Thursday, January 27, 2011

Butternut squash raviolis in a thyme butter cream sauce

            I was staying with a friend in Portland a couple of months back and I went out to a fine dining restaurant where they served butternut squash stuffed raviolis in a hazelnut cream sauce. As absolutely delicious as it was my wallet didn't like the fact that it had to pay upwards of $21 dollars for it. So, as any great food lover would, i decided to make it at home.
           Butternut squash is a squash I find highly underused, and yet it it so simple. it has the sweetness of butter while having a similar texture of a sweet potato. Roasted and stuffed into pasta or roasted and lightly drizzled with butter and thyme served with your favorite white fish; butternut squash is a must have in the kitchen. 

Ingredients: Butternut squash stuffing.

 1 1/2 cups diced butternut squash (peeled)
1 tbps Honey
1/2 cup Ricotta cheese

Ingredients: Thyme butter cream sauce

1/4 tsp dried Thyme (Or 2 springs fresh Thyme)
2 tbs of unsalted butter
1 tbs all purpose flour
1 1/2  cups of whole milk
1/2 cup crumbled Gorgonzola cheese
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste

Ingredients: Pasta for Stuffing

Store bought Wonton skins
1 egg yolk

Recipe:
       Place peeled butternut squash cubes (cubes should be about the size of a bottle cap) in a 425 degree preheated oven. Let roast for 40 minutes. After 35-40 minutes check squash to make sure they are cooked through and fork tender. Take the butternut squash out of the oven and slide into a medium size mixing bowl. Add honey and ricotta cheese and mash together to form a kind of gritty past. Don't over mash or you will loose texture that the butternut squash will offer the final result.
     Lay wonton skins across a cookie sheet about a half in apart. With egg yolk, add a dash of water and beat in small bowl until smooth. Brush the outer 1/4 inch of your wonton skins in this "egg wash". Place about about 1 tsp of butternut squash stuffing per wonton. Once wontons are stuffed fold skins over the stuffing and you have made raviolis. ( keep in mind that cooking time on these will be significantly less than dried pasta or even frozen raviolis). Boil water and place raviolis in for only 2 minutes.
      For the sauce, first melt butter in a small sauce pan on medium heat. Just before the melted butter turns brown add flour and stir for 2-3 minutes to cook out the bite in the flour. This is a classic roux. Next, add cold milk while stirring constantly to prevent lumps. Adding milk to the roux now makes this a bechamel sauce. Next, just add your Gorgonzola, thyme, salt and pepper to taste and remove from the heat.
    Dish up your ravioli. drizzle with the thyme Gorgonzola cream sauce you made and enjoy!

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