Easiest Pumpkin Pasta Sauce Ever!

Hi guys!  I am going to make this short and sweet today…..I have a 4 year old begging me to go outside and play with her.  I am not much of a “player”, but I can get on board with sitting on the lounge chair while she plays.  She told me she wants to hunt for lizards.  She certainly is the opposite of me when I was little.  I would rather have scratched my eyeballs out with a nail file then play outside with lizards.  I just wanted to play dolls…..inside.  Where no reptilian creatures lived.  But I guess we live in the country/forest now.  This is what us hill-folk do;)

As promised, I have another pumpkin recipe for you.  And it is a savory one!  I have been making this pasta for years.  I tend to only make it in the fall, which is weird because it is so delicious.  I guess it is the lack of canned pumpkin in the stores all year around that keeps me from making it……Too bad.  It comes together really easily.  Quickly too!  You can throw together this sauce in the amount of time it takes you to boil your noodles.  That is the best kind of weeknight meal, I think.

The starting line-up for this sauce is chicken broth or stock, canned pumpkin, butter, Philadelphia “Cooking Crème”, half and half, parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, nutmeg, shallot and garlic.  As you might have guessed….this isn’t low-fat.  Just don’t eat the whole pot, and you should be fine.

FYI-if you can’t find Philly Cooking Crème, regular cream cheese will work.  That is what I have always used, up until now.  This cooking crème is a more recent invention.  It is cream cheese that is a bit thinner so that it melts into food easier.

I start by finely chopping the shallot.  As you can see, I have yet to chop the garlic.  I smashed it to get its skin off, but I will use my garlic mincer to mince it.  If you don’t have a fancy tool, just mince it with a knife.

In about ½ a stick of butter, I sautéed the shallot and garlic, just until softened.  Do not brown this.  This means that you need to cook it over medium heat, and watch it.  Don’t walk away.

After about 5 minutes, the shallot and garlic will be sufficiently softened.  Then I added one cup of pumpkin, and mixed well.

Next goes the chicken stock, cooking crème and half and half.  And oh yeah, salt, pepper and nutmeg.  Mix again.

Once the cooking crème is melted in, I stirred in the parmesan cheese.  Now I just let it go, over medium heat, until all the cheese is melted and the sauce is starting to bubble.  It is pretty much done.  If your noodles aren’t done yet….just keep the sauce at a low simmer.

I used rigatoni noodles with this sauce.  You want a cut of pasta that is thick and has ridges.  You need pasta that will really hold the sauce on it.  Spaghetti won’t work as well.

My last touch, my garnish if you will, is frizzled sage.  I picked a few fresh sage leaves out of my yard and I quickly fried them in hot oil.  Literally, only about 30 seconds.  I laid the sage on a paper towel to drain, and then I crushed it up over the top of the pasta.  This step is optional.

How quick was all of that????

Oh man, I could easily eat a pound of this.  It is that good.  It is almost like a pumpkin alfredo…it is that rich and creamy.

The sauce is thick and delicious.  You will want to eat it like soup.  I have been known to skip the noodle part all together.

Even if you think this recipe sounds weird….pumpkin with pasta??....You have to try it.  I have never steered you wrong.  You will love it, and it will be your fall “go-to” sauce.  Your kids will love it too!

I will see you on Thursday with another quick, easy weeknight meal!

Pumpkin Cream Sauce

4 tablespoons butter

1 shallot, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup canned pumpkin

1 cup chicken stock or broth

1 cup Philadelphia Cooking Crème

½ cup half and half

½ cup parmesan cheese

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon nutmeg

½ teaspoon pepper

In a medium sized pot, melt butter.  Add garlic and shallot and sauté over medium heat until shallot is soft and translucent, about 5 minutes.  Add pumpkin, stock, cooking cream, half and half and parmesan cheese.  Simmer over medium heat until cheeses are melted, stirring frequently.  Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.

Serve over pasta.  Top with frizzled sage.

Easy Weeknight Meal-BBQ Sloppy Joes!

Hi gals and guys!  I am so happy its Thursday!  One step closer to the weekend.  We have my whole family coming to Reno this weekend to help Chris and I celebrate our 10^th wedding anniversary.  I can’t believe I got married 10 years ago.  It seems like it was just a couple of years ago.  I also can’t believe how tiny I was when I got married……and I lived on fast food and got zero exercise back then.  Getting older sucks.  Don’t let anybody tell you otherwise;)  Anyhoo, it should be a great weekend…..

