It's officially Fall! My favorite cooking and baking season!
I love the warm spices, and hearty vegetables autumn gives us. One of my favorite ingredients to cook with is squash, whether it's pumpkin, butternut, or acorn; the abundance of varieties gives me so much to work with. I wanted to open this season with my absolute favorite pasta, Butternut Squash Ravioli.
I chose to cook with butternut squash rather than pumpkin, because I enjoy the neutral flavor butternut squash has, as opposed to the somehow strong flavor of the pumpkin. It allows me to control the flavor a bit more.
I used the food processor to make the pasta, which I'm sure every Italian is fainting over at this very moment, but this process worked brilliantly! Not only was it quicker, but less messy!
If a food processor is not up to your alley or if you don't have one, my Fresh Pasta Dough recipe works perfectly for ravioli as well.
The filling is made with butternut squash, brown sugar, nutmeg, salt, and pepper - working beautifully together. The brown sugar brings out the natural sweetness of the squash, while the salt and pepper help balance those flavors, and a hint of nutmeg warms it all up!
Making the ravioli may be intimidating, but I promise you it's a lot easier than you think and tons of fun! A traditional ravioli is usually square, but today we are throwing the rule books out the window and making round ravioli.
I used a teaspoon to help to measure the filling, but you can use even a piping bag to ensure an even dollop.
Time to shape the ravioli! During this step, you can be creative, if you don't have a ravioli cutter, you may use a cup and crimp the edges with a fork, or a cookie-cutter works just as well.
Making pasta from scratch if often very intimidating, making people too afraid to try it, but I hope this recipe allows you to face your fears!
Remember, cooking is supposed to be fun, and even though you may not get it perfect the first time around, practice makes it perfect!
Ingredients
Food Processor Pasta Dough
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
Butternut Squash Filling
1 lb butternut squash
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon brown sugar
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
salt and pepper
Rosemary Brown Butter Sauce
2 -3 sprigs of rosemary
1 stick of salted butter
2 cloves garlic, minced or grated
Salt and pepper
1/4 cup white wine
Recipe
Ravioli Filling
Preheat your oven to 400° F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Place butternut squash on a pan, cut sides up. Prick the squash, drizzle with olive oil and generously season with salt and pepper. Roast for 35 to 45 minutes, or until soft. Allow to cool.
Scoop out the flesh of the squash into the bowl of a food processor. Add egg, brown sugar, nutmeg, and salt & pepper, purée until smooth. Place the filling in a bowl, cover, and set aside.
Pasta
In a clean food processor, add flour and salt, pulse a few times to combine. In a separate bowl, lightly beat eggs. Drizzle the eggs in a food processor, pulse until mixture comes together. * If the dough is too dry, drizzle in some water and pulse again, OR, if the mix is too wet, add some flour.
Turn the pasta dough onto a lightly floured work surface and knead the dough into a smooth ball. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and rest for 30 minutes.
Secure a pasta machine to the edge of a long countertop. Using a bench scraper, cut the dough into four pieces. Keep the extra dough covered in plastic wrap while working with one piece. With a rolling pin, roll a piece of dough into a rough rectangle so that it will fit inside the widest setting of the pasta machine. Roll the dough through the machine, catching it with one hand as you roll with the other. Take the dough and tri-fold it like a letter. Turn the dough, so one open end faces the machine and roll it through on the widest setting again. Fold, turn, and roll once more on the widest setting.
Continue rolling the pasta through the machine without folding, adjusting the rollers to a smaller setting each time, until the desired thickness is reached.
Place a 12-by-4 ½ - 5-inch sheet of pasta on a lightly floured surface with the longest edge facing you. Fold the dough in half lengthwise, press gently to make a crease, and then unfold the dough.
Place about two teaspoons of the butternut squash filling 2 inches along the furthest edge of the pasta, about 1 1/2 inches in from the edge. Dip a finger in a small bowl of water and drag your finger around each mound of filling to moisten the pasta.
Fold the front edge of the dough over the mounds. Starting in the center, gently press and shape the dough around each mound, working out to the sides. To ensure that the pasta cooks evenly, make sure the air is pressed out, and the filling is secured neatly in a circular mound in the pasta.
Use a 2-inch round pastry cutter to cut the ravioli into circles, Or, crimp edges with the tines of a fork. Transfer the ravioli to a lightly floured sheet pan with semolina flour. Repeat with the remaining dough to make about 40 raviolis.
Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan, brown the butter, stirring often until the butter is golden and toasted. Add the rosemary and garlic and cook 30 seconds to a minute or until fragrant. Pour in the wine, season with salt and pepper and bring to a simmer.
Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Boil the ravioli in batches for 2-3 minutes or until they float. Drain. Be gentle when working with the ravioli as they are delicate.
Add the drained ravioli to the brown butter and toss to coat.
Serve immediately.
* Freeze leftover raviolis by placing them in a single layer on a baking sheet. Once they are frozen, transfer them to an airtight freezer-safe bag or container. Cook them straight from the freezer.