My sister, who also likes making her own pasta, has asked me to come up with four different ravioli flavours with sauce for a dinner she wants to have with friends. She requested two vegetarian and two carnivorous, all (or most) using the same pasta, and using only a couple of sauces. Leaving things a bit late, as sometimes happens, I played around with ideas, and then finally started making these this week. She is having people over this weekend. This means making (and eating) ravioli four days in a row. Thankfully, Little Bit is a great helper... sometimes. Otherwise, he just stands on a chair asking for "pissy", ie a piece of dough. If I don't give it to him fast enough, he gets his fingers into the dough I've already passed through the rollers and steals some. At least he enjoys being involved!
Anyway, this is variation one of the ravioli that my sister asked for.
Ingredients:
For the pasta:
2 - 2 1/2 c flour
3 eggs
1/4 c roast pumpkin
Pepper
For the Filling:
2 c pumpkin (approx 3/4 of a small pumpkin), sliced into wedges
2 tbsp olive oil
2-3 tbsp sage
Salt and pepper to taste
For the Sauce:
3 tbsp butter
1 tbsp flour
2 c milk
1 c mushrooms, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
1) Place pumpkin wedges in an oven-proof dish and roast at 180°C for 20-30 minutes until soft.
2) Meanwhile, place flour in a large mixing bowl. Grind in pepper. Make a well in the flour and crack in the eggs. Add the pumpkin purée and mix the flour into the pumpkin and eggs gradually with a fork, forming a soft, elastic dough.
3) Remove the pumpkin from the oven and remove the skin. Place flesh in a bowl and mix in the sage and salt and pepper.
4) Pass fist-sized pieces of dough through progressively higher settings on a pasta maker until thin. Use a ravioli mould to make hollows in the sheet of pasta and place 1/2 tsp of filling in each. Place a second pasta sheet over the top, seal and cut. (Alternatively use a ravioli cutter).
5) Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil. In the meantime make a roux. Melt 1 tbsp butter in a saucepan. Stir in flour, and then add milk bit by bit, stirring well. Sauté mushrooms in the remaining 2 tbsp butter and add to the sauce. Salt and pepper to taste.
6) Boil ravioli in batches for 4-5 minutes at most. Fresh pasta doesn't take long! Drain and serve with some sauce.
We all really enjoyed this. The mushrooms definitely contributed, but the dish would also work well with plain cream sauce. A lemon sauce (like in variation 2, coming soon), would also work well. Otherwise, no tweaks, no complaints. We all loved the combinations of flavours, with the sweetness from the pumpkin and the creamy sauce and the savouriness of the sage. Night one was a success!
In case you want to try making these but don't have a pasta machine , pasta tree or ravioli cutter, click on the links to get one of your own! As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
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