We have been super busy around here lately.  With school, cheerleading, work etc.  I kind of struggle to get dinner on the table some nights.  Yes, I realize that is a common complaint;)  And take-out is hard around here.  We live about 15 minutes from civilization, so going back out for food at night is not the best option.  Lately, I have been working on easy weeknight recipes that will make my whole family happy.  Recipes that I can make before Addy has cheer practice, and will keep on the stove until Chris comes home…….My first winner is BBQ Sloppy Joes.  I know sloppy joes can be kind of boring, but I jazz them up with Gourmet Rooster BBQ sauce and smoked cheddar cheese.  This is so easy to make, I hesitate to even call it a "recipe", but I will anyway.  I don't feel like making up a new word.

BTW-I told Addy these were called “Sloppy Billy Joe Bobs”.  I felt that incorporated the BBQ sauce.

For these BBQ Sloppy Joes, I use about 1 1/3 pounds ground beef.  You could totally use ground turkey or ground chicken.  You could also use sliced chicken if you are so inclined.  I also use Whiskey Apple BBQ Sauce, garlic (minced), chopped red bell pepper, chopped onion, and chopped fresh tomato in the sauce.  To make these super quick, buy your onions, peppers and tomatoes already chopped.  I know my local grocery stores have these chopped and packaged by the salads.  I chopped my own in the morning and put them in plastic baggies.  I also have to give a shout-out to my girl Janna, who gave me fresh tomatoes straight from the vine in her backyard;)

I browned my ground beef with a smidge of salt, pepper and garlic powder.  Ground beef browns up in less than 5 minutes.  Easy, easy.

Once the meat was browned, I took it out of the pan, but I left the drippings in.

Also, if you are using ground chicken or turkey….once you place the meat in the pan, don’t touch it for a couple of minutes.  It needs the time to caramelize.  Turkey and chicken don’t have much fat so they need some help browning.

Now the onion, pepper and garlic join the party.  I sauté the veggies for about 4 or 5 minutes, just until they are softened a bit.  I don’t brown the veggies, but if you prefer the taste of browned veggies…..jack up the heat and keep stirring.

Next, I add the meat back to the pan.  I also add the fresh tomatoes and sauce.  Then, I add about 1/3 cup water to the jar of sauce, put a lid on it, and shake it.  I dump that water into the pot, and the water will take all the sauce that was stuck on the sides with it.  Once you have mixed, the mixture just needs to simmer for another 5 minutes, until it is thick.

While the mix simmers, I browned up some hamburger buns, and topped the bottom bun with a yummy smoked cheddar.  A smoked, sharp cheddar really works best with this.  It has a strong flavor that stands up to the sloppy joe mix.  A regular cheddar would be too bland.

Simmering……

This is such a delicious, easy and quick weeknight meal.  The BBQ sauce gives it a better flavor than regular sloppy joe sauce, which is essentially glorified tomato sauce.  Plus, this version is chalk full of veggies!

Yum!  I used a milder, sweet BBQ sauce so that my whole family would like it.  If I was making this for just Chris and me, I would probably use a bolder sauce.  Don’t you think you could bust this out when you got home from work?  You might even have most of the components already in your fridge/freezer/pantry!  Of course, you must use Gourmet Rooster sauce;)  Remember to check my website to find out where to buy it….and you can buy it straight from me too!

I will see you next week with another pumpkin recipe!

BBQ Sloppy Joes

1 1/3 pounds ground beef

1 jar Gourmet Rooster Whiskey Apple BBQ Sauce

1 cup bell pepper, chopped

1 cup, or ½ a medium sized onion, chopped

1 cup tomato, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1/3 cup water

Hamburger buns

Smoked cheddar cheese

In a large sauté pan, brown ground beef over medium high heat.  Season with salt, pepper and garlic powder.  This will take about 5 minutes.  Remove meat from pan and set aside.

In same pan, sauté garlic, onion, and pepper until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes.

Add meat and tomatoes to pan.  Add BBQ sauce and water.  Simmer over medium heat until thickened, about 5 minutes.

Serve on toasted buns, topped with smoked cheddar.

