🎃 Soft Pumpkin Sformato (from the burger mix)
A soft, quick, 100% plant-based pumpkin sformato that uses the pumpkin burger mix as its base.
Soft Pumpkin Sformato (from the burger mix)
This sformato comes from the same mix as the moulded pumpkin burgers/balls: up to the point where the mix is ready (roasted pumpkin, cannellini, onion, carrot, spices and oil, blended) the recipe is identical. From there, instead of pressing and slicing, you take part of it, set it in a pan with a little tomato and get a soft sformato, to eat with a spoon or as a mash. It is all done by eye, no weighing: add the tomato a little at a time, about half the weight of the pumpkin mix. It turns into a vegetarian dish by adding a tasty cheese like parmesan, mozzarella, scamorza.
1. Ingredients
It is all done by eye, no weighing, so no amounts are given: you start from part of the burger mix and adjust the rest to taste (taste as you go).
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| Pumpkin mix from the moulded burgers/balls (roasted pumpkin, cannellini, onion, carrot, spices, oil) | to taste |
| Tomato passata | from half to equal the amount of pumpkin mix |
| Extra-virgin olive oil | a drizzle |
| Soy milk (or cow's milk if you like), only if the mix is too dry | to taste |
| Parmesan, mozzarella or scamorza (optional, for the vegetarian version) | to taste |
2. Method
- Make the pumpkin mix following the moulded pumpkin burgers/balls up to step 6, when the pumpkin mix is ready and blended (roasted pumpkin, potatoes or cannellini, onion, carrot, spices and oil).
- Heat a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil in a pan. Add part of the mix and a little tomato passata.
Here we have just added some pumpkin mix and a little tomato to the pan with a drizzle of oil. If the mix is too dry you can add a little soy milk (or cow's milk if you like). - Stir over medium heat and let it set and thicken. If the mix is too compact or dry, add a little soy milk (or cow's milk) to make it softer and creamier.
- When it has the texture of a soft sformato or a mash, it is ready. If you like, off the heat you can stir in grated parmesan, or add mozzarella or scamorza in small pieces for a stringy, tastier vegetarian version.
- Serve hot, with a spoon as a soft sformato or mash. For the presentation shown in the photo, use a plating ring to shape it and place some little balls of cooked pumpkin on top (with a sprinkle of herbs to taste). The hot mix will tend to settle, as in the photo; if instead you let it cool and then remove the ring, it holds its shape much better.
And here is the sformato ready and plated. In this case we used a plating ring to shape it. Since we put it in the ring while still hot, it will tend to settle a little on the plate. Conversely, if left to cool, it holds its shape better.
3. Storage
- Refrigerator: keeps 2-3 days in an airtight container; reheat in a pan with a splash of water or soy milk if it has dried out.
- Base mix: the raw burger mix keeps as described in the linked recipe, ready to use for the sformato whenever you want.
4. Technical Notes
- The cheese, how to add it: parmesan, mozzarella and scamorza behave differently. Parmesan (aged, low moisture) is best added off the heat; it gives savouriness and umami, and should be added finely grated. Mozzarella stretches and creams but releases water: better to melt and dry it in the pan, together with the tomato. Scamorza is a good compromise, stretching with less water than mozzarella (and with a smoky note if smoked), and can safely be added together with the mozzarella in the pan. The starch already present and the heat help the emulsion set.
- Aromatics: besides the paprika, rosemary and nutmeg in the base mix, sage and thyme also pair well with pumpkin; smoked paprika in particular ties in with the tomato. Start with a little and adjust.
- Plating with a ring: a hot sformato is a still-soft gel with mobile water; on cooling, the starch and pectin gels firm up (the starch retrogrades), so hot it tends to "settle" and cold it holds its shape better. For a clean shape right away, use a well-reduced, not-boiling mix, or shape it at room temperature and reheat at serving time. More binder (the cannellini part) means more hold while hot. A drizzle of oil on the inside walls of the ring makes it easier to lift off.
- Nutritional note: pumpkin's beta-carotene is absorbed much better in the presence of an unsaturated fat like extra-virgin olive oil (which helps transfer it into the absorbable fraction during digestion); roasting and blending the base mix further increase the carotenoids' bioavailability. So the oil in the mix is not just about taste.
5. Sources
- Serious Eats: roasting the pumpkin for a drier purée
- America's Test Kitchen: acid keeps legume cell walls intact
- Cheese Science Toolkit: cheese melt and stretch (moisture, fat, ageing)
- Scientific American: why cheeses melt differently
- Chemistry LibreTexts: gelatinisation and starch/pectin gels
- La Cucina Italiana: pumpkin pairings (sage, tomato and basil)
- Dissapore: spices and aromatics for pumpkin
- American Journal of Clinical Nutrition: fat increases carotenoid absorption
- GialloZafferano: pumpkin purée with a starchy binder instead of fat