This recipe began with a search through our Italian-influenced cookbooks for a dish that would make good use of some leftover ricotta. I found what I was looking for in a collection compiled by Melbourne restaurateur, Maurizio Terzini. The original recipe used very similar ingredients but I have modified the method significantly to suit our technical capabilities. The result is quite delicious and could even be offered as a Hallowe’en treat!

If you don’t have fresh sage growing in your garden and have to buy a bunch from a store, you can freeze the leftover leaves.

Ingredients

50ml olive oil
400g Jap pumpkin, skin left on and cut into 3-4cm chunks
2-3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
15-20 sage leaves, finely chopped
¼ tsp grated nutmeg
250g ricotta
100g grated pecorino (or parmesan)
1 egg
salt and pepper
10-12 cannelloni tubes (prepared according to packet instructions)
Béchamel sauce made using 1½ cups of milk
2 tbsp chopped parsley
grated pecorino, extra

Method

1. Preheat oven to 170C, toss pumpkin chunks in 20ml of olive oil and bake skin-side down for 30-40 minutes, until all the flesh is soft. When cool enough, remove the skin, place pumpkin in a large mixing bowl and mash with a fork.
2. Meanwhile, heat 30ml of olive oil in a saucepan over low heat and add the garlic. Sauté for 5 minutes, add the sage and sauté for a further 2 minutes until the garlic is soft. Allow to cool then add the garlic and its cooking oil to the pumpkin.
3. Add nutmeg, ricotta, pecorino and egg to mixing bowl and stir to combine. Taste and adjust seasoning.
4. Use a piping bag or a narrow teaspoon to fill each cannelloni tube with the pumpkin mixture. Use as many tubes as will take up about 85% of the mixture; retain the surplus.
5. Place tubes in a baking dish, leaving a gap between adjoining tubes to allow for expansion.
6. Stir the chopped parsley into the béchamel sauce. Add the leftover pumpkin mixture and about 1/2 a cup of milk and stir well to combine. Pour the sauce over the cannelloni. Sprinkle lightly with more pecorino.
7. If you are using ‘instant’ cannelloni tubes, leave the dish to rest for about 20 minutes so they can begin to soften.
8. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 160-170C (do this earlier if you are using tubes that you have prepared in boiling water).
9. Bake for about 35 minutes, until the cannelloni tubes are soft and the pecorino is beginning to turn golden brown.