Agnolotti with roasted pumpkin and pine nuts

For the filling:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Split the pumpkin in half, scrape the sides out, cut ends down and place on oiled baking sheet.

3. Bake pumpkin for 1 hour or until the flesh is soft. Scoop out the pumpkin flesh and measure ¾ cup and reserve the rest.

4. Brown butter in a small sauce pan with sage, allowing the sage to fry in butter. Pour the butter and the sage over the pumpkin.

5. Transfer pumpkin to a bowl and cool. Add ricotta, freshly grated nutmeg, and salt and pepper to taste. Mix in Vermont maple syrup last.

For the pasta dough:

1. To make the pasta sheets: Place the flour in the center of a work surface and make a well. Mix the eggs, oil and salt. Pour into the center of the flour well.

2. Fold the flour into the eggs and knead into a ball. Add 1 tablespoon of cold water if the dough seems too dry. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate the dough for at least 4 hours before rolling out.

3. Using a pasta machine, roll out the pasta on the thinnest setting and cut into 6 sheets, each about 16 inches long each. Do not roll out too many sheets at a time or the dough will begin to dry and will be difficult to handle. Keep the sheets under a damp cloth so that they don’t dry out.

4. To make agnolotti: Lay one pasta sheet on a clean work surface and cut into 3x4-inch sheets. Add teaspoon of filling and top with another 3x4-inch sheet. With your fingertips, gently press down around the teaspoons of filling and along the sides of the pasta sheets to seal the agnolotti.

For the sauce:

1. Heat saute pan over medium to high heat. Add butter while moving pan in circular manner. When butter is melted completely, add pine nuts and begin to saute. When butter begins to turn light brown, add sage leaves, season with salt and pepper and shut off heat.

2. Bring 1 large pot of water to a boil. Add in all agnolotti at once. Agnolotti will come to surface, remove with hand strainer and add directly to brown butter. Stir pasta carefully in butter until it's well coated. Serve on warm plates and spoon 2 tablespoons of sauce with pine nuts over each serving.