Roasted Butternut Squash Ravioli (the Easy Way)

I have a serious love for all things pasta. I’m particularly fond of, and especially for lunch, ravioli. However, fancy organic raviolis are too expensive and don’t resolve the other problem – my serious love for all winter squash. I’ll confess – I’m a winter-squash-hoarder and one of our local u-pick farms completely enables me with their bins full of beautiful butternut, acorn, kabocha and delicata squashes (and pie pumpkins, and about a half-dozen other lovely squashes). I tend to buy up quite a few in October and let them hang out (lurk) in the back of the pantry until December or so. Somehow, this year, I managed only to buy a single butternut squash, a few delicatas and two pie pumpkins. While it may have been a more realistic haul, I really am sorry I don’t have a kabocha or two threatening to go off in the back of the pantry (and grow some bizarre strain of green mold that eventually gains sentient and chases the dog – but I digress).

This is a long way around to say that I used the butternut squash this weekend to make super lazy ravioli. By super lazy, I mean I didn’t strain myself to hand roll pasta, which I have been known to do, and used wonton wrappers instead.

I cooked up six ravioli for my Monday lunch and coated them with the brown butter sauce and parmesan cheese. They then hung out on the counter to cool and went into the fridge overnight. They microwaved beautifully, though do note that the ravioli tend to stick together when they’ve rested overnight. I’m too lazy to make brown butter sauce each and every day of the week, so my ravioli on Tuesday will be coated with some of the greens pesto I froze from last week.

Roasted Butternut Squash Ravioli the Easy Way

Serves 4

1 cup roasted butternut squash
2 tablespoons crushed hazelnuts (I put them in a plastic bag and smack the hell out of them with a rolling pin – it’s a great stress reliever!)
¼ cup goat cheese
¼ cup parmesan cheese
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
pinch or two of freshly ground black pepper
40 wonton wrappers

Start by roasting the butternut squash. The easiest way to do this is to whack off the stem and put the whole squash in a dish and throw it in a 350 degree oven for around an hour (this will depend on the size of your squash). Once you can easily poke a knife through it, let it thoroughly cool. I noticed no adverse effect when I left it in the fridge overnight.

When you split open the squash, you can easily remove seeds and remove the flesh from the skin. One butternut squash makes more than enough roasted squash for several recipes – I got about three cups out of this one. Butternut squash freezes well and is great as a substitute for pumpkin in breads and muffins.

Mix the squash, goat cheese, parmesan cheese, hazelnuts, nutmeg, salt, and pepper together. I don’t bother pureeing the squash – it’s easy to mash in the mixing process.

Lay the wonton wrappers out on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. I ended up needing a cookie sheet and a plate; the wonton wrappers shouldn’t overlap, so you may even want to use two cookie sheets. Dollop a scant tablespoon of the squash mixture in the middle of each wonton wrapper.

Fill a small bowl with water. Dip your finger in the water and dampen the edges of your first wonton wrapper. Lay a second wrapper on top and press on the sides to seal. Repeat with the remaining wrappers.

You can cook your ravioli at this stage, by dropping the ravioli into a pot of boiling water and cooking for 3 minutes (the ravioli will puff a little and start to float – just like pasta-based ravioli). You can also freeze the ravioli. If you are going to freeze these, definitely give them a little space on the cookie sheet. If they are too close together and freeze, it can be difficult to break them apart without damage to the wonton wrappers. I like to freeze them and then package them in servings of around 5 or 6 ravioli – it’s a great serving size for lunch.

Hazelnut and Brown Butter Sauce

Serves 1 (but could definitely serve more – just use more butter)

1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon crushed hazelnuts

Melt the butter in a small saucepan. Stirring fairly regularly, cook until the butter starts to brown and turn fragrant. Put the hazelnuts in and let them toast a bit – keep stirring, as you don’t want the butter or the hazelnuts to burn. Pour over the ravioli and top with parmesan cheese.