Pumpkin Swirl Brownies

Good afternoon guys!  I hope you all had a great weekend.  I was down in Clayton, CA with my best girlfriends for a baby shower.  My bestie, Becky, is having a little girl around Christmas.  It was a beautiful shower!  The food, decorations and company was perfect!  I also got to have brunch with some other girlfriends on Sunday.  It was a really fun weekend, just not long enough.

Usually we would all go down to the Bay Area together, but this time I just took Paisley.  Addy had a football game that she wouldn’t miss.  She cheers, not plays….just to make that clear.  She stayed in Reno with Chris.  Only having one kid with me was magical.  Don’t get me wrong, it is great to have them both with me…..but separated…they are angels.  There was no teasing, no fighting, no crying.  Ah-may-zing.  I suggested that we always live in separate houses, me with a kid and Chris with a kid…and then switch every week.  Chris wasn’t buyin’ it;) 

You all know I’m kidding about that, right?

Anyhoo, as promised…I have another pumpkin recipe for you today.  I really do have an endless supply of pumpkin recipes, so I have weeded out the really fabulous ones for you all.  Today, I am going to show you how to make pumpkin swirl brownies.  This is a really easy recipe to make.  Basically, it is one batter, split into two bowls and flavored with cocoa or pumpkin.  The end result is really, really yummy.  They also look really pretty when baked…all swirly……

I make this recipe completely from scratch, no boxes.  But don’t be intimidated.  Brownies are pretty much the easiest thing you can make from scratch.  You don’t even need a hand mixer!

I use canned pumpkin, flour, sugar, eggs, unsweetened cocoa, salt, pumpkin pie spice, butter, vanilla extract and baking powder.  You already have a lot of this in your pantry, right?

I start by stirring together the butter, which has been melted, with sugar and vanilla.  Once that is blended, I add the eggs, one at a time.  Normally, I would dump the eggs in all at once….but today I actually felt like following the rules.  I don’t think it makes much of a difference, to be honest.  Go ahead, take the shortcut.

It should be a pretty, smooth yellow batter when all the eggs are blended.

Time to get out another bowl…..which I hate because it is more clean-up, but you really have to.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, salt and baking powder.  Just whisk enough to blend and get any lumps out.  This takes the place of sifting.  I am willing to bet good money that most of you don’t have a sifter;)

Now I slowly blend the dry ingredients into the wet. 

Once you have blended the dry into the wet, pour half your batter back into your dry ingredients bowl.  Or another bowl if you like to wash dishes.

Stir one cup pumpkin and pumpkin pie spice into one bowl of batter.

Stir cocoa powder into the other bowl.  Your batter doesn’t have to be split equally in half.  If you go to heavy on one, don’t sweat it.  It will all turn out in the end.

I bake these in a 13x9 baking pan that I have lined with foil and sprayed with cooking spray.  I line my pan with foil so that I can remove the brownies easier.  Once they have cooled, just pull the foil out and your dish should still be clean.

I poured the chocolate batter into the bottom of the pan and spread it out a bit.

I poured the pumpkin batter right over the top of the chocolate.  I spread it out a bit, but I was careful not to mix the two layers……yet.

To get the swirly-ness, I dragged a butter knife through the batter in a swirly motion.  I pulled the chocolate up from the bottom as I swirled.  Isn’t it pretty?

These baked at 375 degrees for about 30 minutes.  They are done when a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.

I love the way these taste, and I love the way these look!  I sprinkled a smidge of powdered sugar over the top of mine for extra sweetness……

These are across between pumpkin cake and delicious fudgy brownies.  I think chocolate and pumpkin are meant to be together….of course; there isn’t much that I think chocolate doesn’t go with.  I hope you make these!  They are a perfect fall treat!

See you Thursday!

Pumpkin Swirl Brownies

1 stick butter, melted

2 cups sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

4 eggs

1 cup flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup canned pumpkin

2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

1/3 cup cocoa

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line a 13x9 baking pan with foil and spray with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, mix together the melted butter, sugar and vanilla.  Blend in eggs, one at a time.

In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.  Mix until incorporated.

Slowly mix dry ingredients into wet ingredients.  Stir until blended.  Pour half of the batter into a separate bowl.  Add canned pumpkin and pumpkin pie spice to one bowl, and the cocoa to the other.

Pour chocolate batter into the bottom of the pan, spreading out to cover entire pan.  Pour pumpkin batter over the chocolate.  Spread out gently.  Using a butter knife, swirl together both flavors, pulling up from the bottom.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes.  Let cool before cutting.

