Pumpkin Velouté with Ricotta · Benedetta Rossi

Cut the pumpkin into wedges, scoop out the seeds and stringy centre with a spoon, then pare off the skin.

💡 Cut it into wedges FIRST and peel each one flat on the board. Trying to peel a whole round pumpkin with a knife in your hand is how people cut themselves.

Dice the flesh into cubes of about 2 cm and weigh out 500 g into a large pot.

💡 Even cubes matter more than small ones here — with only 10–15 minutes of boiling, a stray big chunk will still be firm when you blend, and firm pumpkin leaves lumps.

Pour in the 750 ml of water and put the pot over a high flame, uncovered.

Once it boils, keep it at a lively simmer for 10–15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

💡 Leave the lid OFF. Some of that water needs to evaporate — covered, you will end up with pumpkin-flavoured water rather than a velouté.

Test with a fork: the cubes should give way and squash with no resistance at all. If a fork still meets any firmness, give them another 3–4 minutes.

Turn the heat off completely and let the pot stand for a minute before you go near it with a blender.

💡 Blending a pot that is still on a live flame is a burn waiting to happen — the stick blender flings scalding purée straight up out of the pot. Off the heat, always.

Blend with a stick blender until completely smooth, keeping the blade fully under the surface and moving it slowly around the pot.

💡 Lift the blade above the surface while it is running and it will spray hot purée over you and the kitchen. Start it submerged, stop it submerged.

Add the 100 g of ricotta and blend again for another 20–30 seconds, until the colour turns a paler, creamier orange with no white streaks left.

💡 Ricotta goes in off the heat. Boil ricotta and it splits into grains and watery whey — added to a hot but no longer bubbling pot, it melts in perfectly smooth.

Season with fine salt and a few turns of black pepper, then stir it right through.

💡 Pumpkin is sweet, and sweet purées swallow salt — this will need more than you think. Add, stir, taste, repeat until the pumpkin flavour suddenly steps forward.

Check the consistency: it should coat a spoon and settle slowly, not run off like a drink. Thin it with a splash of hot water or thicken it back over low heat for a couple of minutes.

Stir in a drop of extra virgin olive oil and give it one last taste.

Ladle into shallow bowls and, if you like, scatter over a handful of toasted bread croutons just before it goes to the table.

💡 Croutons at the LAST second. Thirty seconds in the bowl and they have drunk the soup and gone soft, which defeats the entire point of putting them there.