Sweet Potato Pasta

A while back I mentioned that I have a lot of respect for dried pasta, and always try to pick up a few different shapes and flavors when I’m shopping at a gourmet food store. That’s how I ended up with olive pasta recently for dinner, and also mentioned I’d purchased sweet potato pasta.

Here’s a photo of the box. The brand is Viviana, and it contains 8 ounces of fettucine. Cooking time 11 – 14 minutes.

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I didn’t want to smother the pasta in a red sauce, because I wanted to enhance the sweet potato flavor. So I decided on a simple ricotta cream sauce, with the addition of Italian sausage, plus peas to make it an all-in-one meal. Easy, and easily made within 20 minutes.

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Sweet Potato Pasta with Italian Sausage in a Ricotta Cream Sauce

8 ounces sweet potato fettucine
1 cup ricotta whole-milk ricotta
1/3-1/2 cup heavy cream
12 or 16 ounces Italian sausage
4 cloves garlic, minced
Frozen peas, optional
Grated Parmesan

Cook the pasta according to package directions. I cooked the pasta more al dente, because I wanted it to absorb the lovely cream sauce. Drain the pasta.

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Meanwhile, whisk together the ricotta and cream in a large bowl, large enough to hold the finished pasta dish. Add more cream if you want the sauce less “stiff.”

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Add the hot pasta to the cream and toss gently but enough to coat the strands of pasta with the ricotta cream sauce.

Heat a skillet over medium heat and add the sausage. Slowly begin cooking the sausage. If you start slowly, no other oil is required. Once the sausage renders some fat, you can turn up the heat to get the sausage browning.

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At least once while you’re cooking the sausage, give the pasta a gentle stir. Add a little more cream if necessary.

Then add the garlic, give the sausage a stir, and remove the skillet from the stove.

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Add it to the pasta, as well as peas, if you’re using them.

 

Serve with grated Parmesan.

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The sweet potato pasta really shined served in this way. I’m going to buy some more because it’s so pretty and tasty.

By Published On: November 10th, 201440 Comments on Sweet Potato Pasta

About the Author: Chef Mimi

As a self-taught home cook, with many years in the culinary profession, I am passionate about all things food-related. Especially eating!

40 Comments

  1. thesinglegourmetandtraveller November 10, 2014 at 8:23 AM - Reply

    What a delicious dish! And looks great too.

    • chef mimi November 10, 2014 at 10:08 AM - Reply

      It tasted way better than it photographed!

  2. Cecile November 10, 2014 at 8:28 AM - Reply

    I am ‘all over this’ ! What a great recipe!! And I’d love to try to make my own sweet potato pasta. The other day I made pasta with my grandchildren… well, actually, only my granddaughter wanted to do it. The little guy’s only five and it was way to labor intensive for him. But – they both helped me make the sauce and meatballs. In fact, I’m going to get my granddaughter to help me try to make some sweet potato pasta! I’m ‘pinning this’ – as I always do!! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving Mimi !! (I’m working on a few recipe for Thanksgiving and I’ve invited some people over to help me eat everything. I live alone now.. so I need ‘help’ !!) Again – GREAT RECIPE !!

    • chef mimi November 10, 2014 at 5:50 PM - Reply

      Thank you. Can’t wait to cook with my grand daughter!

  3. Cecile November 10, 2014 at 8:36 AM - Reply

    Mimi… I hope you don’t mind me mentioning this… When we ‘Pin’ a photo of your recipe, the name you’ve given the photo pops up… so it if just says something like ‘use’ – that’s what pops up as the name of the recipe on Pinterest. ++ I learned, not long ago, to have the name of the recipe & the name of my blog on the photos I post. I just copy and paste the name in the ‘title’ area for each photo I plan to put in the post. Then all the info. shows up either when someone ‘Pins’ a post or even if someone finds the photo online. (Just a suggestion… believe me.. I’m sooo far from being an expert on blogging…)

    • chef mimi November 10, 2014 at 10:09 AM - Reply

      I wasn’t aware that anyone posted my photos! I’ll think about that. Seems like a lot of work…

      • Cecile November 10, 2014 at 10:23 AM

        I don’t know if I explained myself well – which often happens. When someone ‘pins’ your recipe, they choose which of the posts photos they want to have. Usually people choose the ‘finished product’, so you may only need to ‘give a title’ and the name of your blog to that particular photo. Also, the photos show up on Goggle etc. IF people ‘google’ something like “Chocolate Cake”.. Of course, people who pin your recipes can just enter the name of the recipe themselves. Giving your photos a ‘title’ doesn’t take much time, actually. I just ‘copy’ the name of the recipe and the name of my blog for the first photo, then just ‘paste’ the info. in where it says ‘title’. I’ve been notified many times (by WordPress) that someone has ‘found’ my photo online – so it’s just another way of getting credit for your photo – esp. if anyone ever wants to copy one. It’s just a suggestion but I was surprised that all our photos go out into the Blogesphere!

    • Johnny / Kitschnflavours November 10, 2014 at 5:04 PM - Reply

      Cecile, glad I read your comment, as I’ve been putting my blog name in the wrong box!

