You, yes, you, can make homemade ravioli

Truth be told, I made this recipe about two weeks ago and considered not putting it on the blog. It was delicious, fairly easy to make, but it was the phrase "1 stick of butter" which stopped me in my tracks.

After making this meal, I realized, a little bit of the sauce goes a very long way. As long as I drizzled and did not "glop" the butter sauce on the cooked ravioli, this was a dish I could stand behind. Make the dish about the ravioli and not the butter sauce, and you will enjoy it tremendously guilt-free.

Oh, and hubby thought this was the most beautiful plate of food I had ever served him. I wish I took a picture of it, but it was eaten that quickly!

Caution ahead: longest recipe title in Test Drive Kitchen history-

Butternut squash, sage, and goat cheese ravioli with hazelnut brown-butter sauce

For filling
a 2-pound butternut squash, halved lengthwise and seeded
1 medium onion, chopped (about 1 1/2 cups)
1 1/2 teaspoons ground sage
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 garlic clove, minced
3 ounces aged goat cheese, crumbled (about 2/3)

60 won ton wrappers, thawed if frozen
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
1/3 cup hazelnuts, toasted lightly and skinned and chopped coarse

Preparation

Preheat oven to 425°F. and lightly grease a baking sheet.

Make filling: Put squash halves, flesh sides down, an baking sheet and roast in middle of oven 30 minutes, or until flesh is very tender. When squash is cool enough to handle, scoop out flesh into a bowl and discard skin. Mash squash with a fork until smooth.

While squash is roasting, in a skillet cook onion and sage in butter with salt and pepper to taste over moderate heat, stirring, 5 minutes, or until onion is golden brown. Stir in garlic and cook, stirring, 1 minute.

Cool onion mixture slightly and add to squash. Add goat cheese and stir to combine well.

Bring 5 quarts salted water to a gentle boil for ravioli.

Put 1 won ton wrapper on a lightly floured surface, keeping remaining wrappers in plastic wrap, and mound 1 tablespoon filling in center. Lightly brush edges of wrapper with water and put a second wrapper over first, pressing down around filling to force out air and seal edges well. If desired, trim excess dough with a round cutter or sharp knife. Transfer ravioli to a dry kitchen towel. Make more ravioli with remaining wrappers and filling in same manner, transferring as formed to towel and turning occasionally to dry slightly.

In skillet cook butter with hazelnuts over moderate heat until butter begins to brown, about 3 minutes, and immediately remove from heat (nuts will continue to cook). Season hazelnut butter with salt and pepper and keep warm, covered.

Cook ravioli in 3 batches in gently boiling water for 6 minutes, or until they rise to surface and are tender (do not let water boil vigorously once ravioli have been added). Carefully transfer ravioli as cooked with a slotted spoon to a large shallow baking pan and add enough cooking water to reach 1/2 inch up side of pan. Keep ravioli warm, covered.

Transfer ravioli with a slotted spoon ( letting excess cooking liquid drip off) to 6 plates and top with hazelnut brown-butter sauce.

• I have a lot of suggestions for this recipe to make it go smoother. First of all, definitely use squash that has already been chopped and seeded. I find squash to be the hardest of all vegetables to chop and I will gladly spend the extra pennies for someone else to do the work!
• Instead of following their suggestion for cooking the squash, I laid all of the pre-cut pieces on a baking sheet and mixed it with 1 1/2 T of extra virgin olive oil and sprinkled it with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper. I roasted it at 425F and it was tender after 40 minutes.
• The wonton wrappers are not tricky to use at all, but I strongly suggest only using 1 t of filling per wrapper and then, folding it over into a triangle. I went through several trials of amounts of fillings versus different folding (hey, I did have a fascination with origami for about six months in 5th grade!) options. It turned out that the ravioli that stayed intact were the ones with less filling and the most basic fold.
• In regards to the sauce preparation: first, put the hazelnuts in a ziploc bag and give them two or three "thwumps" with a rolling pin. Very therapeutic! Then, place them in a dry skillet (no butter or cooking spray) for about 4 minutes. Then, add the butter to start the sauce.
• I only made 20 ravioli pieces because it was just the two of us. I put the wonton wrappers away for another use and wound up using the rest of the squash filling as a "sauce" for penne pasta later on in the week.
• I added fresh sage leaves to the skillet as I was finishing the sauce. This recipe is totally worth the effort for the smell of sage and hazelnuts alone!