Dad’s Butnut Squash Ravioli with Brown Butter Sage, Gorg Cheese, & Walnuts

Growing up, I was fortunate that both my mom and dad took turns cooking home-cooked meals, which is ultimately where we all grew our mutual love for food. My mom was a stay-at-home mom, so she usually handled the day-to-day weeknight meals, but on special occasions, dinner parties, or nights when she wasn’t home, my dad held things down. On Bonco nights, my mom would be out late with the girlies, so my dad used to open up “Fast Eddie’s Pirate Diner.” Which was just his way of getting us excited to eat up leftover concoctions, breakfast for dinner, or whatever other creations he’d come up with. He is a very good cook and has his cookbook binder of all his bangers that he uses on regular rotation.

So when I was planning his episode of “Cooking with Love” on my Instagram, I knew I wanted to highlight this one. This is most definitely a labor of love, more of an all-day kind of activity. But I think the best cooking takes a little more time and love, moves slowly, and allows multiple people to get involved and cook! So this is his take on a dish he had in Portland, Oregon, almost 25 years ago. Butternut Squash Ravioli with brown butter, sage, walnuts, and gorgonzola!

Ingredients

For pasta:

• 1.5 cups Semolina Pasta Flour

• 2 Eggs (beaten)

• 2 Tbsp Water

• 2 Tbsp Olive Oil

• AP flour as needed

For Filling:

• 1 medium butternut squash 

• 3-4 tbsp of Molasses 

• 2 tsp of Balsamic 

• 2 tbsp butter 

• ¼ cup mascarpone cheese

• Fresh nutmeg grated 

• Ground cinnamon 

• ½ cup freshly grated parm cheese 

• Salt and pepper to taste 

For finishing and Platting with sauce:

• Sage leaves 

• More butter 

• Veg stock 

• Toasted chopped walnuts 

• Gorgonzola or blue cheese 

Method

• Cut buttnut in half long ways, deseed, and lather with a few tbsp of molasses, salt, and pepper. Bake at 425F for 45-60 minutes until tender.

• Meanwhile, you can make the pasta dough. Use the instructions on the Bob Mills bag. We used a few additional handfuls of AP flour to get the correct texture and toughness of the dough. You want a tougher dough for ravioli so it holds its shape and structure well. Set pasta dough aside wrapped in a damp cloth.

• Once the butternut squash is cooked and fork tender remove from the oven and drop the oven to 325F.

• Allow the squash to cool to the touch, then scoop it out and use a whisk or stand mixer to whip the squash and get the clumps out. 

• Once squash is lightly pureed and smoothed spread it on a parchment-lined sheet pan and bake at 325F for 10-15 minutes to dry it out.  Remove and keep in a separate bowl for later.

• Brown the butter in the pan. Once browned add 1-2 tbsp of molasses and the balsamic and cook down slightly. 

• Add the browned butter mixture to the squash bowl, parm, mascarpone, and spices, and combine until fully incorporated. Salt and pepper to taste. Then set in the freezer for 30 minutes or fridge for 1-4 hours 

• Meanwhile, roll out pasta sheets to the desired thickness and prep to make ravioli 

• Once the filling is chilled enough, begin forming ravioli. If you are new to this I recommend watching some YouTube videos before!

• Once the ravioli are made fry off the sage leaves in some oil and allow to dry off on a paper towel

• To finish and assemble, cook the ravioli in boiling salted water 

• Meanwhile, brown a few tbsp of butter, do not burn! Add the cooked pasta directly into the browned butter and fry off for a little. Add a splash of stock to form a sauce 

• Plate with toasted nuts, blue cheese, and fried sage and topped with sauce

• Enjoy :)