Silky homemade pasta filled with sweet butternut pumpkin and salty feta, nutmeg and sage. The pasta is then coated in a rich nutty brown butter sauce with sage leaves and pine nuts. Homemade pasta can seem a little daunting but it's surprisingly straight forward! Give yourself 3 hours for this dish. 

BUTTERNUT PUMPKIN TORTELLINI WITH BROWN BUTTER & SAGE

Serves 4

INGREDIENTS

PASTA
400 grams type 00 flour
4 eggs

TORTELLINI FILLING
600 grams butternut pumpkin, peel and cut into 5cm chunks
100 grams feta, crumbled
1 egg
10 sage leaves, finely chopped
1/8 of a fresh nutmeg, finely grated
1/2 cup finely grated parmesan
salt & pepper

BROWN BUTTER SAUCE
35 grams pinenuts
150 grams butter
45 sage leaves

Garnish with finely grated lemon rind and parmesan, season with salt and pepper. 

METHOD

Preheat your oven to 190°C. 

Place pumpkin chunks on a baking tray with greaseproof paper, drizzle with olive oil and salt and pepper, cover with tinfoil. Bake for 30-45 minutes until softened. Once cooked, let cool completely before use. 

Place the flour in a heaped pile on a large, clean surface. Make a well in the centre of the flour and crack the eggs into it. Whisk the eggs and slowly add in small quantities of the surrounding flour until a dough is created. Place on a flour dusted flat surface and knead dough until it has a smooth exterior, don't be discouraged if it doesn't happen straight away, this step takes some time. Wrap in grease proof paper and let rest for 30 minutes.

In a bowl combine the feta, egg, sage, nutmeg, parmesan, salt & pepper and cooled pumpkin. Mash together and set aside.  

Cut the pasta dough into 4 even pieces. 

The pasta can either be rolled out by hand with a rolling pin or with a pasta machine. Either way you'll need some space to lay the sheets out. Roll the pasta until around 2mm thick. 

Using an 8-10cm cookie cutter, cut the dough into circles. Place a teaspoon of the filling in the centre of the dough and brush the edges with a little water. Bring edges together to create a semicircle and pinch tight. bring the two corners together so they overlap and press tightly. Fold curved edge down and place on a floured tray and continue with remaining pasta. 

Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil, add the tortellini and cook for 5 minutes or until pasta has risen to the surface. Drain and set aside. 

In a large frypan fry the butter, pine nuts and sage leaves until butter has browned. Add the tortellini and toss until completely covered with butter. 

Garnish with a little lemon rind, parmesan and salt & pepper.