ricotta

Pumpkin Ravioli with Brown Butter Sage Sauce

I made this dish early last week and just loved how it came out; fresh pasta filled with a ricotta and pumpkin mixture and served in brown butter full of sage leaves. Fall on a plate! I made maple flavored breakfast sausage to serve with these raviolis and the maple sausage went perfectly with the pumpkin flavor.

The dough is very basic; 2 ingredients, King Arthur basic GF flour and whole large eggs plus a sprinkle of salt. It is pretty close to Annalise Roberts’ pasta dough. Her recipes are the best; my copies are well worn! I have a pasta roller attachment to my KitchenAide stand mixer and it works very nicely to do the rolling out of fresh pasta dough. GF dough needs no rest period. I did let mine stand while I ran an errand. The first two passes through the machine were crumbly and ragged. Run it at least 3 times; more likely 4 through the pasta machine until it gets smooth and no longer has rag edges; I actually cut off the edges on the second run through and folded them in to give a neater edge. Do flour the dough between passes through. You don’t want it sticking. after 4 passes this dough was silky smooth and pliant; perfect for ravioli making!

The filling is also very simple; 2 main ingredients; pumpkin puree and ricotta cheese. I used canned puree as I had an open can and I had part skim ricotta; you can use whole milk ricotta if you have some. A sprinkle of nutmeg and there you have it; a quick yet delicious filling for your ravioli.

Pumpkin Ricotta Ravioli and Brown Butter Sage Sauce.

Ingredients

Pasta:

1 1/2 cups King Arthur Basic GF flour blend plus more for rolling out

3/4 -1 Tsp. xanthan gum

3 large eggs

a sprinkle of sea salt

Filling:

3/4 cup pumpkin puree

1/2 cup ricotta

a pinch of salt

1/4 rounded tsp. of ground nutmeg.

Sauce:

3-4 Tbsp. salted butter

7-10 fresh sage leaves

DIRECTIONS: Put the flour in a big bowl, sprinkle with salt and gum, made a depression in the center; and add the eggs. Stir with a fork pulling in flour to the soft mixture. Try to integrate all the flour into the egg mixture. Hand knead for a few moments to make sure it is a smooth mixture. If you are not using it immediately wrap it in plastic to keep it moist.

Roll it out; I cut mine into 6 chunks and flattened them as I used that chunk; flatten so it will feed into your pasta machine. feed it through 2-4 times folding it between each run so it is like a square/rectangle. This is at the fattest setting of your machine. Lower the setting to the next thinner one and run it through once or twice. I lay mine out on plastic cutting boards as I roll them all once and then at the next setting. I stopped there; if you want thinner pasta lower the setting and run through just once.

Mix the ricotta and pumpkin in a large mixing bowl, add nutmeg and salt and mix again briefly. Drop a scant tablespoon of filling (might be closer to 2 teaspoons) on one side every 3-4 inches. I use a small bowl of water and my finger dipped in it to run around where the dough will be cut. Fold over the dough; press the edges gently trying not to trap air inside the ravioli. I have a ripple edged cutting wheel. Use it or a knife to cut the dough to form individual ravioli.

Heat a pot of salted water to a slow rolling boil. Drop in 4-6 ravioli at a time. I cooked mine 3 minutes. Don’t let it boil once they’re in; almost boil is where you want the water to be. Make sure they don’t stick to the bottom of the pan, I used a spatula to dislodge any that were sticking. They will rise up to the surface. Use a slotted spoon to remove them and put them in a wide low bowl while you continue to cook ravioli.

While they cook make the sauce. Put a small frying pan on to heat. Add the butter cut into 3-4 slices. Watch it melt (on medium heat) and look for it to color; add sage leaves to butter once it starts to brown a bit. Let cook until medium brown and remove from heat; that will take less than a minute; stay right there watching it, better you turn off a tiny bit early than it gets burnt. Pour over bowl of cooked ravioli and serve. Enjoy!

Buckwheat Gnocchi with Clams and Rabe

Anyone who eats at my house knows my deep love of authentic Italian food.  I love many different dishes from spaghetti with meatballs to risotto to homemade pasta and sauce.  This post is about gnocchi. Specifically gnocchi made with ricotta cheese rather than potato.  I love their delicate flavor, light texture and how much easier they are to make than the potato version. I make plain ones with rice flour and will share that recipe some other post. Just don’t ask me how to pronounce gnocchi!