      And Mimi, it’s very easy. Every time you upload there are boxes to the bottom right. Just copy & paste. Anyway, photos look good. For me, pasta was always the horrors to photograph.

      • chef mimi November 10, 2014 at 5:46 PM

        Yes, and I made the pasta one day for friends, and the next day my husband got into it, and not gently, before I had done the photos. That certainly didn’t help! I will try to figure out the photo thing.

      • Cecile November 10, 2014 at 9:42 PM

        I agree… pastas… especially pastas which do NOT include a red sauce… are really hard to photograph!On another note John – I get such a big kick out of it when I ‘google’ something like ‘Quebec Farmhouse’ and a photo I’d taken of our wonderful farm pops up. I’ve posted photos of my gardens here in Massachusetts and the gardens we used to have when we had our farm in Quebec, plus photos of the horse and other animals we used to have. I’m always very pleased when I learn, through WordPress, that someone has found them through a search engine!! Get this – someone found my blog by entering the search word ‘Zinnias’ – because I have a photo of Zinnias !! How about that !!

      • chef mimi November 11, 2014 at 7:08 AM

        Very interesting!

  4. Our Growing Paynes November 10, 2014 at 8:55 AM - Reply

    Love the ricotta sauce! What a great idea.

    • chef mimi November 10, 2014 at 10:07 AM - Reply

      Thanks. It always amazes me how much of the sauce gets absorbed by the pasta!

  5. Nancy Brazil (@MsPullThatCork) November 10, 2014 at 9:08 AM - Reply

    This looks delicious. It has inspired me to look for flavored pasta. I’ve never tried any. Thanks!

    • chef mimi November 10, 2014 at 10:06 AM - Reply

      Oh they’re great! Sometimes the flavor is subtle, but they’re still fun.

  6. sallybr November 10, 2014 at 9:23 AM - Reply

    Now I want to find that pasta! what beautiful color, and you took it in a great direction with the sauce you chose

    perfect! You get an A+ on my book! ;-)

    • chef mimi November 10, 2014 at 10:06 AM - Reply

      Thank you so much! That means a lot.

  7. apuginthekitchen November 10, 2014 at 11:37 AM - Reply

    I love sweet potato gnocchi I think I would love this pasta as well. I think you chose the perfect way to dress the pasta. Sounds delicious.

    • chef mimi November 10, 2014 at 5:49 PM - Reply

      Thanks. Besides, I don’t feel that tomatoes go well with sweet potatoes…

  8. A Famished Foodie November 10, 2014 at 2:08 PM - Reply

    Great shots! This sounds fantastic- I think you can taste the difference between fresh and dried pasta, but, that being said, there are some good dried options out there. Certainly saves time and is a more logistically positive option for people.

    • chef mimi November 10, 2014 at 5:48 PM - Reply

      It’s also a texture thing, but I like them all!

  9. platedujour November 10, 2014 at 2:56 PM - Reply

    Oh Lord! This pasta looks delicious!

  10. lapadia November 10, 2014 at 3:29 PM - Reply

    This is cool…love it!

  11. Choc Chip Uru November 11, 2014 at 12:45 AM - Reply

    I haven’t actually tried sweet potato pasta before, I would be happy to eat this for dinner!

    Cheers
    Choc Chip Uru

  12. anotherfoodieblogger November 11, 2014 at 8:54 PM - Reply

    Beautiful, simple dish to let the pasta shine through!

  13. Barbara Bamber | justasmidgen November 11, 2014 at 11:18 PM - Reply

    I haven’t seen this sort of pasta yet, but will check to see if we’ve got it. How wonderful it must have tasted and it’s so good for you! We roast chopped sweet potatoes quite regularly to add to our veggie bowls.

    • chef mimi November 13, 2014 at 7:23 AM - Reply

      It was pretty, had a lovely flavor and was very festive for a cold November night. Sweet potatoes are pretty fabulous!

  14. saffronandhoney November 12, 2014 at 4:29 PM - Reply

    How creative, wholesome, and delicious, mimi!

  15. dianeskitchentable November 13, 2014 at 1:20 PM - Reply

    Perfect timing – as always it seems since I have one lonely sweet potato hanging out in the bin. This looks absolutely divine & I think my husband would devour it (well I would too, but it’s always nice to see someone else enjoy your efforts). I also love how easy this sounds.

    • chef mimi November 14, 2014 at 10:03 AM - Reply

      Pasta is so lovely, and can be so easy, isn’t it?!!

      • dianeskitchentable November 14, 2014 at 10:16 AM

        I like to play with it when we have this fall/winter (we got snow last night) weather. It’s the perfect thing to do & I really want to see if I can come up with this sweet potato pasta myself.

  16. Robyn (@fresh_dinners) November 18, 2014 at 9:04 AM - Reply

    I love this dish, Mimi, because it accentuates the pasta. If it were cool, I’d be happy to eat pasta with basil, pepper and olive oil every night for the rest of my life,lol.
    Great shots, beautiful dish! Thanks for a great recipe!

    • chef mimi November 20, 2014 at 8:21 PM - Reply

      I know what you mean. I could just eat pasta with pesto every day!

  17. Francesca (@LaCucinaPovera) November 20, 2014 at 5:51 AM - Reply

    Oh I bet sage is great with this too!

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