Squash, Goats Cheese & Chestnut Culurgiones
Homemade, cheesy, roasted vegetable filled pasta parcels. The filling is indulgent and hearty. This dish would be great for dinner parties or date nights. Perfect served simply with butter, or with a hearty tomato based sauce.
If you have a pasta machine you’ll be able to get the dough for this recipe very thin and it will cook quicker when you’re boiling it. Don’t worry if you don’t though. I hand rolled my pasta and it was a little more hearty and has a really nice al dente texture. If you do get the dough super thin, you’ll want to make more parcels with a smaller amount of filling in each.
change this recipe!
As with most of my recipes, I would never want you to feel you can’t make it because you’re missing something, or that you can’t take something away from this post because you don’t fancy this particular combo.
You can swap the goats cheese for ricotta if you’re not a big fan. You could also use pecorino or another hard, mature cheese in place of parmesan. For the squash, this recipe could easily be played around with by replacing this with another roasted, mashed vegetable like sweet potato, parsnip, or beetroot. You could also play around with the chestnuts, replacing with roasted hazelnuts, toasted seeds, or pecans. Use your imagination!
Squash, Goats Cheese & Chestnut Culurgiones
Author: Asher
Cook Time 2 HOURS
Servings: 2 servings
Calories Per Serving: 525 kcal without sauce / butter
Please note that serving sizes and nutritional information are based on my own preferences and approximations.
Ingredients
For the pastry
150g plain flour, sifted
1 large whole egg
2 large egg yolks
For the filling
1/2 a small butternut squash
75g or 1/4 cup soft mild goats cheese (the crumbly type without a rind)
2 sage leaves, finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, grated or very finely chopped
35g or 1/4 cup cooked chestnuts, roughly chopped after measuring
10g or 1/4 cup finely grated parmesan or similar mature hard cheese
For serving
tomato / marinara sauce or butter, warmed
extra parmesan, optional
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 200c / gas 6 / 400f.
While the oven is heating, to make the pasta dough, mix together all of the ingredients and knead until very smooth. Initially it will be very dry. You will need to work the dough for about 5 minutes.
Wrap in plastic and set to one side. Can be made a day ahead if kept in the fridge.
For the filling, roast the half squash for 40-60 minutes, or until completely cooked through.
Allow to squash to fully cool.
Scoop out and discard the seeds, then scoop the flesh into a food processor. It should be about 1/3 cup of flesh.
Add the goats cheese and process until smooth, or as smooth as you can get it without adding any water.
Tip into a bowl and add the rest of the filling ingredients.
Stir to combine, taste, and season.
Roll the dough out on a floured surface, as thin as possible.
To make a parcel, cut out a circle, put a dollop of filling on top, and pleat the dough over it. You can see how to do this here.
Once you’ve made the pasta, bring a pot of well salted water to the boil.
Add the pasta to the water and cook for about 5 minutes, or until the pasta is cooked through. The speed they cook at will depend on the thickness of the dough.
Drain gently or remove using a spider.
Serve with warmed sauce or butter.
