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–+ servings
Servings: 4 persons

Ravioli with Pumpkin and Ricotta

Delicious and homemade vegetarian dish that will make you dream of the southern skies in Italy. A delightful combination of ricotta and pumpkin wrapped in a delicious pasta dough - mixed with browned butter and small vegetables.
Author: Gæsteindlæg
Course: Dinner
Cuisine: Italian
Keyword: cheese, Dinner, Food For Guests, Italy, Pumpkin, Vegetarian
Prep Time: 1 hour
Cook Time: 5 minutes
Metric - US Customary

Ingredients

Pumpkin Filling

  • 1 pcs. Pumpkin Butternut
  • 500 gram Ricotta
  • 4 cloves Garlic
  • 1 pcs. Shallots Coarsely chopped
  • Lemon Juice From 1 lemon
  • 30 gram Butter
  • Salt
  • Pepper

Pasta Dough

  • 2 pcs. Egg
  • 3 pcs. Egg Yolk
  • 1 pinch Salt
  • 125 gram Wheat Flour
  • 125 gram Durum flour Or wheat flour

Brown butter (beurre noisette)

  • 75 gram Butter Approximately

Sides

  • 200 gram Turnips Or other small vegetables
  • 4 sprigs Tarragon
  • 2 cloves Garlic
  • 28.4 gram Butter Browned (beurre noisette)
  • 1 handful Parmesan freshly grated

Instructions

Pumpkin filling

  • Cut the pumpkin into chunky bite-sized pieces and place them in an ovenproof dish with onion and garlic.
  • Place the ricotta in the center.
  • Bake everything for 40 minutes in the oven at 170°C, until both cheese and pumpkin are soft and lightly caramelized.
  • Let it cool, remove the skin from the pumpkin, and mash everything together with a fork.
  • Season the filling with lemon, salt, and pepper.

Pasta dough

  • Place all the ingredients in a food processor and chop everything together until the consistency is like crumbs.
  • Pour the crumbs onto the table and knead them into a smooth dough.
  • Add a tablespoon of water if the dough is too dry.
  • Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and let it rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes before rolling it out.

Browned butter (beurre noisette)

  • Melt butter in a saucepan over medium-high heat.
  • Stir occasionally with a spoon.
  • Let the butter sizzle until it is golden-brown.
  • It will also change smell, becoming slightly nutty.
  • Keep a close eye on it, as the butter can darken very quickly, and it won't taste very good if it gets too dark.
  • Remove the butter from the heat as soon as it reaches the nutty stage – if the heat is too high, you can pour the butter into another container to stop the browning process.
  • What happens during this process is that the milk solids settle at the bottom and obtain a golden, caramelized color, which also gives the distinctive rich and nutty flavor.

Ravioli

  • 500 grams of the aforementioned pasta dough is needed.
  • Roll out the dough with the pasta machine set to level 3 (out of 10) or the thickness you desire:
  • Settings may vary from machine to machine.
  • Shape the filling with a spoon and distribute small mounds of it over half of the pasta sheet, about 2 centimeters apart.
  • Brush around the filling with egg.
  • Fold the other half of the pasta sheet over and gently press down on the edges and between the small mounds of filling.
  • Press out any small air bubbles.
  • Then use a cutter or a small glass to cut out the ravioli.
  • Place the ravioli on a baking sheet with parchment paper until they are to be cooked.
  • Sprinkle a little tipo 00 flour over them so they don't stick together.

Side dish

  • Quickly fry the small turnips or other vegetables in the nut butter with tarragon and 1 clove of finely chopped garlic – they should be almost raw.
  • If you can't get small turnips, you can buy large ones and cut them into pieces.

Serving

  • Cook the ravioli in lightly salted water for 3-4 minutes and let them drain in a colander.
  • Gently toss them with the butter-cooked vegetables and grate Parmesan over just before serving.
  • It can also be good with popped pumpkin seeds (see the recipe in the note).

Notes

Variation:

If butternut squash is hard to find, you can use hokkaido pumpkin instead.
Optionally, leave out the turnips and instead serve the dish traditionally with herb butter.
If you find it difficult to make ravioli from scratch, you can also use the pumpkin and ricotta filling as a regular pasta sauce – it tastes extra good with tarragon butter.
You can also use it in a lasagna with white sauce. 
 

Tip:

1) Be careful not to use too much egg when brushing the pasta sheets. If the ravioli become too wet, you risk them opening during cooking. 
2) You can definitely make ravioli without owning a pasta machine, but it's a bit difficult. Since the dough is quite hard, it's quite a job to roll it out thin enough. 
 

Popped Pumpkin Seeds

'Boiled frying' is a reliable method to get crunchy, tasty pumpkin seeds for your dishes. They turn out super good! It's easiest to buy the pumpkin seeds, but you can also try with seeds you've cleaned out of a pumpkin. In that case, they just need to be rinsed and dried thoroughly before you start. It's also easiest if you use seeds that are large and somewhat rounded. 
100 g pumpkin seeds
1 dl water
½ dl sunflower oil 
1 tsp salt
Put everything in a large pot and boil the seeds under a lid until almost all the water has evaporated. Remove the lid and boil away the remaining water until only the oil is left. Let the seeds continue to sizzle in the oil over low heat, adding more oil if they seem dry. They should become nicely golden and puff up. Remove them from the oil with a slotted spoon when they are crispy and popped, and let them drain on a paper towel. Serve them immediately, or store them in an airtight container. They can keep for several months if they are completely dry.