These Butternut Squash Ravioli with Sage Brown Butter are satisfying, decadent and full of simple but beautiful flavors. You could make this even easier by using wonton wrappers or pre-made fresh pasta dough sheets, but why not take just a little extra time to put together the fresh pasta yourself? I promise it’s not too hard, and the end result is definitely worth it.
This was one of the starters in my New Year’s Eve dinner party, you can read some of my dinner party tips here and check out another starter and dessert I made for the meal as well.
Basic Pasta Dough
This is half of a standard recipe, which I find makes about 20 2" raviolis, or enough pasta of another shape, to serve 4 as an appetizer/starter or 2 as a main course
Ingredients
- 1 c all purpose flour
- 1 large egg beaten
- 1/2 tsp salt
- up to 4 tbsp cold water
Instructions
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Place the flour in a bowl and make a well in the middle. Add the beaten egg into the well, and using a fork, start to pull some of the flour around the edges of the well into the center in a circular motion. Keep mixing until the dough starts to come together, then ditch the fork and switch to your hands as you add cold water by the teaspoon as needed to help the flour incorporate. At this point you can turn it out of the bowl and onto a floured surface to finish coming together and kneading. When I made my dough, the temperature outside was hovering around 0 degrees and it was cold and dry inside my house, so I required almost a full quarter cup of water in order to get the dough to come together into a decent ball. You’ll know it looks right when it’s stopped looking ‘shaggy.’
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Knead the dough for a few minutes to start developing the gluten, until you can form it into a nice smooth ball, about 3-5 minutes.
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Rest the dough for at least a half hour at room temperature, or if longer than that, in the fridge up to overnight, wrapped in plastic wrap. If chilled, make sure to bring to room temperature before rolling.
Recipe Notes
Time just includes active time for making the dough; assume at least 30 minutes to rest before rolling.
Butternut Squash Ravioli with Sage Brown Butter
Here, the simple ingredients are the star: butternut squash, browned butter, hints of nutmeg and sage.
Ingredients
- 1 c butternut squash puree I used half a can of puree, but feel free to use frozen or make your own from steamed or roasted squash
- 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 recipe Basic Pasta Dough
- 4 tbsp butter
- 1 tbsp fresh sage chopped or done in chiffonade
- 1 pinch flaky sea salt
Instructions
Make the filling
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This can be done while the pasta is resting. Add the butternut squash puree in one layer to a dry pan and place over medium-low heat. The goal of this step is to evaporate some of the moisture and concentrate the flavor of the puree, which will also cause it to darken slightly; this should take about 10 minutes, with stirring every so often with a spatula. Turn off the heat, add the nutmeg and salt, and stir to combine.
Prepare the dough and assemble the raviolis
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Cut your ball of rested pasta dough in half, and flatten each half of the dough into a rectangular shape until you can feed it into the first (widest) setting on your pasta maker. Feed the dough into the pasta maker twice at each setting. Get to at least setting number 5 out of 7, doing one half of the pasta dough all the way through to forming raviolis, then the other half of the pasta dough (to prevent it drying out).
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If you have a ravioli mold, lay out a sheet of pasta onto the floured mold, fill each ravioli with a teaspoon of the filling, lay out another sheet on top and use the roller to seal the raviolis. If you don’t have a mold, just lay out the sheet on a flat surface, spoon teaspoons of filling 2 inches apart, then top with another sheet on top and use a fork to seal the edges, cutting the raviolis apart.
Bring the dish all together
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Bring a medium pot of water to a boil, then add the raviolis, stirring the water to make sure they don’t stick on the bottom or to each other. Raviolis will take about 3 minutes (4 minutes from frozen), and should float when done.
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While the water is coming to a boil, melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat, and once it’s melted, reduce the heat to low, swirling the pan occasionally to prevent burning, cooking the butter until it’s deep brown and smells nutty, about 3 minutes.
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Once the raviolis are done, use a spider or slotted spoon to transfer them from the boiling water into the pan with the brown butter. Crank the heat back up to medium and add the fresh sage; cook for just a minute or two, enough for the raviolis to baste in some of the brown butter and get a bit crispy on the bottom. Sprinkle with a pinch of flaky sea salt and serve immediately.