Butternut Squash Ravioli with Basil-Brown Butter Sauce

It turns out that I had some leftover squash after making the Apricot Squash Soup. I decided to try out a new recipe with it. I found this recipe at allrecipes.com which I use quite often. The original recipe called for sage, but I substituted with basil because I have a plant growing and I love to use it! This recipe is fairly easy, but time consuming. Since I only had half a butternut squash leftover I halved the original recipe. The original recipe served 8 and my list of ingredients below will serve 4.



Ingredients:

1/2 large butternut squash, halved lengthwise, peeled and seeded
1 tsp butter
salt and ground black pepper to taste
1/4 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
24 wonton wrappers
1 egg white, lightly beaten

Sauce Ingredients:

2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp chopped fresh basil leaves
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place the squash, cut side up, on a baking sheet.

Place 1 tsp butter in the hollow of each half. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. Cover the squash with aluminum foil, tucking in the edges. Bake the squash for 45 to 65 minutes, until tender and easily pierced with a fork. Scoop the squash into a bowl and mash until smooth (I used a potato masher to do this). Mix in the allspice, nutmeg, cinnamon and Parmesan cheese until well blended. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

This might look a little weird, but it smelled so good! All of those spices mixed together gave it a smell similar to pumpkin pie. Fill a deep pot with lightly salted water and bring to a boil. To make the ravioli place a wonton on a clean, flat surface. Placed about a tbsp of squash mixture in the center of the wonton. Then coat the edges with the egg white (the egg white serves as the "glue" to hold the wontons together). Cover with a second wonton wrapper. I found that it's very important to get all of the air bubbles out of your ravioli, otherwise it will explode when cooked!

Repeat with the remaining wonton wrappers until all of the squash mixture has been used. Drop the ravioli into the boiling water and cook for about 3-5 minutes or until tender. Remove and drain. Set aside until the sauce is prepared.

To make the sauce, melt butter in a skillet over med-high heat. Stir in the basil and continue to cook until the basil is crispy, but not browned. Add salt and pepper to taste. Placed 6 to 8 ravioli on a serving plate and drizzle with sauce.

These raviolis were a fairly good size and very filling. I ate four of them and they were so tasty! I mentioned above that the spices made it smell similar to pumpkin pie and it also had a similar taste. The butter and basil sauce also added a nice level of flavor. I love wonton wrappers and be on the lookout for future posts including ravioli recipes.

Also, today is Valentine's day and I have a simple, yet delicious dinner planned for tonight. I'll be posting about that later.