Pumpkin and brown butter ravioli with hazelnuts and rosemary

A note on making better home made pasta: a timber pasta board makes your life easier and the texture of your pasta so much better. Ive learned about this through many years of trial and error. The one I have is purchased through Constante imports in Melbourne. I believe they ship Australia wide.

Makes approximately 50 ravioli or enough for 4-5 as a main course

Ingredients:

Pasta dough:
300g 00 flour
3 XL eggs + 1 egg yolk

Filling:
250g roasted pumpkin*
200g ricotta
50g butter, browned and cooled
1/2 lemon zest
1/4 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
Salt & Black pepper

Brown butter sauce:
100g butter
60g chopped hazelnuts
3 sprigs rosemary, leaves picked and chopped (or 1/2 a bunch of sage, leaves picked and chopped)
Juice of 1 lemon

To garnish
grated parmigiano reggiano

*this is a good thing to do a day in advance. Cut a chunk of a large pumpkin into wedges and toss with EVOO, salt & pepper. Roast at 180C until completely tender, about 45-60 minutes. Allow to cool and refrigerate.

Method:

First start by making your pasta dough:
Place your flour on a board or clean bench and make a well in the centre. Whisk your eggs and yolk together in a small bowl and pour that into the centre of the well, being careful it doesnt spill over the edges. Use a fork to start incorporating the flour into the egg, little by little and then switch to a bench scraper to combine everything. Knead it all together until it comes together in a dough ball. If it feels quite dry, I like to cover it with a bowl and leave it to rest for 15 minutes on the bench before proceeding to knead it. This just hydrates the dough a little, making it easier to knead. Knead for about 10 minutes until it is completely smooth. Wrap tightly in cling film and leave it on your bench to rest for at least one hour but several hours are fine too.

To make the filling:
Scoop the roasted pumpkin out of its skin and measure out the amount you need for this size recipe. Combine with the remaining ingredients in a bowl and stir to combine. Taste for seasoning and adjust with salt & pepper. Add it to a piping bag or simply leave in a bowl and you’ll use a small teaspoon to distribute the filing.

Before you begin filling your pasta, ensure you are ready to go with your filling and are preferably going to boil the pasta right after filling it. The longer it sits, the more chance the pasta sheet has to dry out or the filled pasta has to stick to the tray.

To fill the pasta:
Dust your pasta dough lightly with flour and divide it in 4 pieces. Pass each piece of dough through the pasta machine beginning at the widest setting and then moving down through each number until it is thin enough you can see your hand through the pasta sheet. My machine goes from 0-9 and I ran it through to #7 on the gauge. Repeat with the remaining pieces keeping the ones that are already rolled under a very lightly damp cloth on your board, not overlapping. This keeps them from drying out or sticking to each other.

Pipe about a tablespoon of filling onto the centre of the sheet beginning at one end, and keep piping spoonfuls at about 3-4cm apart until you reach the other end of the sheet. Fold the sheet over the filling lightly and beginning at one end press the air out of the filled portion of the dough, working your way to the other end so the air has somewhere to escape before you have sealed everything shut. Cut along the length of the dough with a serrated pasta cutter and then cut in between the ravioli to reveal individual ravioli. If you are going to boil the pasta right away you can leave them on your board. If you are going to boil them later, dust a sheet tray with a thick layer of semolina or rice flour and place your ravioli on the tray so they are not touching otherwise they will stick. I prefer to not refrigerate the filled pasta, instead I leave it out until im ready to boil them.

To cook and finish the pasta:
Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil. Boil the pasta for 2-3 minutes until they are ‘al dente’.

In a large wide sauté pan, add the remaining butter and hazelnuts and cook over medium high heat until the butter is browned and the hazelnuts are toasted. Add in the chopped rosemary and let that infuse and sizzle. Scoop the pasta out of the water and drop it into the brown butter. Toss everything together. Squeeze the lemon juice over everything and season with a bit of flaky salt and black pepper.

Divide in bowls or serve on a large platter garnished with grated parmigiana reggiano.