Guest Post From My Favorite Neighbor

I decided to take this project on after baking pumpkin yesterday from our CSA, Common Threads and feeling non-creative after just finishing my 3rd pumpkin bread in the past 2 weeks.  I've always wanted to make ravioli (or any pasta in general) but it seemed pretty out of my league.  My husband turned on Animal Collective and I got in the groove, taking breaks only to breastfeed (and text pics to you).  Did this take a long time and seem really hard?  Yes.  But it was so worth it.  And my food baby is reminiscent of only a true-pregnant reality a few short months ago.

Ravioli Dough:

1 1/2 c flour (I used white whole wheat flour, you can use white or whole wheat also)

1/4 tsp salt

2 eggs

2 tsp olive oil

1-4 TBsp cold water

Put the flour, salt, eggs and olive oil in a food processor until well blended and crumbly.  Add water only if you need to, in order to increase stickiness.  Knead dough and divide into 4.  Roll out two sheets roughly the same size (I hung one over a glass while I was using my pastry mat to roll out 2nd one).  Roll them as thin as you can! 

Ravioli Filling:

1 c fresh baked/cooked pumpkin

2 heaping TBsp Greek plain yogurt (you could also use sour cream or ricotta cheese)

2 1/2 TBsp chopped onion

1 c parm. cheese (I used an Italian mix of parm, prov and mozz.  If you have it, it's amazing)

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

1/8 tsp. sage (I used powdered, but fresh would be great too--more like 1/2 tsp)

1 Tbsp cream

Mix all ingredients by hand--you don't need a blender or beaters.  Place small (approx. 1 inch balls) blobs on rolled ravioli sheet, lined up so that when you put the second ravioli sheet over, you can press down around the balls with your fingers.  After this step, use sharp knife to cut ravioli squares.  Press down edges with a fork to ensure they don't fall apart in boiling water.

Boil ravioli for 8-10 minutes.  They will float to top when cooked.  I cooked mine in two batches.

Sauce:

1/4 c walnuts (toasted with brown sugar).  You could also use pecans.

1 stick butter

1/2 tsp cinnamon

3 TBsp brown sugar

1/8 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp vanilla

2 1/2 TBsp balsamic vinegar (or vinegarette!)

Melt butter for 3-4 minutes until it just begins to turn brown, remove from heat (before it burns!).  While butter is melting, combine other ingredients, make sure everything has dissolved.  After you've removed butter from heat, combine walnuts and other sauce mixture with butter.