Squished Squash Ravioli

This is kind of like a recipe post, but not really.  I’m not big on recipes unless I’m baking.

Anyway, I made these ravioli the other night.  It was my second time doing this and tried a different method in an effort to streamline.  It worked out so-so.

As you know, I’m not big into conventional store bought flour.  I just gagged a little bit.  The bran and germ are gone.  All that’s left is endosperm.  Pretty gay, if you ask me.  Big reason this is done is because white flour is much more shelf stable and easier to work with.  Because the majority of the nutrients have been stripped, companies have to re introduce a few key nutrients.  Iron, folic acid, others but not everything that’s taken out, like vitamin e, fiber, polyphenols.   I just want a whole grain with all its parts and nutrients intact.  So I grind my own flour.

My basic pasta recipe is 100g of Durum wheat to 1 egg.  Scale as necessary.  I also keep a spray bottle because sometimes more liquid is required.

So I made the dough and rolled it out.  I try to make the sheets as wide as I can, but that doesn’t always work out.  Whatever.

For the filling I peeled and sliced a whole butternut squash.  Added rosemary, thyme, sage and salt.  375ºF for like 30 minutes or so.  Removed, let it cool.  Mashed it.

Here’s where things got weird for me.  Whenever I’ve gotten ricotta before, it was solid.  Like a big hockey puck.  This time I was less effortful and just went to Trader Joes and bought a plastic (gross, I know) container.  I assumed inside was the puck.  I was wrong.  It was essentially liquid inside.  Spooned it into the mashed squash with some salt until it tasted good.

Here’s where I was either a genius or fucked it up, I’m still unclear.  I laid out a sheet of pasta and slathered the filling across like butter.  Previously, I would dollop out individual raviolo.

I placed another pasta sheet on top and scored with my bench scraper.  I went left to right and then front to back assuming that some would get pushed out at the opened end and I moved along scoring.

This did not work as intended.  There was not really closure.  It was like little square pasta butternut squash cheese sandwiches.  The next sheets I  did the traditional way.  I found that my dough wasn’t really adhesive enough anyway.  Nevertheless, he persisted.

I had half the ravioli open on the sides and the other have with big flapping sides that were semi sealed.  “They’re all going in the pot,” I said to myself.

They ended up being alright.  The flappers were fine, just a different ratio of pasta to fill.  And the open sides didn’t spill anything.  All in all, I’d call them a success.  Even Jinx liked them.

Basic recipe for what’s shown:

Pasta

300g Durum wheat, finely ground

3 eggs

Salt

Spray Water as necessary

Filling

1 butternut squash

A handful of finely chopped mixed herbs

4-5 Tablespoons of Ricotta cheese

Salt to tast

Assemble, Boil until they float, retrieve from water and eat. My recommendation would be to cook them in a wide, deeper sauté pan.

I served with pasta sauce and a heaping pile of parmigiana reggiano.