Roasted Butternut Squash and Goat Cheese Ravioli with Sage Butter
I've been wanting to make a pasta dish lately. So I finally got a pasta roller and was in the mood for something lighter. Butternut Squash. Mmm, with sage butter. Ok, done.
I pulled this together inspired by this recipe and this one, and this one and made it my own. This was a perfect, beautiful dish with just the best flavor combinations. I cannot wait to make it again for other people. (Also, making pasta dough is so damn easy. And cheap. It's two ingredients. Flour and egg.)
After the dough rested an hour it was time to put my new pasta roller to work. Quick tangent: Why the heck would anyone pay $200 for the KitchenAid attachment when you can get this manual one for $35 from Bed Bath and Beyond?? I prefer the manual anyway because I could control the speed better. I really don't know why anyone would opt for the $200 option when there is a perfectly great $35 option.
Sometimes when I make a new recipe, it doesn't turn out as well as I would hope. This is the opposite of that. This was even better than I was expecting!! Seriously so mouth watering. I had to take a moment and just sit and reflect on how delicious this was. I paired it with this Sav Blanc that I got from Mariano's for about $12.
Things I would do differently next time (and there will be many next times):
1) Increase the filling to pasta ratio. I was nervous about the ravioli pulling apart in the water or the filling oozing out, so I left a LOT of blank pasta space. And don't get me wrong, it was still delicious but I probably could have doubled the recipe if I had proper spacing. I know buying one of these gadgets would be really useful (and I can almost guarantee I'll break down and get one), but I just love the romance of building the ravioli by hand.
2) Thinner pasta sheets. I took mine down to a 4 (7 being the thickest), but I think I should at least get down to a 2. The pasta really fills out in the boiling water.
3) Balance the butternut squash to goat cheese ratio. I used 1 heaping tsp of butternut squash puree and 1/2 tsp goat cheese. I recommend to myself 2 parts squash and 1 part cheese. It was slightly overpowering the butternut squash.
Things I would do exactly the same
1) Use the herbed goat cheese. Although I'm sure the regular goat cheese would be good, the herbed was deviiinnne.
2) 1 egg and 2 yolks for every 5 ounces. This seemed like a nice consistency.
3) Using 1 shallot in the butternut squash puree and adding sage as I sautéed the shallot. It was delicious. No further explanation needed here.
Ok, now back to just daydreaming about my dinner..