Homemade Pumpkin Ravioli with Currants and Pine Nuts

We have cheated here and used wonton wrappers from our local Asian grocery store instead of making our own pasta. It's a more than capable substitute.
The filling is made from roast pumpkin, and we served the ravioli with a buttery raisin and pine nut sauce.

Ravioli:
2 cups pumpkin
100g feta
1 egg, beaten
Packet of wonton wrappers
Fresh herbs (e.g. oregano, chives)

To make the ravioli, roast the pumpkin on a tray with a light drizzle of olive oil in a moderate oven until tender (don't let the pumpkin brown too much).
Mash the pumpkin and leave to cool. Finely crumble to feta and combine with the pumpkin. Season with pepper (we didn't add salt because of the feta). Add your fresh herbs.
Fill the wonton wrappers with 1/2tsp of filling. Brush the edges with a little beaten egg then pinch together to seal.
Cook the ravioli in a large pot of boiling water in batches. Boil for 4-5 minutes and gently remove with a slotted spoon and drain well.

To make the butter sauce:
Roast 1/4 cup of pine nuts in a large heavy based saucepan until the start to change colour, then remove them. Add 100g butter to the saucepan and fry until butter turns brown. Return the pine nuts and add 1/4 raisins to the butter. Spoon over the ravioli and eat whilst hot.

Sri Lankan Pumpkin and Cashew Curry

Pumpkins are insanely cheap and great at the moment. We used one of our home grown butternut pumpkins, which was probably picked a bit early, as it wasn't as sweet as we would've liked. We have a similar recipe for a broad bean curry, and you could probably subsitute just about any vegetable you like.

Sri Lankan Pumpkin and Cashew Curry:

450g pumpkin

1 small onion, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

3 green chillies (deseeded and finely chopped)

½ cup raw cashews

8 curry leaves

½ tsp fenugreek seeks

½ tsp turmeric

350mL can coconut milk

1 tsp salt1 tsp black mustard seeds

Squeeze of lemon juice

Cut the pumpkin flesh into 2.5cm cubes and place in a large saucepan with all the remaining ingredients except the lemon and mustard seeds.

Bring to the boil then simmer gently for about 15 minutes, until the pumpkin is just tender.

Grind the mustard seeds in a mortar then mix into the curry. Simmer for a further 5 minutes. Add a squeeze of lemon juice just prior to serving.

Tagine week: Eggplant and Pumpkin Tagine with green chillies

Now that the evenings are much cooler, we have dusted off the tagine and gone a little overboard with it.

This is a hearty vegetarian tagine, prompted by our pile of delicious butternut pumpkins and late season eggplants and zucchinis (although of course we used tromboncino).  This is a bit of a staple recipe in our house whenever we have too much of any of these vegies (usually this time of year).

Eggplant and Pumpkin Tagine with Whole Green Chillies
 

Sauce:

100ml olive oil

2 large onions, finely diced

3 cloves garlic, crushed

1 heaped TBS coriander seeds

1 heaped TBS cumin seeds

1 heaped TBS caraway seeds

1  TSP ground allspice

2 TSP sweet paprika

1 TSP chilli powder

1 TSP ginger powder

2 x 400g tins chopped tomatoes

6 long green chillies

1 TBS honey

600ml water

Vegetables:

1 kg pumpkin diced

2 small eggplants

2 small zucchini

100mL olive oil

150g cooked chickpeas

100g black olives

Greek yoghurt (to serve)

Use a mortar and pestle to grind coriander, cumin and caraway seeds to a fine powder. Sieve to remove husks. Mix with other remaining spices.

Heat oil in frying pan, sauté the onions and add the garlic- fry until browned. Add the spice mixture to the frying pan and cook for a further 2 minutes.

Add tomatoes, chilli, honey and water and bring to the boil. Lower the heat and simmer uncovered for 45 minutes.

Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius.

Bake the pumpkin in the oven for 15 minutes.

Cut the eggplant and zucchini into medium sized chunks. Salt and leave for 20 minutes. Wipe off excess water and sauté in olive oil in batches.

Add all the vegetables, chickpeas and olives to the tomato sauce. Add more water if the sauce is too thick. Bring sauce to the boil, season with salt and pepper. Serve with couscous and plenty of thick Greek yoghurt.