Homemade butternut squash ravioli with pesto

Have you ever made your own pasta? Believe me it's a rewarding experience and fresh homemade pasta tastes extraordinarily good. I'm making today ravioli with butternut squash filling and pairing it with some homemade pesto. I don't have a pasta machine (however it's on my wishlist) so making the pasta sheets means a lot of hard rolling pin work, but I'm up for it!

For the pasta dough:

400g Grade 00 pasta flour

4 Eggs

Salt

For the ravioli filling:

¼ Butternut squash

Bread crumbs

Vegetarian pasta cheese

Rosemary

Salt

Pepper

For the pesto:

Large bunch of fresh basil

Vegetarian pasta cheese

Garlic

Pine nuts

Olive oil

And this is how it's done:

Make the pesto first as it can rest in the fridge until everything else is ready. Grate the vegetarian pasta cheese (parmigiano equivalent). Grind the garlic and pine nuts, add the cheese, basil and olive oil to it and grind to a smooth paste with a hand mixer. Put it into a sealable container and let rest in the fridge.

Then make the pasta dough. Put the flour into a pile on a table, break the eggs into a dent in the middle of the flour pile and add some salt. Then heavily knead until you have a firm dough. If the dough is too tough, add a little olive oil to make it smoother or if it's too runny, add more flour. Finally knead the dough into a ball, wrap into cling film and place to the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Now it's time to make the filling for the ravioli. Peel and slice the butternut squash quarter and boil the slices in water until soft. In the meanwhile grate more vegetarian pasta cheese. Then squash the squash and add the cheese, rosemary and bread crumbs to it and mix to an even paste. It must not be too moist, add more bread crumbs if needed. You can also lightly season with salt and pepper. This mix needs to be well cooled down before you put it onto the pasta.

Start rolling the pasta dough with either a pasta machine or a rolling pin and make thin sheets of it. Cut small squares or circles. Fill them, brush the sides with water and stick another pasta piece on it. The water helps them stick well together, but also press them firmly together with your fingers or a fork.

Boil the ravioli for about 8-10 minutes in salt water until the filling is warm and the pasta al dente. Roll them in pesto before serving and sprinkle cheese on the pasta.

Serve the dish with a fresh tomato, mozzarella and basil salad. Enjoy and be proud of your achievement of making ravioli from scratch!

Your VegHog