Pumpkin Ravioli served with Butter, sage and crispy Guanciale

Pumpkin sage and butter ravioli (vegetarian and meat option)

Prepare time: 45 min
Cook: 30 min
Ready in: 60 min
Servings: 4

Ingredients for the pasta dough 

• 150 grams of all purpose/tipo 00
• 150 grams of semolina
• 3 eggs
• 3 pinches of salt
• 3 table spoons of extra virgine olive oil

Ingredients for the pumpkin puree

• Around 600 grams of pumpkin (peeled and cut in small cubes)
• 3 tablespoons of olive oil
• 2 stems of fresh rosemary
• 2 garlic cloves
• Around 6 fresh sage leaves
• Pinch of salt
• 200 ml water (to cook the pumpkin, reduce later)

Preparation of the pumpkin puree

• Take a pot add the olive oil, rosemary, garlic and sage leaves.
• Infuse the oil for a couple of minutes with these flavours.
• Add the pumpkin, salt and water.
• Take a lid and leave simmer for 20/30 minutes.
• After take of the lid, reduce leftover water until its thick.
• Then take out the rosemary stems and blend everything until smooth
• Leave a quarter of the puree on the side for garnish (when cooled down add into a piping bag)
• Add the rest into a big bowl and let it cool down before adding the rest of the ingredients for the filling.

Ingredients for the filling:

• Ricotta 150 grams (drained)
• 300/400 grams  cooked/pureed pumkin
• Pinch of salt and black pepper
• Around 20/30 grams of parmesan (to taste + thickens up the filling)

Preparation of the filling

• Take a big bowl add the rest of the pumpkin puree (cooled down), the ricotta, salt, pepper and the grated parmesan cheese.
• Smash everything with a spatula until smooth.
• Then fill up one or two piping bags with the filling

Preparation of the dough:

• Take a big bowl and mix the two flours together, make a well in the middle
• Add the salt
• Add the olive oil
• Add the eggs (check on shells)
• Mix all the ingredients together
• Kneed your dough, by stretching and folding, till it becomes smooth and more elastic
• Let it rest 10/20 min minumum (while resting, wrap it with plastic foil, we don’t want the dough to be in contact with the air in this process, to provide it from drying out).

When your pasta dough is ready to work with, use a pasta machine or a rollin pin to stretch it. With a pasta machine always start on the widest number and go slowly to the thinner ones. If the machine has a wideness of 10 and the thinnest is 1, I would suggest you to fold the pasta two or three times on the widest number, to make it stronger and softer. Then bring it without folding once on 8, once on 6, once on 4 and end twice on number two or once on number one. But again you have to experiment also a bit to understand the thickness that you like best.

Remember to make wide pasta sheets, so you will have space to fill them and fold them. Fill them with ravioli filling two fingers from the edges and two fingers in between again. You can experiment with bigger or smaller ravioli, just make sure there is enough pasta dough around the filling.

Close the ravoli
Fold the top of the pasta sheet towards you, when the top and bottom touch, start sealing the sides first. In this way you can pop out the air from the bottom and seal them without any air. Than it’s up to you to cut them and make them pretty!

Cook the pasta:

• Bring a pot with water to boil, when boiling add sea salt
• Cook the pasta for 3 to 4 minutes maximum (taste if they have an al dente bite)
• Add the pasta straight from boiling into your sauce
• Add a bit of your pasta water and let the sauce and pasta combine 1 / 2 minutes.
• If it’s to liqued evaporate some water by tossing the pan
• If it’s to dry add some more pasta water

For the sauce

• Melt the butter in a pan on low heat
• Smash and add the garlic, followed by the sage leaves
• When everything is well combined, start adding the pasta into the sauce
• Add a bit of pasta water and toss the pan

Accecoires

• rollin pin or pasta machine to stretch your dough
• Ravioli cutter
• Brush (to add water or egg wash for sealing your ravioli)
• Extra semolina flour on the side (for working with the pasta

*Meat option
Cut 4 slices of Guanciale (cured pork cheek) get rid of the skin part and cut in little cubes. Let the cubes sweat in its on fat in a pan on low temperature until crispy. When they are crispy, drain them from the fat and chop them until crumbles. Sprinkle on top of the ravioli for a beautiful flavour combination of the sweetness from the pumpkin and the saltiness from the Guanciale.

Serving 
Extra parmesan, pumpkin puree, sage leaves and for the meat lovers crispy Guanciale.

Buon appetito!