Pumpkin Ravioli Recipe

Ingredients you’ll need to make this recipe

• Fresh pumpkin (600 grams) –  peeled, sliced and baked to creamy perfection. You can use a butternut squash or really any type of pumpkin, the important thing is to cook it until very soft and to remove any excess water. You can even use canned pumpkin puree if it isn’t pumpkin season when you decide you want to try this ravioli dish.
• Parmigiano Reggiano (150 grams) – freshly grated cheese is key to getting the right consistency for your pumpkin filling. You can substitute with grated Parmesan cheese or grated Grana Padano cheese, as desired.
• Amaretti cookies (150 grams) – you will need the small, hard amaretti cookies (as opposed to the larger, chewier version of the cookie). They will need to be crushed either by hand or by pulsing in a blender.
• Eggs (1 + 4 for the pasta) – for the filling, you need to beat the egg lightly with a fork and then remember to use only a spoonful at a time and only until your filling becomes creamy, don’t add too much or it will become runny.
• Sweet and sour preserved apples (50 g) or any kind of Italian mostarda, finely chopped. Mostarda is a hard-to-find zesty condiment made with candied fruit infused with a little mustard extract. There are different types of mostarda, ranging from whole fruit, mixed fruit and a single fruit, like quince or pear.
• Nutmeg – you can freshly grate nutmeg or use nutmeg powder, either works great.
• Sea salt – you will need coarse kosher salt to add to the salted water and also fine sea salt to flavor the recipe.
• Black pepper – freshly ground, to taste.
• All-purpose flour (400 grams) – you can use Italian “00” pasta or all-purpose flour to make your fresh pasta.
• Unsalted butter (1 stick) – to make a delicious sage butter sauce, you don’t need much. We recommend unsalted butter, but salted butter is fine too for this simple sauce.
• Fresh sage (4 leaves) – you just need a few sage leaves to create the heavenly aroma of browning butter sauce and sage. The sage can be chopped or left whole and can be eaten or removed, according to your personal preferences.

How to make pumpkin ravioli from scratch, step by step

To make the pasta:

1. On a flat surface make a mound with the flour and then create a hole in the center like a volcano.
2. Add the salt and eggs into the center of the volcano and then slowly start to mix the flour into the eggs with a fork. Mix with a fork until the eggs have been incorporated and then begin to knead the dough by hand.
3. Press and fold over and over, kneading the dough until it is smooth and uniform. You can add a little more flour if the dough is sticking to your hands, but don’t add too much.
4. When you have kneaded for about five minutes, shape into a ball and cover with plastic wrap and let it rest for 30 minutes.
5. After resting, cut the dough into 1-inch pieces. Take one and flatten it into a rectangular shape with the palm of your hand and add a little flour to both sides.
6. Using a pasta attachment on your stand mixer or a pasta machine set it to #1, or the thickest setting, and run the dough through. While still on #1, fold the dough in half and put the dough through again.
7. Add a small amount of flour to each side of the dough, change the setting to #2 and pass the dough through twice. Next change the setting to #3 and pass the dough through twice. Then pass the pasta through one time each on #4, then #5 and finally on #6. The pasta should be a long rectangle shape and very thin.
8. Add more flour to each side of your long pasta strip and set it aside. Repeat until all the pasta is ready and let it rest for a few minutes on a floured surface.
9. Take one large strip of pasta and lay it out flat. Put a heaping teaspoon of pumpkin egg mixture (see instructions below to create the filling) every 3 inches or so. Brush water around the edges of the pasta and between the filling and close the pasta on itself by folding in half lengthwise.
10. Cut the ravioli with a sharp knife (or ravioli cutter) to separate them from each other and gently press the sides of each to seal each individual ravioli completely. Place all the ravioli on a parchment paper and cover with a tea towel until ready to cook.
11. Bring a pot of water to boil and add coarse salt. Add the homemade ravioli to the boiling water to cook for several minutes, until they float, and then remove them with a hand-held pasta strainer or slotted spoon, gently transferring them directly to the saucepan as described below and then gently tossing them with the sauce.

1. First remove the pumpkin rind, cut into strips and bake it in the oven for 30-40 minutes at 200 C, or until very soft.
2. Mash the cooked pumpkin with a fork or masher until very smooth. Then add the minced preserved fruit, the crushed Amaretti cookies, a pinch of nutmeg and the Parmesan cheese to the mixture and stir.
3. Now add the beaten egg one small spoonful at a time, mixing well after each spoonful. Only add enough egg until the filling is soft and creamy and then stop. The mixture should be creamy, but not watery, and fairly stiff.

For the butter sauce:

1. Using a medium saucepan or skillet, melt the butter over medium heat and then add the sage leaves and simmer for 4 minutes, stirring occasionally. You want brown butter sauce, so make sure it turns a golden brown.
2. Now add a few tablespoons of the pasta water and stir, adding salt and pepper to taste.
3. Add the cooked ravioli immediately after cooking and gently stir to coat them with the butter sauce.
4. Serve immediately while still hot with a sprinkling of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese.

Expert tips

While some recipes call for boiling the pumpkin to cook it for the filling, we highly recommend baking the pumpkin instead. Boiling the pumpkin will produce a filling that is too watery and runny, making the ravioli hard to seal and impossible to cook without them falling apart. By baking the pumpkin, most of the water evaporates and you also get a more intense, sweeter flavor than you would through boiling it.

Variations

There are a few variations you can make of pumpkin ravioli. One of our favorites is using fresh ricotta cheese that has been drained very well and adding it to the pumpkin mixture for an even creamier taste.

Another variation is to skip the butter sauce and just add a drizzling of extra virgin olive oil and a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese on top of the cooked pasta and serving right away.

Some recipes call for wonton wrappers instead of making the pasta from scratch. While they won’t taste like fresh homemade pasta, they are an alternative to consider if you are squeezed for time.