in season: pumpkin, silverbeet and ricotta canneloni

The first thing I did with my pumpkin (I think it was a Queensland Blue, it was labelled as 'plain pumpkin' and around two bucks a kilo) was to roast half of it. Cut into small chunks, drizzled in olive oil, a good whack of salt and a little pepper and roasted in a nice hot oven until the very corners go just a tinge black. Now I have a nice bowl full of those golden nuggets just begging me to nibble straight out of the fridge add to homemade pizza, couscous or winter salads.

In the meantime, I thought I would change up an old favourite in our family, and throw some golden roasted pumpkin into the mix for our usual silverbeet and ricotta cannelloni. Growing up, silverbeet was always called spinach. I'm not sure when English Spinach and baby spinach became so much more the norm, but I always feel a bit wanky buying it. So silverbeet it is. Nothing but the best for my family! The roast pumpkin added a lovely earthy sweetness to the cannelloni. The kids gobbled it up without blinking an eyelid. My darling didn't notice that I'd slipped another veggie meal under his nose this week.

Want a recipe? OK!

Gather these:
1 pack instant cannelloni tubes (you can use soft lasagne sheets instead if you would rather roll than stuff)
1 bunch silverbeet (or two bunches spinach) washed, cored, roughly shredded
1 brown onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
A chunk of ricotta (I use the one from the deli and buy it by eye, probably around the 300gram mark should do it)
1 1/2 cups of roasted pumpkin
pinch of nutmeg
1 egg
1 jar of tomato pasta sauce of your liking (or make your own)
grated cheese

Do this:
1. Gently fry the onion and garlic in some olive oil until translucent.
2. Add the silverbeet and cook until wilted.
3. Combine the cooled silverbeet mix, ricotta, pumpkin, egg and nutmeg and whizz up with a stick blender.
4. Spoon a bed of tomato sauce onto the base of your baking dish.
5. Spoon the filling into a large zip-lock bag, twist the end closed and snip a small corner off the bottom. Then pipe the mixture into the cannelloni tubes. If, like me, you find some dodgy cheap zip lock bags, and go through three before you realise they are just going to keep exploding, a teaspoon will do the trick, just a bit more slowly. Use the spoon end as if you are a brickie trowelling mortar onto a brick, then use the handle end to shove the mixture down the tube.
6. Lay the tubes into the baking tray. Roll them around in the sauce to coat before nestling them side-by-side. Cover the lot with the rest of the sauce and a sprinkling of cheese. Bake in a moderate oven for about 40mins, or until the pasta feels al dente when you stick it with a knife.
7. Enjoy!