Homemade pasta with pumpkin purée worked into the dough, filled with more pumpkin and parmesan, served in sage brown butter.
An hour and fifteen minutes. The source gives no servings; three and a half cups of flour with four eggs makes roughly a pound of pasta, which serves four to six.
Pumpkin in the dough as well as the filling
Four tablespoons into the pasta itself.
That is a small amount and it is doing two things. It tints the dough a warm orange, which looks right against the filling, and it adds a faint sweetness.
It also adds moisture, so the dough may need slightly less handling than a plain egg pasta. If it feels sticky after mixing, a dusting of flour rather than more mixing.
Twenty minutes of resting is not optional
Formed into a ball and refrigerated before rolling.
Mixing develops gluten and the dough comes out of the mixer tight and springy. Try to roll it immediately and it fights back, shrinking as fast as you stretch it.
Twenty minutes lets the gluten relax and the flour fully hydrate. The dough rolls thin without tearing and holds its shape.
Wrap it or cover it so the surface does not dry out and crack.
The filling is sweet, and that is intentional
A can of pumpkin with a cup of parmesan, a quarter cup of sugar and three warm spices.
A quarter cup of sugar in a savoury filling looks odd on paper. In practice this is a sweet-savoury dish in the northern Italian tradition, where pumpkin ravioli often carry sugar, amaretti biscuits or mostarda.
The parmesan is what keeps it balanced. A full cup against the pumpkin brings enough salt and savoury depth that the sugar reads as roundness rather than dessert.
Taste it before you fill anything. If it leans too sweet for you, more parmesan is the correction rather than less sugar.
Do not overfill
The recipe does not warn about this and it is the most common way ravioli fail.
A whole can of pumpkin makes considerably more filling than a pound of pasta can hold. Expect leftovers, and resist the temptation to use it all.
Overfilled ravioli split during cooking and the filling ends up in the water. A teaspoon or so per ravioli, with a clear border to seal.
Brown the butter, do not burn it
A stick melted with the sage, cooked over medium for about five minutes until it starts to brown.
The browning is milk solids toasting, and it turns butter nutty and deep in a way that plain melted butter is not. It is also the whole sauce, since there is nothing else in it.
The line between browned and burnt is narrow and it moves fast at the end. Watch the colour and pull it when it is amber, not dark.
The recipe offers straining if necessary, which handles any solids that went too far.
Sage goes in with the butter, not after
Two tablespoons chopped, added at the start.
Five minutes in hot butter crisps the sage and infuses its oils through the fat. Added at the end it stays raw and herbal, which is a different and less interesting result.
Sage and brown butter is one of the older pairings in Italian cooking and it suits pumpkin particularly well, its slight bitterness cutting the sweetness.
Cook the ravioli briefly
The source does not give a time. Fresh filled pasta needs three to four minutes in well salted boiling water, and they float when they are close to done.
Boil gently rather than hard. A rolling boil knocks ravioli against each other and splits the seams.
Lift them out with a slotted spoon rather than draining through a colander, which is rough on delicate pasta.
Wonton wrappers as a shortcut
Offered in the notes and it is a legitimate one.
Fill them and pinch the edges with a fork. You skip an hour of dough making and the result is thinner and more delicate, which some people prefer.
Brush the edges with water before sealing. Wonton wrappers dry out fast and will not stick otherwise.
Serving
The butter spooned over, with grated parmesan on top. <p>Nothing else is needed. This is a rich dish and a green salad afterwards is the sensible partner. ## Making ahead Formed ravioli freeze well on a floured tray, then bagged once solid. Cook from frozen, adding a minute or two. Do not thaw them; they go soft and stick together.
The dough itself keeps a day refrigerated, wrapped tightly.
Pumpkin puree, not pie filling
Plain cooked pumpkin with nothing added. Pie filling already contains sugar and spices, and using it here would push an already sweet filling considerably further.
Pumpkin Ravioli with Sage Brown Butter
Description
Fresh pumpkin ravioli with a sweet-savoury parmesan filling, served in a five minute sage brown butter sauce.
Ingredients:
Instructions
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Mix the flour, eggs, salt and 4 tablespoons of pumpkin puree in a stand mixer for one minute. Change to the dough hook and run for two minutes.
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Remove the dough, form into a ball, wrap and refrigerate 20 minutes so the gluten relaxes.
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Mix the canned pumpkin puree, parmesan, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and pumpkin pie spice in a bowl. Taste and add more parmesan if it leans too sweet.
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Roll the rested dough through a pasta attachment per the directions provided and make ravioli, using about a teaspoon of filling each and leaving a clear border to seal. Do not overfill, as they will split.
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Melt the butter in a pan and add the chopped sage. Cook over medium heat about five minutes until the butter starts to brown, watching closely so it does not burn. Strain if necessary.
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Cook the ravioli in gently boiling salted water 3 to 4 minutes, until they float and the pasta is tender. Lift them out with a slotted spoon.
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Serve topped with the sage brown butter and grated parmesan..
Note
The source gives no servings; three and a half cups of flour with four eggs makes roughly a pound of pasta, serving four to six. It also gives no cooking time for the ravioli themselves: fresh filled pasta needs 3 to 4 minutes in gently boiling salted water and floats when close to done. Boil gently rather than hard, and lift them out with a slotted spoon. The 20 minute rest is essential, as freshly mixed dough is too springy to roll. The filling is deliberately sweet-savoury in the northern Italian style; taste it first and add more parmesan rather than less sugar if it leans sweet. A whole can of pumpkin makes more filling than a pound of pasta can hold, so expect leftovers and do not overfill, since overfilled ravioli split. Watch the brown butter closely at the end.
