22/06/2020

Roast Pumpkin Rotolo

So much less fiddly than making ravioli and much more impressive in looks, a rotolo is my kind of filled pasta. The only tricky bit is finding some muslin to wrap it up into a bon-bon shape, ready for poaching. Once you master the technique, the filling choice is all yours - spinach, mushroom, pea, beetroot, sweet potato...shall I go on?

Serves:

8 Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cooking Time: 30 minutes

Download Recipe PDF

Ingredients

1 kg pumpkin, peeled and diced
extra virgin olive oil, as needed
sea salt and pepper, to taste
2 spring onions, chopped
750g fresh full-fat ricotta, cut from the wheel
1 bunch basil leaves, chopped (reserve some leaves for garnish)
1 egg, lightly beaten
375g (8 sheets) fresh lasagne sheets
milk, for brushing
200g butter, cubed
toasted pine nuts, for garnish
grated parmesan cheese, for serving
4 x 30cm square pieces of muslin/cheesecloth
kitchen string

Method

Place pumpkin on an oven tray. Drizzle with oil and season. Roast at 200°C, in the top of the oven or under a grill, for 15 minutes or until golden brown and tender. Mash with a fork and mix in spring onions, ricotta, half the basil and egg, and season.
Place two lasagne sheets next to each other on a piece of muslin, with long edges overlapping by 5cm to form a large rectangle. Brush with milk and spread with a quarter of the ricotta mixture, leaving a border along the far edge. Using the muslin, roll up the lasagne to form a roll, enclosing the filling and wrapping the muslin firmly around the roll. Tie the ends securely with kitchen string. Repeat with remaining lasagne sheets and filling to form four rolls.
Cook rolls in a deep roasting pan of boiling salted water for 25-30 minutes. Remove, unwrap, cut into slices and serve over Basil Butter Sauce. Garnish with pine nuts and reserved basil leaves. Serve with parmesan cheese.
For the Basil Butter Sauce, just before serving, melt butter until hot, then add remaining basil and cook until butter just starts to colour, taking care not to burn it. Serve over sliced rotolo.

Tips

TIPS Choose thin pasta sheets, or if they are thicker, parboil for 1 minute beforehand. Assembled rotolo may be kept refrigerated for 24 hours in advance.
STYLING Stand the cut slices of rotolo upright before pouring the butter sauce over them, and sprinkling with pine nuts and basil leaves.
DRINK MATCH Soave, chardonnay, Italian pilsner or pumpkin ale.

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