spirit of the harvest season just as much as any squash. This incredibly cheesy pasta bake also makes use of radicchio, a bitter cabbage-like crop that mellows out a bit when it’s cooked. A meaty, salty component is added to the baked pasta dish with the inclusion of pancetta, and fall spices like nutmeg and sage round out the warm flavors. Use a medium-sized shell pasta or gnocchi Napoletani for this magnificent Food & Wine recipe.
Butternut Squash Baked Pasta with Goat Cheese
It’s impossible to assemble a list of fall pasta recipes without mentioning the seasonal star: butternut squash. This pasta bake recipe from StyleBlueprint.com combines the mellow, sweet flavor of the oblong, orange fruit (yes, squash is a fruit) with creamy goat cheese and toasted walnuts for a decadent autumnal dish. It looks like this baked pasta dish features casarecce pasta, but any medium-sized pasta will do!
Spinach and Artichoke Baked Pasta
If you’re a fiend for spinach and artichoke dip, this cheesy baked pasta dish from Simply Delicious will be absolute heaven. Go for a medium-sized pasta noodle like fusilli, rigatoni or ziti. Mix chopped baby spinach and artichoke hearts with sour cream, heavy cream, milk and cornstarch for thickness. Top with mozzarella and Parmesan cheese and bake until it is golden brown and gooey!
Baked Pumpkin Pasta with Kale
This cheesy pasta bake uses not two, not three, but four types of cheese: Parmesan, Gruyere, Fontina (or mozzarella) and ricotta. The conchiglioni-based baked pasta dish from New York Times Cooking combines a rich pumpkin sauce with nutrient-packed chopped kale. Red pepper flakes and garlic are tossed in for more dimension. With all these tasty ingredients, it will be a feat to try to hold yourself to just one serving!
Roasted Vegetable Pasta Bake
It’s healthy if you get all your veggies in, right? This vegetable pasta bake from EatingRichly.com loads up on bell peppers, mushrooms, onions, zucchini and sweet potato for a baked pasta dish bursting with colors. Once all the veggies are roasted to perfection, stir them in with cooked penne pasta and drown it all in marinara sauce. Top it with a classic blend of mozzarella and Parmesan cheese and pop it in the oven at 450 degrees! This vegetarian-friendly baked penne pasta dish will be a smash hit.
Italian Sausage and Chestnut Pasta Bake
This stuffed shells recipe from BBC Good Food can be easily transformed into a baked pasta dish — just shred some mozzarella cheese over it and put it in the oven! Make a filling for lumaconi or conchiglioni pasta by combining Italian sausage, chopped roasted chestnuts, onions, and tomato passata. A touch of red wine and herbs will send the flavor over the top.
Cauliflower Hazelnut Pasta Bake with Gorgonzola
Start using hazelnuts in more than just your coffee. This easy pasta bake is made with cauliflower, chopped roasted hazelnuts, pecorino and gorgonzola cheese. A hint of nutmeg and thyme provide even more fall flavor for this sweet and savory baked pasta dish. Gourmet Traveller uses strozzapreti pasta, but casarecce and cavatelli pasta are also suitable. Try adding some Swiss chard, like in this recipe from PunchFork.com.
Turkey Lasagna
A leaner choice than classic beef lasagna, turkey lasagna is an equally yummy baked pasta dish. If you’re a meat-eater, Thanksgiving is all about turkey, so this is a great pasta recipe for you. Find many of the ingredients at our online Italian shop, such as pasta sauce, crushed tomatoes, lasagna noodle sheets, and spices. And don’t forget to sprinkle some grated Parmigiano Reggiano on top!