These homemade ravioli are filled with pumpkin puree, ricotta cheese and warming nutmeg which helps enhance the all the flavors. The nights are chilly and what is more comforting than a great bowl of pasta? Making homemade pasta is not as difficult as it may sound and the results are so much more rewarding.
If you want to make this a REALLY easy pumpkin ravioli, and are not comfortable making pasta dough, many grocery stores self fresh pasta sheets that you can use instead of making your own. That’s a huge help. If you’re not a pumpkin fan, why not try my Butternut Squash Cappellacci di Zucca? Similar to ravioli but made in the cappelacci shape. Which sauce goes with pumpkin ravioli? A simple marinara helps cut through the richness of the filling and brown butter sauce.
How to make pasta dough
Working on a clean dry surface, add your flour in a mound and make a well in the center. Crack all of your eggs into the well along with the olive oil, salt and water. Use a fork to beat the eggs mixture; be careful not to break the sides of the flour and make a mess. I use my other hand to keep the sides intact. Once the mixture is not so runny, use your hands to bring it all together and get well combined, then, start kneading. Knead using the heel of your palm for about 5-10 minutes, texture should be smooth and elastic. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
Rolling out the pasta dough
Start with a tennis ball size ball of dough and shape it into a rectangle. Run it through your pasta maker at the largest setting, #1. Once it comes out, dust lightly with flour then fold both ends into the middle. Run it through the machine again on the same setting, then repeat this 2 more times. After the 3rd time, turn the setting to 2, but don’t flour or fold the dough. Turn the setting to 3 and repeat and so on and so on until you reach the desired thickness. For me this is 7 on my machine because I don’t like the ravioli to be too thin or they can break apart.
Filling ravioli dough
When you lay out the dough, keep the dough and the surface under the dough well floured because as the dough gets thinner, it will stick to everything, including itself. Tips for the raviolo filling: To make life easier when portioning the filling (referring to the picture above) you can see that I made outlines of the ravioli with my cutter. I do this on half of the dough and leave other other half to be folded over. This way, I know exactly where to put the filling so they are evenly spaced. Folding the dough over the filling: This a delicate process. I like to push the air out starting in the middle and working my way to the sides, pressing out as much as possible and as close to the filling as possible. Any air could make the ravioli burst open in the water when cooking. After cutting the ravioli, place them on a a floured or parchment covered baking sheet. I like to freeze them for about 45 on the baking sheet. You can cook them right from frozen, this makes handling them a lot easier. If you are not going to use them right away, put the frozen ravioli into a ziptop bag, then just cook them right from frozen when you need them. This recipe yields approximately 20-24 ravioli, depending how thin you make your dough.
More pumpkin recipes:
Roasted Pumpkin and Root Vegetable SoupPumpkin Walnut MuffinsPumpkin Risotto Stuffed Acorn Squash
