Butternut Squash Ravioli
One of my favorite meals is ravioli. To be honest, I love pasta of all kinds but ravioli and other stuffed pasta steal my heart time after time. There’s something about the freedom to fill them with whatever my heart desires that I just love.
I’ve been working at a local farm this fall and its pumpkin season. We have pumpkin, squash and gourds of all shapes and sizes so I’ve been feeling inspired. With my workshop coming up, I decided to pull the pasta roller out and work through a couple recipes and techniques. After flipping through my book of recipes, I settled on this classic stand by.
Ravioli is best reserved as a project recipe. Not that you can’t crank it out on a busy weeknight but it is not as quick as other options. That is why I reserve this for a nice Sunday afternoon when I don’t have to feel rushed to get something on the table. I can have a glass of wine, roll some dough and relax to the meditative process of kneading and forming dough.
The toasted almonds in this recipe really give the dish some added depth. If you don’t have almonds on hand, walnuts or pecans would also work well. On a whim, I threw a little orange zest into the burnt butter sauce to highlight the sweetness of the squash and it was great.
Butternut Squash Ravioli
Ingredients
1 small butternut squash, halved lengthwise and seeded
1 tablespoon thyme
1 tablespoon sage
1 onion, peeled and quartered
2 garlic cloves
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup almonds, toasted
1 cup ricotta
Fresh Pasta Dough
Directions
Preheat the oven to 375
Place the squash in a casserole dish, cut side up and baste with olive oil. Sprinkle the thyme, sage and nutmeg over the squash and season with salt and pepper. Tuck the onion and garlic in and around the squash. Bake for 45 minutes or until soft and tender.
While the squash cooks, pulverize the almonds into a course meal.
Allow the squash to cool a bit, then scoop out the flesh and puree with the onion, garlic and ricotta until smooth, transfer to a bowl and fold in the almonds. Allow the filling to cool slightly then fill a piping bag.
Cut your pasta into 8 pieces and roll out until about a ¼ thick. Then run the pasta through your rolling machine until 1/16 inch thick (mine is setting #4)
Lay your pasta sheets out on a cutting board and pipe your filling on the bottom half of the sheet. The filling should be about the diameter of a quarter and ½ inch thick.
Fold the top half of the dough sheet over onto the bottom and seal by firmly pressing around the edges of the filling. Cut the ravioli using a fluted pasta cutter or a knife and transfer to a cookie sheet lightly dusted with flour or cornmeal.
Cook the ravioli in a large pot of salted water. Once the ravioli starts to float, cook another 60-90 seconds and then remove with a slotted spoon.
Serve with browned butter and Parmesan and a nice wine.
