Friday Food Photo

I just found out recently that delicious pasta is really easy to make at home (no special equipment required!). Here you see some of my improvised butternut ravioli in progress. I strayed so far from the recipe that inspired me that I'm not going to link to it. Instead, here's the basic idea...

For the filling

One small butternut squash
1 or 3 cloves of garlic
1/4 cup caramelized onions
some parmesan cheese (maybe a half a cup or so?)

For the pasta

3 large eggs
2 or 3 cups whole wheat flour [I used Sonrisa flour]

Beat the eggs and then add flour a little at a time until it's a dough you can handle. Knead it until it's smooth and then cover and let it rest in the fridge for an hour or so. 

Preheat oven to 375˚. Peel and cube the butternut and throw in the garlic cloves. Toss in olive oil and spread out on a baking sheet. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the the butternut is tender. Puree the squash and garlic. Stir in parmesan cheese and onions, and set aside.

Split the rested dough in half and roll out both halves as thin as you can get them (to an eighth an inch?). Lay out the bottom part, add the filling (maybe by tablespoons, leaving room between the blobs for the edges!) and then cover with the top part. Cut out the shapes you have in mind, use a fork to seal the edges and then, if you have some leftover dough, roll out another round (rinse, repeat).

In a large pot, bring water to a boil. Add the pasta. Boil until the raviolis float (maybe 5 minutes or so?). Drain, drizzle with a bit of olive oil and top with freshly ground black pepper.

That's it!! Have a bit of salad on the side, and it's a meal!

This was so yummy. It really makes such a big difference to make your own pasta -- especially if you can use whole wheat flour, because then it has so much flavor on its own. You can fill the raviolis with whatever you want (I'm thinking about trying a tomato-garlic-pepper-artichoke thing at some point, though I loved-loved-loved the butternut filling) and you can add cheese and/or cream to the sauce for extra richness.

Have a great weekend, everyone! Stay warm, be safe, and get some R&R!