Halloween Treats and My One Year Anniversary!

So I have been blogging for a whole year now.  Crazy, right?  It has gone by fast.  I have learned a lot over this past year.  I have learned what you all want to see, and what you don’t……sort of.  Some blog posts that I love and think will be huge, sometimes get very little attention….while the ones that I don’t think are superstars get a lot of comments.  It’s a tricky business, this blogging.  I have also learned more about photography, although my husband would argue that.  He seems to think he has to be my official photographer.  But yes, it has been a whole year. 

Here are two pictures from my very first blog….

I think my pictures look a lot better these days;)

As for today….I have two really cute ideas for Halloween.  The best part is….they are super easy.  I will show you how to make a Halloween white chocolate bark candy, and I will also show you how to make Alien Zombie Cookies.  What is an Alien Zombie?  Don’t ask me.  Ask my 6 year old.  She named them that.  Text her.  I’m kidding.  She doesn’t have a phone, but she seems to think she needs one for Christmas.  I don’t know who she would call….her friends don’t have phones!

I have shown you how to make bark candy before…back around Valentine’s Day.  It is essentially melted chocolate chips poured out onto a sheet pan.  Whatever you want gets sprinkled on top before the chocolate has a chance to harden.  For this “Halloween” bark, I used various Halloween candies such as fall M&M’s, candy corn, candy pumpkins, and Halloween sprinkles. 

BTW-I used 2 bags of white chocolate chips.

I started by melting the chocolate.  I put my chips in a microwavable bowl.  I popped them in the microwave for about 1 minute, on 50% heat.  After that, I stirred them and microwaved them in 30 second increments until they were melted.  My chips took about 2 minutes total.  Just make sure you stir them really well between micro trips.  The stirring will help melt them.

Once the chocolate was melted, I poured it onto a sheet pan that I had lined with foil.  Then, I sprinkled my candy on.  Some of the candy needed a slight “push” into the chocolate……mainly the bigger pumpkins.

This takes about 30 minutes to harden all the way.  Then, you just break it into pieces and it is ready to go!

I brought this to Addy’s last cheer practice and the girls freaked over it.  I was so popular with them….I felt like Justin Bieber!  It packages up really well, and it will last at least a week…..if your family doesn’t eat it first.  This is such a quick and easy treat to make!

Onto the Alien Zombies….

All I needed for these guys was chocolate chip cookies, 3 colors squirty frosting, and candy eyeballs.  The candy eyeballs are made by Wilton.  I found them at Wal-Mart, but I know you can also get them at Michael’s or Joanne’s.  Those are craft stores, FYI.  I didn’t just send you to someone’s house names Michael or Joanne.

I used packaged cookies because they are harder than homemade cookies tend to be.  This will be easier when assembling the cookies…but hey, suit yourself.  If you want to bake….have at it;)

I squirted white frosting on the back of one cookie to act as glue.  The white frosting will also hold the eyeballs on.  I used red for a tongue and green for alien slime.  Then I put the top cookie over the bottom one, as if its mouth was open.

Are these not the cutest thing you have ever seen?  I had the green “slime” oozing out of the zombie’s mouths…..That was supposed to make them look gross, but my kids thought that was the best part.  More frosting!

Don’t you think these would be the best Halloween treat?  What do you make for Halloween?  I would love to see your ideas….post them on my Facebook page.

Thanks for hangin’ with me over this past year….I hope you stick around!

Pumpkin Lasagna

So not to confuse you if you have already read this....But I am doing a slight edit so I can enter this recipe in a contest over at the CSI Project, thecsiproject.com.  I am so nervous.  I feel like I am running for prom queen;)

http://thecsiproject.com/

Hi all.  Fall is finally here.  And I mean fall is here….in a big way.  We are supposed to get a dusting of snow tonight, and the higher mountains are going to get 5 to 10 inches.  Whhhaaaattt?  It is the beginning of October!  And I just put out my Halloween decorations.  I guess I will be re-decorating when this storm is done.  Last year we didn’t get any snow until the beginning of November.  I don’t like what this implies;)  It doesn’t bode well.  On the bright side, I did just get a super cute new jacket from Old Navy, so at least I’m not rocking it in 70 degree weather.

So between getting out the heavy jackets, (which btw-I found old candy in Paisley’s…gross!), the gloves, and the boots….I still managed to make a crazy good Pumpkin Lasagna.

