Acorn Squash Manchego Ravioli

One of the first dishes that I made for Michael while I was trying to win over his heart was a ravioli dish. It was the first time I had ever handmade pasta, and as an Italian citizen, it was a little late in life to be trying for the first time! My ravioli is one of his favorite things for me to make, and whenever he wants a home cooked meal, that is what he requests. So it is only fair that in one of my favorite months, we would do a dish which we are solely responsible for one part of the dish. I was responsible for the actual pasta dough, Michael was responsible for the filling, and we both decided upon the sauce.

My dough is a simple and delicious egg noodle dough, and what Michael created as the filling warms my heart just thinking of it; acorn squash with Manchego cheese. To top it all off, it is covered in brown butter and sage, with sprinkles of Manchego. This ravioli oozes with deliciousness and brings home those heartwarming flavors of fall, not to mention it is a dish completely made with love.

*If you have a pasta roller, use it, we don’t and had to rely on Michael’s sexy man strength to roll it out. You want the dough to be as even as possible, and pretty thin, but not so thin it might rip, about 1/8th  of an inch thick.

Ingredients: serves 4 takes about an hour and half

Filling:
1 medium to large acorn squash
2 tbsp. olive oil
Salt and pepper
½ cup Manchego cheese

Dough:
2 cups all-purpose flour
4 eggs
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. salt

Sauce:
4 tbsp. unsalted butter
8 fresh sage leaves

 

To make this we start by making the filling, then making the dough, then filling the dough and cooking. Also a tip is to roll out sections at a time of dough so that they don’t dry out while you are filling it.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees, cut the squash in half from tip to stem, and hollow out the seeds. Use olive oil to brush on the squash and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Use a baking tray and lay the squash cut side down, and fill with half an inch of water. Place in oven and bake for 30 minutes, or until it is soft to the touch and most all the water has evaporated.  Once done scoop the insides out and blend in a blender, you won’t need to add anything else because the acorn squash is so yummy.

To make pasta dough we use food processor. Mix flour and salt together, then add oil, then egg. You want to blend until pea like shapes are formed. If the dough is too dry you can add another Tbsp. of oil or another egg, if it is too wet, add a Tbsp. of flour, but not much because the dough will harden up. Now place in cling wrap and in the refrigerator to set for about 15 minutes.  Once it sets, lightly cover a flat surface with flour and cover your rolling pin with flour, (if you are one of the lucky insert using pasta roller here). Roll out as evenly as possible your pasta to about an 1/8^th of an inch thick. Cut the ravioli into 4 inch wide strips, and then into 4 inch wide triangles, basically so you can fold in half and fill.

Next grate about ½ a cup of Manchego cheese, and in a bowl whisk the 4^th egg. Lay out a triangle, and using a spoon place a small dollop about 1 tsp. of the acorn squash puree in the middle, and top with a pinch of grated cheese. Using your finger coat the edges of the ravioli with the egg and fold the triangle in half and squeeze the edges together and seal, making sure that nothing will pop out when you boil.

Fill a pot of water to boil, add salt to help with the boiling process. Place ravioli in boiling water, and once you place them in, it is time to make your sauce. It does not take long for the ravioli to cook because the pasta is not dried, which is why you want to start the sauce now. In a sauce pan melt your butter on a medium heat. Once the butter starts to turn a brown color, add your sage leaves and let cook for another couple of minutes, not too long though you don’t want to burn your butter. By now the ravioli is most likely done. The way to tell if the ravioli is ready is they will pop up and float to the surface, you can stir them so they aren’t stuck to the bottom. Once they float, cook them another 2 minutes. Now pull raviolis out of water, place in sauce pan, and cook in butter flipping around making sure all the raviolis are coated and yummy!

This ravioli is so damned scrumptious, this is another reason Michael and I are meant for each other, he brings the filling to my dough! Haha, enjoy this fantastic fall ravioli.