Pumpkin Dumplings

Prepare the ingredients for the dish. It is better to use a fragrant pumpkin with bright orange flesh, so that the cooked dumplings will have a beautiful orange color. You can use any hard cheese, such as Russian, Dutch, or mozzarella. The finished dumplings are served in aromatic oil, for which you can use fresh rosemary, thyme, basil, or dried herbs (for example, a mixture of Italian or Provencal herbs, which contain oregano - it goes perfectly with pumpkin).

To prepare the dumplings, you will need pumpkin puree. You can make it fresh or use previously frozen. If using ready-made puree, you will need approximately 380 g. Cut the pumpkin into pieces and transfer to a baking dish or baking sheet. Bake in a preheated oven at 200 degrees for about 20-25 minutes. When the pumpkin becomes soft, it can be taken out.

Cool the pumpkin, remove the peel (it easily separates from the pulp) and transfer it to a blender.

Grind the pumpkin into a puree. If you have prepared more puree than required by the recipe, it can be frozen in advance to make pumpkin dumplings or any other dish that requires mashed pumpkin.

In a deep bowl, combine the pumpkin puree, egg, flour, salt, black pepper, nutmeg, and grated cheese. (The cheese can be grated finely, so it is barely noticeable in the dumplings, or coarsely, so it can be tasted more distinctly in the finished dish).

Knead the dough until it no longer sticks to your hands. Transfer the dough to a bowl, cover it with plastic wrap, and place it in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Lightly dust the work surface and hands with flour, roll out the chilled dough into 4 sausages with a diameter of 2-3 cm. Cut each sausage into pieces approximately 1 cm thick. For an attractive presentation, you can create grooves on the dough with a fork by lightly pressing the forks' tines onto each piece. The pumpkin dumplings can be frozen raw before cooking. To do this, line a cutting board with plastic wrap and arrange the dumplings so that they do not touch each other. Place the board in the freezer for 3-4 hours at -18 degrees Celsius. After the dumplings are frozen, remove them from the board, place them in a bag, seal it, and label it. Cook the frozen pumpkin dumplings in boiling salted water without thawing them beforehand.

Bring water to a boil, add salt and carefully drop in the dumplings. Cook on low heat for a few minutes until they float. It is not necessary to stir the dumplings frequently during cooking in order not to damage the delicate dough. Then remove the dumplings with a skimmer.

Pumpkin dumplings are served in fragrant oil. To do this, heat the butter in a frying pan, add spices (fresh or dried). There are two ways to serve: 1) you can pour the finished dumplings with this oil on a plate; 2) fry the dumplings in fragrant oil until lightly browned. The choice of how to serve the dumplings is up to you, both options are good!

If desired, you can sprinkle the finished dumplings with grated cheese and garnish with finely chopped fresh herbs.

On the second day, you can heat the dumplings in the microwave or on a skillet (since they are already in oil, there is no need to add anything extra).