With fall now here it’s a great time to start thinking about harvest dishes! Some of my favorite fall dishes are pasta dishes and Pumpkin Tortellini is high on the list of favorites! If you have a fresh Halloween pumpkin that you need to use up, roast it and use it in this recipe, less waste!
This recipe has been adapted from the book entitled Essentials of Italian. I love this book and use it frequently for Italian meal inspirations. This book covers all the food courses and even breaks them down by region.
The recipe it’s self is pretty simple. Take and roast your pumpkin; or used canned puree. Add one egg yolk, some seasoning (I used black pepper, salt, and a little nutmeg), and a little parmesan, then mix to combine. The pasta dough is the fun part, and the kid friendly part.
The book gives you a recipe for dough that uses all purpose flour. The biggest reason I can guess at is the fact that past flour, Semolina or Durum, use to be hard to come by. Today both King Arthur Flour and Bob’s Red Mill make pasta flour. For this batch of pasta I used Bob’s Red Mill and the recipe on the bag. It has a slightly different texture to it when handling the dough. However, once cooked that texture disappeared and it tasted and felt like regular old pasta.
For this next step you can use two different methods. I have a hand crank pasta machine. You can also roll out the pasta with your rolling pin. Just remember that the past needs to be about 2 mm thick when
you are doing rolling. Now, the hand crank may sound like a lot of work but it isn’t. It is also cheaper then an electric one and does the job.
Once your pasta is thin enough take about a 2 inch circular dough or pasta cutter and cut your circles. I don’t have a pasta cutter so I use a simple circle dough cutter. Again, it gets the job done; kind of Alton Brown kitchen system 🙂 . Also, there is no reason it has to be circles. The pasta can be stars, dinos, cars, ect. So have some fun with it!
Now that you have your circles take and drop some pumpkin puree into the middle of half of them. The recipe calls for 1 tsp I typically do about 1/2 to 3/4 of a tsp. Once they are filled swipe the edge of the other half with some water and seal the two pieces together. Once the pieces are sealed together cook them in simmering salted water till they float to the top and are al dente. This takes only 2-3 minutes at the most so stay close to your pot!
The recipe its self serves it with browned sage butter. For that you simple brown, don’t burn, some butter, add a few sage leaves and warm/simmer till wilted, and toss the freshly cooked pasta in it. You could also do an Alfredo sauce or even a Marinara sauce if you wanted. To make this a complete meal I added lemon broccoli to the menu as our side dish. You could also pair this with a simple salt and pepper chicken breast if you wanted to add a meat dish.
Enjoy!
Pumpkin Tortellini with Brown Butter and Sage
Ingredients
For the filling
- 1 cup pumpkin puree about 1 1/2 lb.
- 1 egg yolk
- 1/4 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
- Sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
- Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
For the dough
- 1 lb. fresh egg pasta dough
- 2 Tbs. salt
- 1/8 cup Flour for dusting as needed
For the sauce
- 8 Tbs. 1 stick unsalted butter
- About 10 small fresh sage leaves
Instructions
- In food processor add pumpkin puree, egg yolk, and cheese and pulse to blend. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg and pulse to combine. Set aside.
- Lightly flour 2 rimmed baking sheets.
- Make the pasta dough according to the recipe, then divide and roll out each piece into a sheet 1/16 inch thick, as directed in the related tip at left. Trim each pasta sheet into long, 2 1/4-inch-wide strips that will fit on one of the prepared baking sheets. Layer the strips on the sheet, spacing them so they don’t touch and separating each layer with a lightly floured kitchen towel.
- To make the tortelli, place a pasta strip on a floured work surface. Use a 2-inch round pastry cutter to make pasta circles. Place 1 tsp. filling in the center of half the circles. Lightly brush a little water around the filling, top with the remaining circles and press the edges to seal. Repeat with the remaining strips.
- Place the filled tortelli in a single layer on the second prepared baking sheet, separating each layer with a lightly floured kitchen towel. Keep the top layer covered as you prepare the remaining tortelli. They will keep, refrigerated, for up to 3 hours before cooking.
- To make the sauce, in a large fry pan over medium heat, melt the butter. Cook, swirling the pan, until the butter foams and begins to brown. Add the sage and cook until the leaves crisp slightly and the butter turns nut brown, about 3 minutes. Be careful not to burn the butter. Remove from the heat and cover to keep warm.
- Meanwhile, bring a large pot three-fourths full of water to a rolling boil. Add the 2 Tbs. salt and then the tortelli and stir gently. Cook, stirring occasionally and adjusting the heat so the water simmers gently, until the tortelli rise to the surface and are al dente, 3 to 4 minutes.
- Return the fry pan with the sauce to low heat. Using a large slotted spoon, transfer the tortelli to the sauce and toss gently to coat. Divide among warmed plates and serve immediately. Serves 6.
