Pumpkin Mac and Cheese (Baked or Stove-Top)

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Enjoy the perfect fall dish with this creamy pumpkin mac and cheese! Made with cheddar and Gruyère, this pumpkin pasta features a luxurious, decadent cheese sauce and is finished with a buttery Ritz cracker topping and fresh sage for an extra touch of fall flavor. Comfort food doesn't get better than this.

A cast-iron skillet filled with pumpkin mac and cheese on burlap with sage next to it.

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Why You'll Love This Recipe
Ingredients
Step-by-Step Instructions
Recipe FAQs
Expert Tips
Perfect Pairing
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Why You'll Love This Recipe

Ultra creamy goodness. Sure, mac and cheese is already a creamy delight, but the addition of real pumpkin purée makes for an even more decadent texture.
Makes a festive Thanksgiving side dish. Everyone loves a classic mac and cheese at the Thanksgiving table, but you can enjoy that any time of year. This fall spin adds an extra fun touch to the holiday.
Comes with a make-ahead option. Anyone who's hosted Thanksgiving knows make-ahead dishes are true life-savers. We have an option to make this dish two days ahead for easy entertaining.
Super versatile. Make it a stove-top or baked pasta. Use your favorite blend of cheeses or my recommended cheddar and Gruyère. Keep it vegetarian or add chicken or bacon. You have so much flexibility if you want to get creative, or you can stick to the recipe as is and enjoy a wonderful dish.
Surprisingly simple. If this is your first time making homemade mac and cheese, don't feel intimidated. We'll walk through the process and show you how truly easy this recipe is.

Related: For more favorite pasta dishes, try my brisket mac and cheese, truffled white baked ziti, crawfish mac and cheese, and creamy morel mushroom pasta!

Ingredients

And now for a couple notes about our pumpkin mac and cheese ingredients. Obviously, the mac stands for elbow macaroni, but don't feel like you have to stick to that pasta shape. Penne, ziti, rigatoni, shells and cavatappi all make good substitutes.

And then there's our cheese. I used equal parts of white cheddar and Gruyère, but you have some flexibility here as well. Yellow cheddar works just fine, and if you can't find Gruyère, you can switch it for the more commonly found Swiss cheese.

You could even go in a totally different direction and use your own blend of cheeses, such as fontina, Gouda, mozzarella, Havarti or muenster. As long as it's a good melting cheese, you're all set.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Step 1: We begin by cooking our pasta just shy of the box directions. Then, we drain and reserve (photo 1).

The macaroni in a strainer after cooking.

Bonus tip: As the water boils and the pasta cooks, this is the perfect time to peel your other ingredients to make the process as seamless as possible. It’s all about consolidation!

Step 2: In that same very pot (yes, this is a one-pot pumpkin pasta!), we melt some butter and then whisk in some flour (photo 2) until it turns smooth (photo 3). This is our roux. After about three minutes of whisking, we add some garlic and stir constantly to add that wonderful flavor (photo 4).

Showing the process of cooking the roux in the pot.

Step 3: Now we pour in our milk and heavy cream while whisking constantly to create a smooth sauce (photo 5). Once we get that silky texture, we stir in our Dijon mustard, salt, pepper and a pinch of nutmeg (photo 6).

Whisking in the milk and cream with the seasonings into the pot.

Step 4: From here, we bring the cream mixture just to a simmer, so it's nice and warm, and then we add our cheese (photo 7) and stir until it melts into a velvety sauce. All that's left is to stir in our pumpkin (photo 8), and our pumpkin pasta sauce is ready (photo 9).

Adding the cheese and pumpkin to the pot to finish making the sauce.

Step 5: Now we take the cooked macaroni and stir it into the sauce (photo 10), pour it into a baking dish and top with more grated cheese and a mixture of melted butter and crushed Ritz crackers (photo 11). I like to use a 12-inch cast-iron skillet for a rustic look, or we can use a 9-inch-by-13-inch baking dish.

Mixing the pasta and sauce together and pouring it to the baking dish.

Note: If you prefer a stove-top pumpkin Mac and cheese, there's no need to pour it into a baking dish. Serve from the stove-top immediately.

Step 6: For our final step, we place our fall pasta dish into the oven and bake until it's hot and bubbly, about 20 minutes. After baking, we give the pasta a few minutes to cool, top with fresh sage and then scoop ourselves a big bowl and enjoy.

Bonus: If you love this pumpkin pasta, make sure you also try my pumpkin baked ziti with chorizo!

An aerial view of the pumpkin mac and cheese after it's been scooped.

Recipe FAQs

What’s the difference between stove-top and baked mac and cheese?

A stove-top mac and cheese has much saucier texture. Baked mac and cheese, however, has a crisp topping with more of a custardy texture.

Honestly, I love both, but baked mac and cheese is my favorite of the two. It truly comes down to personal preference.

Can you make mac and cheese ahead of time?

You sure can with a couple tricks for baked mac and cheese. First, it's extra important to make sure you cook the noodles slightly under the package directions' recommended time and then rinse them with cold water after cooking and let them cool completely before adding to the sauce. Hot noodles better absorb sauce than cold noodles, so this will prevent the dish from drying out. We also want to make sure we let the sauce cool before adding the pasta.

Once we combine everything into our baking dish, we tightly cover it with plastic wrap or foil and refrigerate for up to two days. Before baking, remove the dish from the refrigerator and let it sit in room temperature for an hour or two and plan for a little extra baking time, about 10-20 minutes. We don't want to put a cold baking dish into a hot oven, and this allows the macaroni to come down to temperature.

For stove-top Mac and cheese, I recommend serving it fresh. The saucy texture won't be quite the same after refrigerating -- still delicious for leftovers, mind you, but it wouldn't be something I'd want to serve for guests. That said, you can significantly speed up the cooking process by preparing the macaroni ahead of time and pre-measuring all the ingredients.

How long do leftovers last?

You can enjoy mac and cheese leftovers for up to five days. Just make sure you cover it tightly or transfer to airtight containers and keep in the refrigerator.

Expert Tips

I recommend freshly grating your own cheese gather than buying grated cheese in a bag. The bagged cheese is coated in a substance that doesn't melt quite as well as freshly grated cheese.
Do not let the milk mixture boil. This can cause the milk to separate.
For best results, don't use cold milk and cream straight out of the refrigerator. Room-temperature milk melds more effectively into the roux. I like to warm the milk and heavy cream in the microwave for about a minute, or you can let it sit out for 30 minutes before using.
Love mac and cheese bites? You can turn this into a fun fall appetizer by spooning the mac and cheese into greased mini muffin tins and baking in a 375-degree oven until they're hot and bubbly, about 12-15 minutes. Give them a few minutes to set in the muffin tins before serving.

Perfect Pairing

This may seem obvious, but you can't go wrong with a classic pumpkin ale here. The malty backbone is lovely with the Gruyère, and those fall spices are a nice match for the fresh sage.

With our creamy sauce and buttery cracker topping, I love a chardonnay with this dish. Chardonnay pairs well with rich sauces because it has a similar buttery mouthfeel, and it's a classic match to that nutty Gruyère.

Of course, we are talking about the ultimate fall dish, so you might want a seasonal sipper. You'll love my chai old fashioned, apple cider margarita or apple cider old fashioned.

For the perfect fall comfort food, I hope you try this pumpkin mac and cheese. This creamy, dreamy fall pasta dish is sure to be a new favorite.

Cheers!

The skillet of pumpkin mac and cheese with pumpkins in the background.

Need More Savory Pumpkin Recipes?

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