Feeling skeptical?  Are you one of those people that think pumpkin can only be sweet?  Wrong!!  Pumpkin is so good in savory dishes.  If you like butternut squash or even sweet potatoes, I am pretty sure you will like this.  Like 99% sure.  If I felt that strongly about other things I would be spending a whole lot of time downtown at the sports book.

Let me warn you that this lasagna is not low fat.  Is any lasagna?  However, I am not suggesting you eat this daily.  This is a special fall treat that you should feel free to enjoy.  A little fat will help keep your coat shiny, right?  I also don’t suggest you eat this on a daily basis because, honestly, lasagna can be a pain in the butt to make.  It isn’t hard, but it is a lot of steps.  But once you taste this lasagna, you will know it was worth it.  It has a great pumpkin taste and it is super cheesy.  Not cheesy like lame, but gooey, melty, cheesy.  And the sage and sausage give it a herby deliciousness.  Pumpkin and sausage work perfectly together.  What could be better than layers of noodles, cheese, pumpkin and sausage?  I like to imagine that they serve this in heaven.  Except I don’t have to make it.

For this recipe, I used a 16 ounce box of lasagna noodles, whole milk, canned pumpkin, butter, fresh sage, ricotta, sage flavored pork sausage, mozzarella, gruyere cheese, parmesan cheese, eggs and flour.  Whew-that’s a lotta ingredients.  And I forgot to get the salt and pepper in there….

I used lasagna noodles that require boiling first.  I find that the “oven ready” variety end up hard in certain parts.  I highly suggest using the kind you have to boil, as that is what I tested the recipe with.  Who knows what would happen with the other kind.  Probably nothing good.

I started by grating all the cheeses.  Ok, ok….I suckered Chris into doing it.  Little tip-freeze the mozzarella before trying to shred it.  Just 30 minutes in the freezer should work.

Next, I browned the sausage.  This was hard to get a picture of.  I had to blow away the steam first and then take a picture as fast as I could.  Oh the things I do for you;)

Once the sausage was browned, I took it out of the pan and set it aside for a bit.

I also boiled my noodles as the sausage cooked.  I put about a tablespoon of oil in the water to keep the noodles from sticking.  When they were cooked, a little undercooked actually, I drained them and laid them out on a cookie sheet that I had sprayed with cooking spray.  I undercook the noodles a bit so that they can continue cooking in the oven later without getting mushy.  I only undercooked them by about a minute.  Don’t take them out while they are still hard.

This is a picture of my ricotta filling, before I mixed it.  This is a whole carton of ricotta, two eggs, one cup of pumpkin, about two cups of mozzarella, fresh chopped sage, and salt & pepper.  Normally, I would also throw in some chopped parsley, but the Walmartz was not flush with fresh herbs.  They didn’t have any fresh parsley, and I was too lazy to go anywhere else.  If you have parsley, throw it in!

It is such a pretty color when it is mixed, like a pretty pale peach color.  Try not to sample too much of the cheese mixture.  It is good, but it has raw eggs in it.  I still tried it.  Courtney, meet salmonella.

The last step before assembling this bad boy is to make the pumpkin béchamel.  It is so easy to make a béchamel, and it really is the base for a ton of sauces.  If you can make this…you are set.  You could perhaps get a job as a saucier.  That’s a real job!

I put about 3 tablespoons of butter into a medium sized pot.  I let that melt.  Once it was melted, I added 3 tablespoons of flour and whisked.  This is a “roux”.

No, that isn’t paste.  That is my roux, and that is the color you want.  You have to cook it for a minute or two to get rid of the paste taste.  Once you have done that, you slowly whisk in about 4 cups of milk.  Whisk the whole time and keep your pot over medium heat.  Seriously, don’t walk away.  You will get a lumpy béchamel and nobody wants that.  As the mixture comes to a boil, it will thicken.

Once it has thickened, you can add about 1 cup of pumpkin, and your gruyere cheese.  You also need to salt and pepper this.  Feel free to eat this by the spoonful, no raw eggs.  I took a bath in it;)

Are you curious what gruyere cheese tastes like?  It is kind of like Swiss cheese, but harder.  It is nutty and slightly sweet.  It works perfectly in this lasagna.

We are now ready to layer.  Yeah!  Who else gets excited to layer lasagna?  Nobody?  Bueller, Bueller?  Anyone?

