pumpkin ravioli with sage butter & apple cider sauce

I made this dish for dinner last night. After some prep work, my friend A. came over, helped assemble it, brought the wine and we had a nice dinner.

I kept a serving uncooked in the fridge on parchment paper. Big mistake. Pasta glues itself to parchment when damp. Next time, I'll cook and serve it fresh or find a better way to store the ravioli until I'm ready to cook and photograph them. Fresh pasta looks and tastes best when actually fresh. That's this girls opinion anyway.

I knew a cold front was on its way, but didn't expect the hard hard frost that was coating the raised beds and all of their inhabitants this morning. I had covered the basil, peppers and egplant, but the cabbage and tomatoes got hit. Usually, Lake Michigan acts as a buffer zone to such events. Not today. It was cold out!

So here it is, my version of pumpkin ravioli, with two sauces... no wait, another story first. Last night I made a simple sage butter with grated nutmeg for the sauce. It was rich and savory. Not leaving well enough alone, I decided to also try a cider reduction sauce. I even made a combo version and this morning, with my sad face at her front door, my dear neighbor came over, in her jammies, babies in tow, to taste test the three sauces and render an opinion. Now that is neighborly love! ...... In the end, the main sauce is the sage butter and the apple cider reduction is added as a ring around the ravioli. You try them and let me know what you think.

Ingredients ... per serving

for the pasta...

1 1/2 cups flour

2 eggs

pinch of kosher salt

one more beaten egg for sealing the pasta together.

for the sage butter...

2 tbls butter

1 tbls olive oil

four sage leaves sliced, torn or whole(if you want to remove them before serving)

freshly grated nutmeg

optional...walnut halves and/or finely diced shallots

for the cider sauce...

1 cup of apple cider

1 tbls butter

ravioli filling...

1/2 c pumpkin (a small pie pumpkin works best)

1/2 c ricotta cheese

1/4 c parmesan cheese plus a tbls more for the top

1/2 tsp grated orange zest

1/8 tsp nutmeg

salt & pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375 . Cut the pumpkin into quarters, remove seeds and stringy stuff. Bake on a sheet pan face down covered by foil for 1 hour.

When cool, scoop out the pumpkin for the filling. There will be more than you can use, so freeze the rest for next time.

On a cutting board, make a well in the flour and crack the eggs into the well. With a fork or your fingers mix the eggs, adding the surrounding flour until the pasta comes together. Better too wet than too dry. Knead the dough to finish it. You may want to dust the board with a bit of flour at this point. Wrap it in plastic and let it rest for 20-30 minutes before rolling it out.

When it comes to making the ravioli, I use a pasta machine. (If you don't have one, you can roll the dough out with a rolling pin. It will take a bit more time and effort, but old Italian grandmas have been doing it that way for hundreds of years.) I divided the pasta into four pieces, then rolled each piece through the machine, folded the dough and re-rolled it until I reached the number 5 thickness (my machine goes from 0 to 6).

In a bowl, mix the pumpkin, ricotta, parmesan, orange zest, nutmeg until they are thoroughly combined, and season with salt and pepper.

Lay one strip of dough on a cutting board and brush the top with the beaten egg wash. Drop one tablespoon about 3 inches apart on one half of the strip of pasta. Fold the open half over the filling half and press around each mound of filling to seal and remove any trapped air.

Cook the ravioli in a pot of boiling salted water for 6-8 minutes. They will float to the top when they are done. Take them out using a strainer or slotted spoon. Each plate of ravioli can be topped with the sage butter, the cider sauce or some of each.

To make the sage butter.... Put the butter and oil in a saute pan on a medium heat until melted. Add the sage leaves and grated nutmeg and cook until the butter is golden brown. Remove from heat and spoon over the cooked ravioli.

To make the cider sauce... Pour the cider in a small sauce pan and cook over a medium heat until it reduces to 1/4 cup. Stir in a tablespoon of butter and continue to stir it until it begins to thicken and shine. Remove from heat and use.

Top it all off with the remaining parmesan cheese And enjoy!!

This dish was a bit more time consuming on the prep side, but easy to finish and serve.

As to cost...the pumpkin was $1.00 and I froze the rest after making the filling. The ricotta was $1.79. I also froze the rest of the container for another time.I zested part of an orange and put it back in the fridge. The cider came from the farmer's market and cost $2.00 a quart. I like to grate my own nutmeg. The aroma and flavor are amazing when fresh. I bought a little grater with several whole nutmegs in it for $3.99 at the store and have used it forever. So now I replenish my nutmeg supply as I need to. Again eggs are $1.00 a dozen and we used 3. A five pound bag of unbleached unbrominated flour runs about $3.00. I have no idea how many cups that is, but it's only pennies per cup. I use a coarse kosher salt and it costs $1.00 a pond. Now butter is running $3.50 a pound, which makes each tablespoon about ten cents. The parmesan cheese is a bit pricier at $9.99 per pound for a domestic cheese and twice that for the real deal.

This dinner was a bit more complicated but still nutritious and economical for one or more. Normally, this dish would have been wonderful with a red wine, but we had a Reisling that tasted just fine.

Today the sun managed to shine through the morning and into the mid-afternoon. It looked warm, but long pants and sweaters were the uniform of the day. I managed to bake a yellow layer cake, filled it with lemon curd, covered with a vanilla and lemon frosting for my dad for tonight.. He just loves lemon. Me...not so much. Gotta run!