Butternut Squash Ravioli with Sage Brown Butter

I should have wiped the edges of the bowl before taking the picture.

I made these for Thanksgiving. I put them in the easy, but time consuming category. They are well worth the time though. Yum yum yum!

Ingredients
For pasta:
About 6 eggs
About 1/4 of a 5 lb bag of flour

For filling:
1 small to medium butternut squash (less than or equal to 2 lbs)
a bunch of fresh sage
8 cloves of garlic
a few tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper
pine nuts
grated parmesan cheese


Put flour in a huge bowl or on rolling mat on the counter. Make a well in center. Crack in eggs. Beat eggs with a fork, then blend into flour until too stiff to use fork. Then knead with hands until well mixed. Dough should be soft but not sticky (or crumbly). If too sticky, add more flour. If too crumbly add another egg, or if you don't need that much liquid, add a little water. Form into ball, cover and put in fridge for at least an hour.

To make filling, peel squash, scoop out seeds and cut into cubes. Peel and mince or chop garlic. Toss squash with garlic and olive oil. Bake at 425 degrees for 30-40 minutes or until soft. Chop a small handful of fresh sage. Mix into squash. Salt and pepper to taste.

Cut ball of dough into 5 or 6 slices. Then comes the fun part where you get to use machinery! I use the Pasta Queen. It's essentially the same as the machine my grandmother used and taught me how to make fresh pasta with. The ravioli press I bought at Williams Sonoma.

 

Flatten slice into round disk.

 

Put through pasta machine at the widest setting, which on my machine is 1. Then put it through at 2. I was always told to put it through each setting twice. I do it the first time (setting 1) but then I put it through subsequent settings just once. I skip setting 3 altogether and go straight to 4. I'm such a rebel. Finally I put it through at setting 5. I don't do 6 because it makes the dough so thin the dough tears.

 

Lay the dough over the ravioli press.

Push the mold lightly into the dough to make the pockets.If you get a small tear or two, just cut a piece of dough and patch it. If you get a lot of tears, you should probably stop the machine one setting early.

 

Patches for small tears.

Scoop a small amount of the filling into each pocket.

Fold the dough over (or lay another piece on top if your pieces are shorter).

Pat the dough flat. Then use a rolling pin to press the dough into the ravioli, er, press. I made these at P's house. I guess most single men don't own rolling pins. He doesn't, so I used a glass. It worked just fine.

Pull the extra dough that should have been cut from the edges. Save it. You'll use all the scraps to make another disk of dough.

Turn the ravioli press upside down and carefully push out each individual ravioli.

Voila! Wait. That's the wrong language. I guess I should say pronto!

The recipe makes this many plus a dozen that wouldn't fit on the piece of tin foil.

Once you are done, leave them out on the counter for awhile to dry out. Then put them into the freezer in a large zip lock bag. You can separate the layers with wax paper. When you are ready to cook them, dump them in a pot of boiling water and cook for about 5 minutes. They cook really fast. Drain and put into serving bowl.

Take about a dozen large sage leaves and a stick of butter and put in a frying pan over low to medium heat. Shake pan every so often. Cook for about 10 minutes, or until butter turns brown and gets little specks in it. Keep cooking until sage leaves get crispy, but not burned. Break up into bits with spatula.

Toast pine nuts. Toss pine nuts, sage brown butter and a handful of grated parmesan with ravioli in a large serving bowl. Enjoy!

p.s. If someone seems really interested in what you are doing...

The evil kitteh

...be very wary about turning your back. That little stinker jumped on the counter and bit into 6 or 7 finished ravioli. She couldn't have eaten just one? No, she had to sample a half dozen. Bad kitteh!