Salmon, pumpkin and fetta cannelloni

I recently bought a portion of beautiful looking hot smoked salmon.  Yes it looked gorgeous in all its salmon glory.  However I have to be honest and tell you that I had an alterior motive.  You see for a long time, Mr Shady Pine has waxed lyrical about how much he despises smoked salmon.

I could never understand why anyone would dislike something as decadent and delicious as smoked salmon.  So I prodded and found out that the texture of the smoked salmon played a big part.  Texture, was also the reason why Mr Shady Pine didn't eat avocados for a long time too.

So why would I buy smoked salmon for someone who dislikes it you may well ask?  Well staring at it at the shop, two reasons struck me.  Firstly, the hot smoked salmon has a different and firmer texture compared with the regular kind.  And secondly, I've wanted to try it wrapped up in this cannelloni.  In the recesses of my mind, I also thought it was a clever way to disguise the fact that there was salmon in this dish.

So I served up this cannelloni for dinner with a green side salad.  When asked what it was, I simply replied that it was cannelloni and didn't elaborate further.  That seemed to satisfy the need to know, so I sat back and waited for the verdict.  Luckily Mr Shady Pine thought it was delicious and still didn't ask what was in it.  So you can imagine the look of surprise when I announced that he had in fact been eating smoked salmon.  When he ate the leftovers with gusto again the next night, I knew that progress had indeed been made.

Salmon, pumpkin and fetta cannelloni

Serves 4

Ingredients:

Napolitana sauce, recipe here

150g portion of hot smoked salmon, skin removed and flesh shredded

4 fresh lasagne sheets

½ butternut pumpkin, peeled and cut into 4cm chunks

70g fetta plus 30g extra for the topping, crumbled

½ cup parmesan cheese, grated



1.       Preheat oven to 180C.

2.       Cook pumpkin by either steaming or boiling it until tender.

3.       When cooked, mash the pumpkin and add S&P to taste.

4.       In a lasagne dish, place 1/3 of sauce to lightly cover the base.

5.       Cut each lasagne sheet in half width ways to create 8 smaller sheets.

6.       Take a pasta sheet and place a couple of tablespoons of mashed pumpkin along one edge.  Sprinkle some fetta on top of the pumpkin.  Spread some shredded salmon on top of the fetta and roll into cannelloni.  Repeat with the rest of the pasta sheets until all ingredients are used.

7.       Arrange the cannelloni in the baking dish.  Spread the rest of the sauce on top of the cannelloni, ensuring they are all covered with the sauce.

8.       Spread the remaining fetta and parmesan cheeses on the top.

9.       Bake for 20 minutes or until the pasta sheets are cooked through.