In the bottom of a 9 by 13 baking dish, put about a cup of your pumpkin béchamel down.  This will keep the bottom layer of pasta from getting dry, and it will also keep it from sticking.

Next, layer lasagna noodles over the béchamel.  I used about 5.

Over the noodles goes the sausage.  Remember the sausage?

Then, pumpkin béchamel.  About 1 to 1 1/2 cups.  Enough to cover the sausage.

Then, some mozzarella.  About 1 cup.

Over the cheese goes another layer of noodles.

The ricotta mixture goes on next.  If you don’t use all of it…if you really feel like you have too much…save it.  I will tell you what to do with it later.

More noodles now.  This is our last layer or noodles.

Hang in there kids,….we are almost done!  Over the last layer of noodles, I poured on the rest of the béchamel (if you had extra ricotta, save some béchamel).  I sprinkled on a smidge more mozzarella and tons of parmesan cheese.  I also dotted the top with butter to help it brown.  I know, I know…..super unnecessary.  I just wanted to fit in with Paula Deen and the Pioneer Woman because I heart them.

I covered this in foil and baked it at 350 degrees for about 55 minutes.  Then, I took the foil off, bumped up the heat to 400 degrees, and baked it an additional 20 minutes.

This bad boy was super heavy when I put it in the oven.  I think that was how I knew it was going to be good.  So do a few reps and work the biceps.

Are you kidding me?  How good does that look?

Holy tomatoes….this was amazing.  Yes, I still love me some red sauce lasagna, but this has taken the lead in my book.  My food book.  It is creamy, cheesy, pumpkiny, all that you could ask for.  You have to make this.  Especially if you are having people over, they will die.  Not literally, that would be bad….but figuratively. 

BTW-this freezes like a champ.  Just wrap it up tight and freeze it, pre-bake.  When you are ready for it…take it out of the freezer in the morning as it will take a loooong time to defrost.  Once it is defrost, bake as instructed.  You could even make it in 2 smaller dishes….eat some now, freeze some for later.

If you have leftover noodles, ricotta, and béchamel…..spread noodles with ricotta mixture and roll up.  Place in a baking dish and cover with remaining béchamel.  Bake at 350 for about 45 minutes.

I know I have thrown a lot of pumpkin at you lately.  I think I will keep doing that for the next few weeks on Tuesdays…….

Pumpkin Lasagna

16 ounce box lasagna noodles

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 pound sage flavored pork sausage, (Jimmy Dean)

15 ounces ricotta cheese

2 eggs

1 tablespoon sage, chopped

4 cups mozzarella, shredded and divided

2 teaspoons salt, divided

1 teaspoon pepper, divided

2 cups canned pumpkin, divided

5 tablespoons butter, divided

3 tablespoons flour

4 cups whole milk

2 cups Gruyere cheese

1 cup parmesan cheese

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large pot, cook lasagna noodles in boiling water and 1 tablespoon oil according to package directions.  Drain and lay noodles out on greased baking sheet to cool.

In a large skillet, brown sausage over medium high heat until cooked through.  Set aside.

In a large bowl, mix together ricotta, eggs, sage, 1 cup pumpkin, 2 cups mozzarella, 1 teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon pepper.  Set aside.

For Béchamel:

In a medium sized pot, melt 3 tablespoons of butter over medium high heat.  Whisk in flour.  Cook for about a minute.  Slowly whisk in milk.  Mixture will start to thicken as it boils.  Stir often to prevent scorching.

Once mixture is thickened, stir in remaining pumpkin and all of the Gruyere cheese.  Stir well.  Keep warm over low heat.

Assembly:

In the bottom of a 13x9 baking dish, spread about 1 cup of béchamel.  Place cooked lasagna noodles on top of that, just one layer.

Top first noodle layer with cooked sausage, then another cup of béchamel and 1 cup mozzarella cheese.  Top that with another layer of cooked noodles.

Spread ricotta cheese mixture on top of second noodle layer.  Top that with one more noodle layer.

Top third noodle layer with remaining béchamel, then remaining mozzarella and parmesan cheese.  Dot the top of the lasagna with little cubes of the remaining butter.

Cover lasagna with foil and bake at 350 degrees for about 55 minutes.  Remove foil, and bake lasagna an additional 20 minutes at 400 degrees.  Let lasagna cool for at least 30 minutes before cutting.