The Great Pumpkin Carve Up Cook Off

Hallowe'en, All Hallow's Eve, Samhain....whatever you call it, it spells PUMPKINS, carved ones to be precise (or as the Americans call them - Jack O'Lanterns). There are many subtle variants to the legend of why precisely we carve goulish faces into squashes at this time of year (apparently the Irish traditionally use turnips or swedes instead) but basically it is to scare bad spirits away. Seems sensible enough to me, and I always loved the slightly gory feel of tearing out massive handfuls of fibre and seed from the pumpkin's interior - so any excuse! This year I have an additional motive for carving my pumpkin (and an excellent excuse to do it early). Elise over at Simply Recipes has come up with a competition to find the most creative recipe for using up the off-cuts from the pumpkin-carving. Now in conjunction with Is My Blog Burning? this is a challenge I cannot resist, especially as I'm having a little celebration on the night itself and have hungry guests to feed.

Pumpkin and amaretti Ravioli with sage-butter fried pumpkin seeds and cream sauce - serves 4 as a starter

Gloriously sweet from the slow-roasting of the pumpkin flesh, with a hint of 'otherness' that would be a wonderful confusion of flavours to a guest who didn't know about the amaretti biscuits; the pasta dough silken as only fresh pasta can be and fabulously golden from the saffron. The pumpkin seeds added a lovely crunch that such a soft pasta filling really needed, and the buttery-cream is made heady with sage and perfectly balances the sweetness of the pumpkin. The unanimous opinion of my four tasters was 'YUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUM'. And of course we used the whole pumpkin! Every bit :D

For the pasta dough

275g '00' Pasta flour

2 whole eggs + 3 egg yolks

pinch of saffron

1 tbsp olive oil

Pinch of salt


Put the all the ingredients into a food processor and blend until it looks somewhat like clumpy breadcrumbs. You may need to turn it off and scrape down the sides with a spatula a couple of times to make sure the tiny amount of saffron gets well blended in. Turn it out onto a floured surface and squeeze together to form a ball. Don't fret if it looks a little dry and crumble - mine did and it ended silky as anything, if it is very very dry however put it back into the processor and blend with a drop more oil. Now knead the dough as if it were bread - stretching it out with the heel of your hand and bringing it back together, turn it and repeat. Do this for as long as you can bear as it gets the gluten in the flour going and is what makes the pasta tender and flexible for rolling - think of it as a form of therepy and gentle exercise! When the dough is plump and smooth wrap it in clingfilm and leave it to rest for 30 minutes or put it in the fridge (still wrapped) overnight.

For the filling

750g pumpkin offcuts (or when not carving jack o'lanterns use a slice of some nice squash!

2 tbsp. olive oil

2 amaretti biscuits, crushed finely

75g Parmesan cheese, grated finely

1 very small onion (or a large shallot), chopped finely

50g fresh breadcrumbs

Sea salt and cracked black pepper


Chop the pumpkin offcuts into fairly even-sized chunks and remove the skin. Toss in a roasting dish with the olive oil, cover tightly with foil and roast in a pre-heated oven at 180C/Gas 4/356F for an hour. Allow to cool, then blend 'til smooth with a hand blender or food processor, pour into a sieve and leave to drain overnight (this stops the filling being too moist and bursting out of the finished ravioli). The day you're going to eat, gently sweat the chopped onion or shallot in a little oil until soft. Mix into the drained pumpkin flesh along with the Parmesan, amaretti, breadcrumbs and seasoning. Taste to check you've got the balance right, it may need more pepper and salt than you think to contrast with the sweetness of the pumpkin.

Divide the pasta in to three, keep the reserve ones wrapped and roll the pasta out thinly with a rolling pin or (even better) a pasta machine into long oblongs. Each one should be enough for four large dollops of the mixture, placed evenly along the sheets. Brush a little water around the edges of the dough and between the dollops of pumpkin mixture and carefully place another sheet on top, patting it down gently to force the air out. Cut each ravioli out with a sharp knife or cutter and press the edges together firmly but carefully to seal them. Repeat with the remaining pasta dough and pumpkin mix. When they are all ready, they just need two minutes in boiling unsalted water - only do a few at a time or they'll stick.

For the sage-butter fried pumpkin seeds and cream sauce

The seeds from one medium-sized pumpkin

5 tbsp. double cream

Handful fresh sage leaves

100g butter

Take all the seeds from your carved pumpkin, discard any big lumps of fibrous flesh attached but don't be too pernickity about it, it will dry and fall off in the oven and helps keep the pumpkin seeds from drying out too much. Roast in a medium oven for about 20-30mins or until toasted and golden. Melt the butter in a small pan, add the sage leaves and a few handfuls of the toasted pumpkin seeds. Toss over a low flame for a few minutes until the gorgeous aroma of sage wafts through your kitchen. Stir in the cream and toss with the cooked ravioli. Serve with an extra sprinkling of pumpkin seeds.

Bon appetit!

P.S. If you're curious, have a look here to see why they're referred to as Jack O'Lanterns!