Butternut Squash Ravioli

A popular and perfect combination for ravioli is butternut squash. Roasted beforehand and left to cool it makes the perfect ravioli filling. In this recipe I have combined the squash with some ricotta for a smoother, creamier finish but you can omit this if you want to, and just use parmesan or a hard cheese.

I love serving this up with a sage butter, drizzled on top to coat each ravioli and scattered with grated parmesan. For a finishing touch, hold back a couple of spoonfuls of the squash to heat through with the butter and serve scattered on top.

If you haven’t made pasta before this recipe walks you through each step, from making the dough to rolling and creating your ravioli shapes.

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Butternut Squash and Ricotta Ravioli

Servings: 2

Recipe by: Cooking & Carafes

Prep time: 1 H & 30 MCooking time: 10 MinInactive time: 30 MinTotal time: 2 H & 10 M

A popular and perfect combination for ravioli is butternut squash.

Ingredients

Pasta Dough

• 200g pasta flour
• 2 large eggs

Butternut Squash and Ricotta filling

• 1 Butternut squash, diced and roasted
• 150g soft ricotta
• 25g grated parmesan cheese
• Freshly grated nutmeg
• Salt and pepper

Sage Butter

• 50g salted butter
• 6 – 10 Sage leaves

Instructions

For the filling

1. Roast your butternut squash ahead of time so it has time to cool. Dice it into 1cm cubed piece, drizzle with olive oil, season with salt and pepper and any freshly chopped herbs such as sage or rosemary. Roast for 35 - 40 minutes in a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees. 
2. Once it has cooled, gently mash your squash using a fork or masher.
3. Then in a bowl add a large spoonful of ricotta and mix with the squash. Depending on the size of your butternut squash you may want to add more ricotta. You want get a smooth texture.
4. Next add the grated parmesan and combine.
5. Season the mixture with salt, pepper and freshly grated nutmeg to taste. You may also want to add a sprinkling of chilli flakes for a little heat.

For the pasta dough

1. The ratio of 100g to each egg always works well, so you can alter as required.
2. I like to use a big wooden board for my pasta dough, but you can use your work surface, a large plate or a bowl, whatever you’re comfortable with.
3. Empty your flour on to the board and make a well in the centre of the flour.
4. Crack the eggs into the well.
5. Using a fork gradually mix the egg and slowly introduce the flour (try to not break the wall if using a board).
6. It will start to form a light batter like mix, keep bringing the flour into the mix until it’s formed enough to use your hands to bring it together. Don’t worry If you haven’t used all the flour.
7. Using your hands, combine it together and using the heel of your palm begin to knead it to form a dough.
8. Push the dough away from you, fold back on itself and rotate 90 degrees and continue this method for 5-10 minutes until you get a nice smooth dough, that springs back when you touch it.
9. Wrap it in BeeBee wrap, or some cling film and leave to rest for about 20-30 minutes.
10. If you’re going to leave it any longer I recommend resting it in the fridge (up to 24 hours)

Make your ravioli

1. If you have a pasta machine this is by far the easiest and quickest way to roll pasta sheets, otherwise a rolling pin will do the job perfectly!
2. Halve the pasta dough to make it easier. If you’re using a machine I usually recommend to start by going to setting 6, as you get more confident you can make your dough thinner. If you’re hand rolling your dough, keep rolling until you have thin sheet of pasta, like a lasagne sheet, about 3mm thick
3. Once your pasta dough is rolled and ready cut two sheets so they’re roughly the same size in length.
4. On one piece, start to place evenly spaced teaspoons of filling along the sheet, use a fork’s width to measure between them.
5. Place the other piece of dough over the top and gently push round the filling pushing out any air as you go. You can also fold the pasta dough over the filling if you find this easier.
6. If you have a stamp use it to cut the raviolis. If these don’t cut through the dough use a pasta cutter wheel to define the shapes and edges and cut them into shape. Alternatively use a knife to cut into squares, and if needed crimp the edges with a fork to seal them.
7. Place on a well floured baking tray, plate or straight on to a tea towel.
8. To cook the ravioli bring a pan of water to the boil, add some salt and add the ravioli to the pan, let cook for approximately 3-5 minutes depending on how thick your dough was.
9. While that’s cooking, melt the butter in a pan and add the sage leaves to flavour.
10. Once the ravioli is cooked, add it to the pan with the butter to coat the ravioli. Serve, drizzle in the remaining butter and grate some parmesan on top.

