Pumpkin cannelloni

Cannelloni are pasta tubes that are filled with various ingredients and then baked in the oven with a sauce to keep them moist and tender. Walt made these yesterday, stuffing them with the cooked pulp of a winter squash.

Pumpkin cannelloni with goat cheese, sage, and walnuts

You can roll out your own pasta or you can use fresh or soaked and softened lasagne noodles from the supermarket. You can probably buy cannelloni tubes in dried form, too, like other pasta shapes. In this version, the stuffing is made with:

• 500 g (just over a pound) of cooked winter squash pulp, mashed
  
• 150 g (5 oz. by weight) of soft goat cheese
• 1 finely chopped shallot
• pinches of spices including cumin, cayenne pepper, and nutmeg
• 2 Tbsp. finely chopped fresh sage leaves
• salt and pepper to taste
  

Other spices and herbs might be just as good. Curry powder, for example, or Moroccan raz el hanout. Ricotta could replace the goat cheese. Basil would be good in the place of sage. Mix the pumpkin filling up and let it sit for 30 to 60 minutes so that the flavors will blend. Then put a log of it on each cannelloni or softened lasagne noodle and roll them up.

Arrange the stuffed cannelloni in a pan and pour in chicken or vegetable broth so that it comes half-way up the sides of the cannelloni. Drizzle some olive or vegetable oil over the tops of the cannelloni. Bake in a medium oven, covered, for about 20 minutes.

One possibility for a sauce to serve with the filled canneloni is melted butter with a little cream, some more sage or other herbs, and some coarsely chopped walnut meats. Pecans or hazel nuts would also be good. Serve some grated parmesan at the table.