Pumpkin & Ricotta Tortellini

By Jilly McCord

This dish is a real autumnal treat and a great way to use up pumpkins or squash, which are abundant over the next couple of months. Roasting the pumpkin really concentrates the flavour and saves the difficulty of peeling it as you simply scoop out the soft flesh at the end.

The ricotta and squash mix is also a great filling for a cannelloni recipe or a ravioli. As always, seasoning the mix is key with a good grind of black pepper and some sea salt. I was lucky enough to get my hands on the award winning Stainless Steel Derwent pepper mill, recommended by America’s test kitchen, rated as their favourite Pepper Mill. 

Difficulty: Medium

Cooking/Prep Time: 1hr 20 mins Prep/10 mins cooking time

Serves: 25 Tortellini (5 people starter)

Ingredients: 

• 1 butternut squash or pumpkin
• 1 tub of Ricotta
• Grated Nutmeg
• 200g 00 flour
• 2 eggs
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• ½ tsp salt
• 50g Salted butter
• 25 sage leaves

Method: 

1. Heat the oven to 180C.
2. Rub a whole butternut squash or pumpkin with olive oil and salt and place on a baking sheet. Roast in the oven for 1 hour, or until soft through
3. After 40 minutes take the Ricotta out of its tub and place next to the pumpkin on the baking sheet. Bake in the oven until the Squash is soft through and the Ricotta has dried a little.
4. Whilst the pumpkin is cooking, in a food processor add all the ingredients for the pasta. Pulse blitz until the pasta begins to come together. If it is a little dry, add a splash of cold water to ensure you get a springy dough.
5. Remove from the processor and knead for 5 minutes.
6. Now place in the fridge until ready to use.
7. Once the squash and ricotta are cooked, scoop out the flesh and mix with the mashed ricotta. Grate about half a teaspoon of nutmeg into the mix and season well with fresh black pepper and salt.
8. Use the pasta machine to roll out onto some more 00 flour. Use a pastry cutter to cut circles of around 7cm.
9. Place a teaspoon of the pumpkin and ricotta mixture in one half of the circles and fold over to seal in a half-moon shape (make sure there are no air pockets). Now take the half-moon shape and bring together the 2 end and seal together to for the tortellini. Place them on a floured baking sheet in the fridge until ready to cook.
10. To cook, place 2 pans on the hob. One wide pan with boiling salted water and the other a small frying pan.
11. Place the butter and a splash of olive oil in the frying pan and melt until foaming. In the other pan add the Tortellini and cook for approximately 4 minutes.
12. In the foaming butter, add the sage leaves and fry until they are a little crispy – remove, salt and place on kitchen roll until ready to serve.
13. Remove the tortellini from the pan and add drain. Cook the foaming butter until it just starts to turn brown and then toss the tortellini in it and serve, drizzling a little of the butter sauce over the tortellini.

To serve, add the crispy sage on top of the Tortellini and sprinkle with fresh Parmesan and seasoning.