Nutrition Facts

Calories

646.25

Fat (grams)

15.34

Sat. Fat (grams)

8.63

Carbs (grams)

104.98

Fibre (grams)

10.32

Net carbs

94.66

Sugar (grams)

4.99

Protein (grams)

23.55

Sodium (milligrams)

622.06

Cholesterol (grams)

41.52

https://www.cookingandcarafes.co.uk/recipes/butternut-squash-ravioli

ravioli, butternut squash ravioli, pasta making, homemade ravioli

Pasta

Italian

Did you make this recipe?

Don't forget to tag @cookingcarafes #cookingandcarafes

Created using The Recipes Generator

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Taste of Christmas Tagliatelle

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Ingredients

• 1/2 red onion, finely sliced
• 75g chestnut mushrooms (sliced)
• 75g dolce latte cheese cut roughly into pieces
• 150g - 175g tagliatelle (homemade tagliatelle tastes best!)
• 4 slices of pancetta
• 2 tbsps creme fraiche
• 100ml white wine (optional)
• 1 tsp cranberry sauce
• 2 tbsp breadcrumbs
• Extra virgin olive oil

Method

Pancetta and breadcrumbs If you want to save on washing up I recommend doing this at the start of the dish so you can use the same pan (drain any fat after cooking the pancetta), alternatively use a second frying pan and cook alongside the sauce, and pasta.

1. Add a splash of olive oil in a pan and on a high heat, add the breadcrumbs and cook for 2 minutes until toasted (you can also add finely chopped rosemary or thyme). Put to one side in a small bowl.
2. Fry the pancetta until crispy and place to one side on a plate.

Tagliatelle and sauce

1. Bring a pan of water to the boil for the pasta (you can use dried, fresh or homemade!)
2. Add 2 tbsps of olive oil to a pan on a low heat, add the finely sliced red onions and cook, gently moving around the pan for about 5 minutes, until soft.
3. Add the mushrooms. Once they start to soften add the white wine (or a splash of pasta water) and allow to simmer for 2 minutes.
4. On a low heat, add the dolce latte and creme fraiche to the pan, and stir to create a creamy sauce.
5. Allow the sauce to gently simmer.
6. While preparing the sauce, cook your pasta until al dente.
7. Add 1 tsp of cranberry to the sauce and stir in. If you can get a cranberry sauce with orange, and/or port added to it, it will add that extra festive twist (Tracklements and Stokes do ones like these)
8. Drain your pasta and add to the pan with the sauce, don’t worry if there is a little bit of pasta water still with the pasta, this will help make the sauce even creamer and cling to the pasta.
9. Stir the pasta into the sauce, and plate up.
10. Top with the pancetta and breadcrumbs for a delicious finishing touch.

Beetroot Tagliatelle

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I combined the egg with a tablespoon of beetroot powder and the colour and the smell was already looking good. Once added to the pasta flour initially the colour starts to dull, and you may need to add a little water but once you start kneading the colour really starts to come through and you left with a beautiful, dark, rich, purply red dough.

Here’s how I made it.

Beetroot powder and egg combined

Beetroot Tagliatelle

• Prep time: 30 – 40 minutes

Servings: 1 person (multiply for each person)

Ingredients:

• 1 large egg
• 1 tbsp of Buy Whole Foods Online Beetroot Powder
• 100g pasta flour / 00 flour

Instructions:

1. Blend the egg and beetroot powder together for about 30 seconds in a food processer.
2. Create a well in the middle of your pasta flour on a wooden board (or on a plate/bowl), pour the egg mixture into the middle of the pasta flour.
3. Combine the egg and pasta flour as you would usually for pasta dough. It will appear a little dryer than usual, I rinsed the pot I had the egg mixture in with a very small amount of water and added this to my mixture.
4. Start to combine with your hands and see if you think you need to add a little more water, I found the moisture began to come through as I started to bring it together. Don’t worry if it doesn’t pick up all the flour, you can just clear that to one side before you start to knead the dough.
5. Knead the dough for 5 – 10 minutes until you have a smooth and springy texture to your dough and the colour is a deep purple.
6. Wrap in a beeswax wrap (or cling film) and leave to rest at room temperature for 20 minutes.
7. Then flatten your pasta dough with the palm of your hand into a rectangular shape ready to go through your pasta machine. You may need to dust with flour as it will be a little moist and keep dusting between rolls if it’s too ‘wet’. Roll the pasta out to setting 6 on your pasta machine. I ran through 1 and 2 a couple of times for mine to get a nice even dough.
8. Lightly dust with flour on both sides and then roll through the tagliatelle cutter on your machine or fold the pasta so you can cut with a knife into strands.
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I’ll be sharing a sauce paired with this sauce soon so keep an eye on the blog.

