Italian: Butternut Squash Ravioli  

Recipe by Kayla Lammy <klamm3@illinois.edu>

(makes about 54 ravioli, or 6 servings)

Ravioli comes from the Italian word “riavvolgere,” which means “to wrap.” Dating back to the 1300s, this filled pasta was traditionally served in broth. It wasn’t until the 1500s when tomatoes were introduced to Italy that serving ravioli with tomato sauce became more common. Chef Boyardee helped popularize canned ravioli in the United States beginning in 1928. With this dish, I wanted to make a ravioli utilizing seasonal produce in the midwest. Butternut squash is a hearty fall crop providing nutrients such as vitamin A and fiber to our diets. Blending the squash with aromatics like roasted garlic and red bell pepper makes for a luscious pasta sauce packed with nutrition.

 

For the sauce:

For the pasta dough:

For the filling:

Procedure:

  1. Preheat oven to 400*F.
  2. Wash dirt from squash and dry. No need to peel. Cut ends off, then cut in half lengthwise. Using a spoon scrape the seeds and “guts” from both halves of the squash. Rub oil on the inside flesh of the squash, season with salt and pepper. Place flesh-side down onto a baking sheet, you may line the baking sheet with parchment if you wish.
  3. Remove the loose, papery skin from the head of garlic, but do NOT separate into individual gloves and peel. Cut the very top of the garlic head off, exposing the tops of the individual cloves. Place the head of garlic in a foil packet and drizzle the exposed ends with olive oil. Close foil packet and put on baking sheet with squash.
  4. De-seed red bell pepper, cut into large pieces, toss with a drizzle of oil, then place on baking sheet alongside squash and garlic.
  5. Place baking sheet in oven. Roast at 400*F with squash flesh-side downs for about 25 minutes. Then, flip squash over to have the flesh-side up. Roast for an additional 15 minutes, or until squash and peppers are fork soft. Remove baking sheet from oven and let cool.
  6. While veggies are roasting, prepare ricotta filling. Remove large stems from basil and spinach and rough chop. In a medium sized mixing bowl, add ricotta, beaten egg, grated parm, chopped spinach and basil, salt, and garlic powder. Mix until well combined. Place in the fridge until ready to use.  
  7. Prepare pasta dough. Whisk flour with salt. Create a well in the flour to pour in the beaten eggs. Begin mixing with a fork or clean hands. Gradually add in water until a dough-like consistency forms. If dough seems too wet, add a little more flour. If too dry, add a little more water.
  8. Once dough has formed, begin kneading by hand for 5-10 minutes until dough becomes uniform and smooth. Cover dough ball with plastic wrap and let rest at room temperature for 10-15 minutes so the gluten can relax.
  9. While dough is relaxing, blend the pasta sauce. Scoop butternut squash flesh from the skin and place in a high powered blender. Remove garlic from its foil pack and squeeze out the now soft and buttery cloves from their skins into the blender. Add bell pepper and half and half to blender. Blend until smooth. Sauce will be slightly thick. Adjust taste with salt and pepper as needed. Note we’ll also be adding salted pasta water to thin out the sauce later. Set sauce aside.
  10. Set up pasta rolling station. Clean counter/tabletop, small bowl of flour for dusting, pasta rolling machine or rolling pin, pizza cutter or wavy pastry cutter, spatula, and flour dusted parchment lined baking sheets to transfer raviolis to. Additionally, transfer the cold ricotta filling to a piping bag or ziploc bag with the corner snipped.
  11. Unwrap dough ball and divide into 4-6 even sized balls. You will only work with one ball at a time so make sure remaining dough balls remain covered with plastic wrap so they don’t dry out.
  12. A pasta roller is recommended to get the desired thinness. Slightly flatten out one dough ball. Starting on the thickest setting, crank dough through the rollers. Turn the end thirds of the dough sheet in towards the middle, rotate the dough square 90 degrees, then roll through the same setting once more. This helps make the sheet a more uniform shape. Continue decreasing the thickness setting one-by-one, rolling the sheet through each setting 1-2 times, until dough is about 1/8th inch thick and you can see the outline of your hand underneath the dough. If dough sheet becomes to long, simply cut in half and roll each half separately. If using a rolling pin, rough out dough until described thickness is reached.
  13. If not already cut in half, cut rolled dough sheet in half. Make sure the counter/tabletop is lightly floured underneath each dough sheet. Select one of the dough sheet halves to be the bottom of the ravioli. If one half is wider than the other, I recommend using the narrower sheet as the bottom and wider sheet as the top as the top layer will have to cover the filling.
  14. Pipe a small amount of filling, about the size of a quarter in evenly spaced increments along the dough sheet, about two-fingers width apart from each other.
  15. Take other half sheet of dough and place over the top of the filling. Using your fingers press the dough around each lump of filling to remove any air. Then seal the edges of the dough on the outside perimeter with your fingers. Use a wavy pastry cutter to cut out individual raviolis. You can also use a regular pizza cutter or knife, then use a fork to create a pressed patter around each ravioli.
  16. Place individual raviolis on the flour dusted parchment.
  17. Repeat with remaining dough and filling.  
  18. Let raviolis dry out for about 30 minutes. While waiting for them to dry, prepare a large pot of salted boiling water. Salted to taste “like the sea.”
  19. Add half of the blended sauce to a large saucier pan and turn on low heat to warm.
  20. Drop half of the raviolis in boiling water and boil for about 3-5 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, drop cooked raviolis into the sauce. Residual pasta water will carry over with the ravioli to help thin out the sauce and you can add more pasta water as needed.
  21. Toss raviolis with sauce, place in a serving dish, and repeat with remaining sauce and raviolis.  
  22. Top with grated parm. Garnish with chopped basil, spinach, or parsley as desired.

Note: For a lower calorie pasta sauce, try reducing the amount of half and half added and replace with broth of choice.