A quick delicious dinner

Browsing through the Tasty app, I came across this recipe. Since October, I have been wanting to try a pumpkin pasta recipe, and figured now was the time to do it. 

Ingredients

1 Tbsp cooking oil
2 cloves minced garlic 
½ Tsp red pepper flakes 
1 ½ cup milk
15 oz pumpkin puree
1 Tsp salt
1 Tsp pepper
¼ Tsp nutmeg 
½ box whole wheat pasta (cooked)  

Directions 

1. Cook the pasta as directed on the box. Set aside. 
2. Heat cooking oil in a medium-size pot over medium heat. Add the garlic and red pepper flakes. Stir occasionally. 
3. Add the milk, pumpkin puree, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Stir until creamy. Heat thoroughly.
4. Add the cooked pasta to the sauce. Stir to coat it. 
5. Serve and enjoy.

(Serves four)

Review 

I served this dish up for my sister, some friends and myself. None of us were particularly big fans of pumpkin, so I was curious to see what everyone would think. The cooking process itself was extremely simple. After the noodles cooked, the sauce preparation took five minutes at most. I added more salt, pepper and red pepper flakes than the recipe called for, just to give more flavor. Doing this added a bit of a kick at the end, which was a nice surprise. The dish was very creamy, the sauce was quite thick and coated the noodles fully. Although an entire can of pumpkin puree was used, there was not an overly strong flavor of pumpkin. It was a very balanced pallet.

My sister rated the recipe a 7.5/10. I would have given it an eight. My friends made a suggestion I think in the future would be a great addition to the recipe; they suggested having some bread with the meal, so you could use it to soak up the leftover sauce. In the future, I would also suggest pairing it with a vegetable. I am not a fan of zucchini or squash, but if you are, I think adding those into the dish would be a great addition. I was generally pleased with the recipe and will definitely be making this one a new regular.