This past weekend was not simply a weekend of one type of dumplings, but rather of two. Call me a girl with too much time on her hands, or simply a glutton for punishment. That’s fine, I’ll concede on both accounts. But I know that for all of my industriousness now, I will be well-fed when the winter months roll around. Saturday I found myself looking to the East for inspiration with Asian-style dumplings, and Sunday I ventured over to Italy (in my mind that is) and whipped up several batches of ravioli.
Ravioli are good, but they are delicious when made at home. Now I’m not expecting you all to run out and buy pasta makers (unless you want to), but if there is a shee-shee market near you, or an Italian delicatessan, it is possible to buy sheets of egg pasta, ready for the filling of your choice. With a little bit of time and creativity, and a modicum of patience, you can make ravioli that are infinitely more tempting than anything you can buy.
It’s the filling and the sauces that are special. For this batch I went for something simple– baked butternut squash, mashed roughly with salted, fresh ricotta cheese, and a grating of spicy nutmeg. For the sauce, I chose the standard.– sage and brown butter. Why improve on perfection? Torn bits of just-picked sage, fried quickly in an amalgamation of butter and a little bit of olive oil, makes for an unctuous, delectable meal. There are times when classic combinations should shine through, and this homemade ravioli supper was one of those times. The sweetness of the squash was an ideal compliment to the earthiness of the sage.
But feel free to experiment with fillings: pea and mint; potato, shallot, and asiago; or the classic meat. After filling them with about one to one and one half teaspoons of filling, you can then fold them any which way you choose. Large or small, circle or square, what is important is the pasta to filling ratio. You want to be able to taste the pasta as well, with the filling simply tumbling, not exploding out of the pasta casing. Ravioli, similar to the Asian dumplings I made over the same weekend, freeze beautifully. And when you just don’t know what to cook for yourself, won’t you be happy to have an arsenal of ravioli in the freezer to make a scrumptious meal?