If you try making this beautiful beetroot pasta don’t forget to tag @CookingCarafes and @buywholefoodsonline so we can see your creations!

You can buy the Beetroot Powder at Buy Whole Foods Online who gifted me this powder to create some recipes with.

I also used some of my tagliatelle to laminate pasta and make this gorgeous Garganelli 😍If you want to try making your own Garganelli follow my recipe.

Try using coloured pasta to create beautiful striped Garganelli shapes

Ragù filled Tortellini

This tortellini filled with a rich, slow cooked, flavoursome ragù are perfect for wintery days and nights and they make a fun activity for a rainy weekend too!

Tortellini

Ingredients

• 1 onion, finely chopped

• 1 celery stick, finely chopped

• 1 large carrot, finely chopped

• 500g beef mince

• 1 tsp fresh rosemary, finely chopped

• Extra Virgin Olive oil

• Salt and pepper

• 1 tbsp tomato puree

• 100ml red wine

• 2 x 400g plum tomatoes / finely chopped tinned tomatoes

Method

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2. Add the finely chopped onion, celery and carrot to the olive oil and cook on a low heat. Add a pinch of salt, stir and then put the lid loosely on to allow the soffritto (the mix of onion, celery and carrot) to cook. Stir occasionally and ensure it doesn’t stick to the bottom or burn. Cook for about ten minutes until it is soft but not burnt.

3. Add the rosemary and the mince and season with pepper and stir, increase the heat a little and allow the meat to brown.

4. Stir in the tbsp of tomato puree.

5. Then add the wine and on a medium heat, allow this to simmer with the meat.

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8. If you have a leftover parmesan rind I suggest adding towards the end when the sauce is looking a nice rich, thick consistency.

You want the sauce to be a nice thick consistency as you don’t want it to watery, as it won’t work when you fill the pasta. However, the key is you have to put the ragù into the fridge to allow to cool before filling your pasta. Ideally leave to cool over night, or at least three hours before filling the pasta.

This ragù will make more than enough to fill countless tortellini, I suggest you use what you need for your tortellini and freeze the remaining ragù for another day.

For the pasta (for two people)

• 200g pasta flour

• 2 eggs

Ratio of 1 egg to 100g flour per person

1. Create a well in in the flour on your wooden board

2. Crack the eggs into the middle

3. Lightly whisk the egg in the middle slowly combining the flour until it starts to form a sticky dough

4. Then get your hands stuck in and bring it together. Knead lightly for 5-10 minutes until you have a springy dough

5. Leave to rest for half an hour

6. When you’re ready roll, your pasta into thin sheets to about number 6 or 7 on your pasta machine

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8. Then fold the pasta over the filling into a diamond.

9. Slowly seal the pasta around the filling so you have a triangle.

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I love making homemade pasta, it's so rewarding, as well as being therapeutic, but it also tastes incredible. I use dried pasta all the time; cooked right and paired with the right sauce it can taste delicious too but try homemade and taste the difference!

First inspired by Carmela Sereno of Carmela's Kitchen I ordered myself a garganelli board (now available on the shop!) and the rest is history. Carmela's are stunning, she combines multiple pasta to make colourful rainbow pasta shapes and the results are soooooo Instagram worthy. Check them out @carmelaskitchen

Garganelli pasta

Ingredients:

• Make a pasta dough using 00 flour and eggs, 1 egg to every 100g 00 pasta (1 egg / 100g per person)

Instructions:

1. Roll your pasta dough out to 6 or 7 on a pasta making machine.
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Garganelli is a great pasta for ragùs, as it catches all the sauce on the outside and inside.

Sign up to my newsletter to be the first to hear about my Pasta Making Workshops where you can learn to make fresh pasta like this for yourself, or check out my latest events.

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This simple pasta dough recipe is perfect for using for a range of pasta, such as pappardelle, lasagne, ravioli and pasta shapes like farfalle or tortellini.

Whether you have a pasta making machine, or you want to roll out your own fresh pasta with a rolling pin, this is a great ratio to make perfect pasta every time.

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Ingredients:

• 100g 00 pasta flour
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Instructions:

1. Place the pasta flour on a wooden board and create a well in the middle, like a volcano. Make sure you don;t build the sides too high otherwise your egg will overflow!
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