Butternut ravioli 2 ways

I wish I knew the word for "butternut squash" in some other language because I need some VARIETY when I talk about it over and over again. Can you believe I still have some of last winter's butternut squash hanging around? I made several purées over the winter and slung them in the freezer never to be seen again. But... they are still there. Here's a ravioli I invented to use some of the stuff up. Some sage leaves from the garden were pressed into service.

Ingredients

• 1 cup butternut squash purée (roast halved squash about an hour and scrape out soft stuff)
• 1 cup ricotta
• 1 t nutmeg
• 1/3 cup pine nuts, toasted
• pinch salt
• several grinds of black pepper
  
• 1 package dumpling wrappers (I used 60 round wraps)
• 3 T butter
• about 12 large lovely sage leaves

Mise-en-place

Assembly

1. Set a large pot of water to boil.
   
2. Mix together the squash, ricotta, nutmeg, pine nuts, salt and pepper.
   
3. Create the raviolis by putting a teaspoon of filling in the middle of each wrapper.


4. Then, dab water with a wet finger around the border of each wrapper and place another wrapper on top. This forms a sort of flying saucer shape. (Pick up the ravioli as you seal the edges, since the filling will make the top wrapper too small otherwise.)





5. Put the raviolis in small batches into the boiling water. I had trouble with my raviolis sticking to the bottom of the pot and then exploding. I found that lowering them into the froth in a slotted spoon helped them cook a bit before "releasing" (letting them slide off the spoon). They don't take long to cook--3 minutes or so. Remove with the slotted spoon and stash on an oiled plate.
6. Melt the butter in a sauté pan, then add the sage. Fry the sage until it's getting crispy.





7. You can reheat the raviolis before serving (and imbue them with sage) if you throw each one in the sage butter for a few seconds before plating. Put a sage leaf on top of each ravioli and serve.

These seemed to expand during cooking and just a few were enough to fill me up. I served these with a green salad and the family gave the meal a thumbs up!

And now the second part of my story: I did not use up the full 60 wrappers nor the squash-ricotta filling for the above meal. So a few days later, I made up another batch of raviolis. This time, I just used one wrapper per dumpling, folding each in half over a teaspoon of filling and sealing with water. I fried them in a combination of canola oil, olive oil, and a dab of butter for flavor. It was a simple matter of throwing in a new ravioli, turning over the one already frying, and removing the one that had already been turned over. This method made another score of raviolis (or so).


Result? I liked this version even better! (When something's fried, what's not to love?!) They were crisp and hot, and somehow seemed more savory than the boiled version. This was just a quick lunch, but when I make these again I'll create a dip for them. I'm thinking something with sour cream and cumin, maybe lemon zest. A tart tangy complement would go well with these sweet-but-not-too-sweet mouthfuls.