This Baked Pumpkin Mac and Cheese is loaded with three types of cheese, bacon, crispy sage breadcrumbs, and baked until bubbly. It’s fall in a bowl and truly the ultimate mac and cheese recipe. Perfect for your next dinner party or Thanksgiving table!
Table of Contents
Mac and Cheese … with Pumpkin? Yes!
Simply put, baked pumpkin mac and cheese is the ultimate mac and cheese for Thanksgiving, dinner parties, or anytime you need a show stopping side dish this fall.
Perfectly cooked noodles are tossed into a velvety, rich sauce made with three cheeses, bacon, and sage. The mac and cheese is topped with crispy sage breadcrumbs before baking in the oven until bubbling and crispy. There is nothing better!
If you know me, you know that mac and cheese is the side dish I reach for first! My white cheddar mac and cheese and my 5-ingredient stovetop mac and cheese are staples during the holiday season. But, this pumpkin mac and cheese with bacon is giving all the fall flavors and I’m here for it!
No Thanksgiving table is complete without mac and cheese, in my opinion, and this recipe is just something special.
A quick note: Something important to acknowledge before we jump into the details of this recipe is the cultural significance of mac and cheese throughout the South, especially for the Black community. While this pumpkin mac and cheese recipe is inspired by the soulfulness of serving mac and cheese with a holiday meal, this recipe is by no means an attempt at being an authentic soul food dish. For real-deal soul food Southern mac and cheese, check out this recipe from Chavez at Butter, Love & Salt.
A Few Ingredient Notes
You can find the full list of ingredients, quantities & method in the recipe card at the end of the page.
- Noodles. Any short format pasta will do! My favorites are classic elbow macaroni, cavatappi, lumache, ziti, or rigatoni.
- Pumpkin puree. Be careful to buy pumpkin puree and NOT pumpkin pie filling!
- Bacon. If you want to keep this recipe vegetarian, you can omit the bacon. Otherwise I recommend using thick-cut bacon for the best texture.
- Butter. Butter adds so much flavor here, I don’t recommend swapping a different ingredient in its place.
- Sage leaves. The flavor the fresh sage leaves add is unparalleled. You have to use fresh sage for this recipe, dried won’t work.
- Half and half + heavy cream. Sorry folks, this isn’t a low-fat mac and cheese! I don’t recommend going low fat here; you need the milk fat to create a super thick, creamy, gooey cheese sauce.
- Cheese. I used a mix of sharp cheddar, gruyere, and parmesan. You could swap different cheeses in, but please don’t buy pre-shredded cheese, which doesn’t melt very well and tends to make mac and cheese grainy.
- Panko breadcrumbs. I think that panko breadcrumbs add the best crunch, but you could swap in fresh breadcrumbs or regular.
Tools Needed
A Step-By-Step Overview of How This Mac and Cheese Is Made
- Boil the pasta. Boil the pasta 2-3 minutes shy of what the box instructs. You want it to be al dente (i.e. have some chew to it) because it will continue to soften as it bakes in the sauce. If your pasta is very soft to begin with, your mac and cheese will wind up being mushy!
- Render the bacon. The trick to getting the bacon to render lots of its fat is to start it in a cold pan. As the pan heats up, the bacon will slowly begin to render so that by the time it’s cooked and crispy most of the fat will be left behind for us to use for the breadcrumbs.
- Toast the breadcrumbs. Crisping up the sage and breadcrumbs in the rendered bacon fat gives this fall mac and cheese tons more flavor.
- Make the cheese sauce. The cheese sauce is thickened with a flour-based roux that’s thinned out with half and half, pumpkin puree, and heavy cream. To prevent the cheese sauce from splitting, keep the Dutch oven over medium heat and don’t crank it up to speed the process along!
- Add the cheese, bacon, and pasta off the heat. This prevents the cheese from splitting and creates a smoother mac and cheese.
- Bake. Top the pumpkin mac and cheese with crispy sage breadcrumbs and a little extra bacon before covering with foil and baking. I like to spray the foil with non-stick spray to prevent sticking, and I remove it in the last 5 minutes of baking so the cheese can brown.
Chef Tips for the Best Baked Mac and Cheese
Grate your own cheese. I know it’s an additional step but so worth it. It makes a huge difference to shred the blocks of cheese yourself using a food processor or box grater. Pre-shredded bags of cheese contain a white powdery substance called cellulose. That anti-caking agent prevents the cheese from having that ultra-creaminess level.
Don’t overcook the pasta. This is super important! The pasta will continue cooking as it bakes and if you overcook it you’ll end up with mushy pasta. Cook your pasta until it is al dente (cooked, but firm). I usually achieve this right around 7-8 minutes, depending on the shape.
Season your pasta water. This is the only opportunity you have to season the pasta itself! You don’t want bland mac and cheese, so make sure to season your pasta water well.
