The Recipe Room

I made this pumpkin ravioli last weekend when I had some friends over for lunch, and the verdict was unanimously positive – everyone loved it!  Which was a good thing too, because it definitely took a bit of work to prepare.  The baked garlic and sun-dried tomatoes provide a great counterpoint to the sweet pumpkin, and the filling just melts in your mouth when you bite into it.  The recipe calls for a pasta machine, but if you don’t have one, you can roll out the dough by hand.  It takes a bit more time but won’t make any difference to the taste; just make sure you get the dough as thin as you can.  About 3mm is thin enough.

Filling your pasta is a great way to add flavour to the dish. For more variations, try this scrumptious tortelli piacentini recipe.

What you’re going to need:

For the pasta:

• 250g flour
• 2 eggs
• A pinch of salt

For the filling:

• 4 garlic cloves, skin on
• 400g pumpkin, peeled and seeded
• 120ml cottage cheese
• 3 sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil, drained and finely chopped
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

What you have to do:

For the pasta:

1. Place the flour, eggs and salt in an electric mixer and blend into smooth dough.
2. Knead the dough for 5 minutes on a lightly floured surface.
3. Wrap the dough in clingfilm and let it set in the refrigerator for 20 minutes.
4. Divide the dough into 4 equal portions and roll them out lightly to half a centimetre thick.
5. Pass the pieces through a pasta machine on the thinnest setting.
6. Let the pasta dry for 10 minutes on a clean cloth.
7. Use a drinking glass about 7cm in diameter to cut the pasta into circles.

For the filling:

1. Preheat oven to 200ºC.
2. Bake the unpeeled garlic on a baking sheet and bake for about 10 minutes or until soft.
3. Steam the pumpkin for 6-8 minutes or until tender.
4. Drain well.
5. Peel the garlic and add to the pumpkin.  Mash well with a potato masher.
6. Add the sun-dried tomatoes, cottage cheese, salt and pepper.
7. Mix well.
8. Place a heaping teaspoon of the pumpkin mixture in the centre of half the pasta circles.
9. Wet the edges of the pasta with a little water on the tip of your finger and fold in half in a semi-circle.  Press down firmly on the edges to seal the ravioli.
10. Bring a large pot of water to the boil and add the ravioli.
11. Boil for 4 minutes.
12. Drain well and serve plain or with your favourite pasta sauce or cheese. I personally like sprinkling a bit of Feta cheese on top.

Preparation Time:  45 minutes

Cooking Time: 15 minutes

Serves:  6

Difficulty:  Hard

Tags: cottage cheese, eggs, flour, garlic, olive oil, pasta, pumpkin, Pumpkin Ravioli, sun-dried tomatoes, vegetarian

This entry was posted on Wednesday, 18 April, 2012 at 11:31 am by Serena Langley and is filed under Less than 90 mins, Main Courses, Meal for 6 people. You can follow any responses to this entry through the feed RSS 2.0. You can leave a comment, or make a trackback from your own blog.