Roasted Pumpkin Sticks with Chili and Rosemary

Ingredients

• 4 red bell peppers
• 100 ml olive oil
• 4 chilies
• 2 Garlic cloves
• 2 sprigs Rosemary
• 12 dried tomatoes
• 1 tsp ground pepper (preferably Sichuan pepper)
• Sea salt
• 1 kg pumpkin flesh (cut into sticks)
• 1 Egg white
• 4 tbsp pumpkin seeds
• 250 g Buffalo Mozzarella
• 2 tsp pumpkin seed oil

Instructions

1. 1.

   Wash, trim, halve, deseed, remove the white skin and quarter the bell peppers. Place them skin-side up on a baking sheet, lightly brush with oil, and bake under the grill at 270°C until the skins blister.

2. 2.

   Remove the skins and roughly chop the flesh, adding it to a bowl with the remaining oil except for 2 tbsp. Wash the chilies, cut lengthwise, deseed, remove the white lining and dice finely; add them to the peppers. Roughly chop the tomatoes and add them as well. Peel the garlic cloves, squeeze into the mixture, and strip needles from one rosemary sprig. Blend everything together, seasoning with pepper and sea salt.

3. 3.

   Arrange the pumpkin sticks side by side in a baking dish, brush with the paste, and top with a rosemary sprig.

4. 4.

   Cut a piece of parchment paper 3–4 cm larger than the baking dish, cover the pumpkin sticks, whisk the egg white and brush it onto the parchment. Let it set slightly, then press the parchment firmly against the sticks.

5. 5.

   Bake in a preheated oven at 180°C fan-forced for about 20 minutes. Leave for an additional 5 minutes, then remove the paper. While the pumpkin cooks, toast the seeds in a dry pan, tear the mozzarella into small pieces and mix with remaining olive oil; sprinkle over the sticks. Mix the seeds with pumpkin seed oil and scatter on top. Serve hot.