These are buckwheat gnocchi and are served with clams and broccoli rabe.  Yeah buckwheat.  No wheat in it; buckwheat is a relative of rhubarb and it has a homey or earthy flavor that somehow matches perfectly with the clams and bitter greens.  I have been making this dish for more than ten years; gf the past five years.  It is a traditional spring dish at my house and much loved by my daughter. Not that tricky, I promise you can make it, no fancy pasta machine required. No long process.  Roll, cut, press with fork and briefly boil.

It is a spring dish as broccoli rabe is best right now, bright green, snappy flavor and so good for you.  I cook it a few minutes in boiling water before draining and sautéing briefly in olive oil and garlic. Yumm!

You could use fresh clams but I never bother; if you do – please get tiny ones and save a bit of the cooking water to add to the sauce.  If you want to make it not gf; just use all purpose flour for the white rice flour. Most grocery stores now carry buckwheat flour; store the bag in your freezer please so it keeps longer.

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If you look closely you can see ridges on some of them.

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Buckwheat Gnocchi with Clams and Rabe

For the gnocchi

1/3 cup buckwheat flour mixed with

½ cup white rice flour or any blend

1 15 ounce jar of ricotta (whole milk is best but I have used the part skim successfully)

¼ cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese; fine grater side

1 ½ tsp. sea salt

Sauce:

1 lb broccoli rabe

1 large can tiny whole clams or 2 small cans chopped/minced clams

¼ cup EVOL

2 garlic cloves minced

1 tbsp. butter

Salt and fresh ground pepper

Directions: Heat a big pot of salted water.  While it heats, rinse the broccoli rabe and remove any yellowed leaves.  Cut the very bottom of the stems off and discard.  Cut the stems into 1 inch lengths. Do the same for the rest of the rabe; I set aside the stems and cook them one minute extra.  Throw the rabe stems in the boiling water, cook one minute and add the rest.  Cook maybe 3 more minutes; you don’t want it overcooked but not firm either; you will cook it a bit more lat er.  Drain and set aside.

Mix all the gnocchi ingredients in a small mixing bowl. Turn out onto a rice floured bread board, knead briefly to form a dough. Do not add a lot of flour or your gnocchi will not be light and pillowy. Take a half cup or so at a time and roll it out on a rice flour dusted bread board; as thick as your middle finger (read ¾-1 inch).  I usually only roll out 5-6 inch lengths at a time.  They don’t have to be perfect looking, a bit irregular is just fine. Cut into 1 inch lengths (one knuckle long).  Using two forks press gently on the top and bottom to form small ridges.  This will somewhat flatten the gnocchi but the ridges are to hold sauce. If you slightly roll the gnocchi you can press it again and almost square it so each one isn’t as flat. Lay them on a cutting board that you dusted with rice flour. Don’t pile them on top of each other; one layer so they don’t stick together. Form all the dough while a big pot of salted (1 tsp) water heats.  I like a wide pan so I can easily fish out the gnocchi with my flat skimmer.  Put ¼ of the gnocchi in the bubbling water.  Let them slowly rise to the top; I leave them in about 2-3 minutes. I put them into a glass mixing bowl as I do the batches.

While they are cooking, heat the olive oil in a big sauce pan. I like to use my mini wok for this.  It is great for finishing a lot of pasta dishes.  Add the garlic and stir, cook 1 minute.  Add the drained greens, cook 1-2 minutes, adding the clams as it cooks, all the can juices too. Add the cooked gnocchi, the butter and if they seem dry; add a bit of the pot water; maybe ¼ cup. Taste and add salt and pepper as desired.

Note: you can add extra clam juice if you use canned ones; sometimes I add half a bottle of the stuff as I like it brothy. I made some this week and I took to eating it in a low wide bowl using a soup spoon to be able to really sample that broth.

Dive in! broc and rab in pan

They warm up nicely for a meal the next day, keeps 1-2 days in the fridge.

The original recipe is from Italy Al Dente by Bibi Caggiano; adapted to be gf by me. I love this cookbook, use it often; my fav Italian cookbook.  SO many good recipes; she has many great risotto dishes in it as well as homemade pastas and sauces and recipes that use factory pasta.  I have found that every single one works quite well with gf pastas.

Originally posted in spring 2016.