Don’t go low fat. I cannot recommend making this with low fat milk instead of half and half. The heavy cream also plays an important part so that the sauce doesn’t curdle. This is the time to truly indulge!
Make-Ahead Instructions
When you’re hosting a large dinner or event (especially Thanksgiving), I am definitely team prep ahead! Any recipe that can be made early will be made early so that the big day goes off without a hitch.
There are a couple of ways that you can prep this pumpkin sage mac and cheese in advance:
- Cook the pasta ahead of time. You can boil, drain, and rinse the pasta up to 2 days in advance. Toss the rinsed pasta with a little oil and store in a ziplock bag.
- Build the mac and cheese 4 hours in advance. Follow all the steps up to when you bake the mac and cheese and let the mac and cheese sit covered at room temperature. Then, bake right before serving. NOTE: The mac and cheese will likely be a bit thicker here since the sauce has had a chance to sit and absorb into the pasta.
If you do give this recipe a try, be sure to let me know! Leave a comment with a star rating below. Be sure to subscribe to my weekly newsletter and never miss a new recipe! You can also snap a photo & tag @JENNYGOYCOCHEA on Instagram. I LOVE hearing about & seeing your SMF creations!
More Pumpkin Pasta Recipes You’ll Love
- Creamy Pumpkin Tortellini
- Pumpkin and Sausage Baked Ziti
- Pumpkin Risotto with Bacon and Sage
- Pumpkin Stuffed Shells
More Baked Mac and Cheese Recipes to Try
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Pumpkin Mac and Cheese Recipe
Ingredients
- 16 oz short pasta (shells, lumache, elbows, cavatappi, etc)
- 6 strips uncooked bacon, diced
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
- 20 sage leaves, chopped (about 1/4 cup)
- 1 cup panko breadcrumbs
- 2 large shallots, minced
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 3 cups half and half
- 3/4 cup pumpkin puree
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 2 teaspoons dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 8 oz sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
- 6 oz gruyere cheese, shredded
- 1/2 cup fresh grated parmesan cheese
- kosher salt & freshly cracked pepper
Instructions
- Preheat an oven to 400ºF. Lightly grease a 9×13-inch (3 quart) baking dish with butter. Set aside.
- Cook the pasta and prep the cheese. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and cook the pasta to al dente. The pasta should still have some bite to it. This process is usually 2-3 minutes shy of the package instructions. Drain and rinse your pasta with cold water. If you do this step in advance, toss the pasta with a little oil to keep it from sticking. Meanwhile, use a box grater to shred the cheeses and set aside.
- Render the bacon. Add the bacon to a 5-quart dutch oven over medium-low heat. Cook the bacon, stirring occasionally, until browned and crispy. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the bacon to a small bowl. Remove 1 tablespoon of the bacon fat and set aside.
- Toast the sage breadcrumbs. Add 2 tablespoons of butter to the bacon fat left in the dutch oven over medium heat. Once the butter is melted and foamy, add 2 tablespoons of the chopped sage leaves and the panko breadcrumbs. Stir well and cook for 2-3 minutes, until the panko is toasty, but not browned. Transfer the panko to a small bowl and wipe out the dutch oven to remove any crumbs.
- Build the cheese sauce. Add the reserved bacon fat and the rest of the butter to the dutch oven over medium heat. Once the butter is hot and foamy, add the shallots and remaining chopped sage. Cook for 3-4 minutes, until the shallots are soft. Stir in the flour really well and cook, stirring constantly, for 2-3 minutes to cook out any raw flour flavor. Switch to a whisk and slowly whisk in the half and half so that there are no lumps. Whisk in the pumpkin puree and bring to a gentle simmer, until thickened (about 5-6 minutes). Stir in the dijon, paprika, nutmeg, garlic powder, and heavy cream and let everything warm through for another 3-4 minutes. Remove the pot from the heat.
- Add the cheese and pasta. Fold in the cheeses off the heat until completely melted. Season to taste with salt and pepper and add in half of the cooked bacon and the cooked pasta. Stir well and then pour the mac and cheese into the prepared baking dish.
- Bake. Top evenly with the sage breadcrumbs and remaining bacon. Cover with foil and bake for 15 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for 5-10 minutes more, until the cheese is bubbling and the topping is golden brown.
Storage Instructions
- To store: Any leftovers need to be refrigerated and covered tightly to prevent spoilage. Mac and cheese can be refrigerated this way for 3-4 days. The mac and cheese will lose a little bit of creaminess from being refrigerated. I do not recommend freezing this dish.To reheat: Stir in a little bit of milk or cream and microwave partially covered with plastic wrap. Stir often as it reheats. You can also reheat it on the stovetop with a bit of cream or milk, which will keep it creamy.
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