Since moving to Shanghai my interest in cooking has reawakened. This is especially surprising given that we have the ugliest little blue kitchen in the world. Bleh! Hardly a room you want to spend time in. I’ll admit, for me, it was loathe at first sight. However, I am slowly adjusting to our kitchen, and hunching over the exceptionally low counter tops in my undersized baby blue galley is beginning to feel normal. I’ve learned to cook using just the stove light and a few candles in order to avoid turning on the harsh neon-blue overhead light, which makes for a much more relaxing environment.
I’ve developed a few new favorite pasta recipes, and one is pumpkin ravioli with a creamy balsamic brown butter sauce. YUM!!! Seriously, this is one of the tastiest things I’ve ever created or had the pleasure of eating! In fact, it was so delicious I made it for lunch AND dinner on the same day last weekend! I had some leftover pumpkin from making pumpkin bars, an insane amount of fresh thyme I ordered from Fields, as well as some lovely wonton wrappers from the wet market, so I set to work creating!
Before sharing the recipe, I must preface a few things- first, I rarely measure, so all amounts are approximations. Cooking isn’t science, so I just taste and tweak as I go. Second, I decided to take some play-by-play photos of the cooking process. Please disregard the hideous lighting and blue glow from my kitchen- candlelight cooking was not an option with the camera! Third, I have never made ravioli before, so please don’t laugh at my goofy looking creations… truly, I should really be calling them stuffed pastas as they are not the shape of ravioli, but whatever, ravioli is much more fun to say!
Now, onto the cast of characters…
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(You can ignore the jar of spaghetti lurking in the shot)
24 fresh wonton wrappers
1/2 cup of canned pumpkin
1 medium yellow onion
3-4 cloves of garlic
7-8 sprigs of fresh thyme
2 T olive oil
4-5 T butter
1/4 – 1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/3 C whipping cream
2-3tsp balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper to taste
4-5 slices of prosciutto (optional)
Start by heating olive oil and about 2 T of butter over medium heat. Finely dice the onion and add it to the pan.
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Next, mince the garlic and add it to the pan as well. You will want your onions and garlic to become soft and translucent, but not brown, so watch your heat..jpg "pumpkinravioliblog03")
While your onions and garlic cook down, remove all the little leaves from the thyme (yippee! So fun! Not!) and set aside..jpg "pumpkinravioliblog04")
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Add your pumpkin and stir until the ingredients blend together..jpg "pumpkinravioliblog06")
Next add your thyme leaves and season with salt and pepper..jpg "pumpkinravioliblog07")
Sprinkle in parmesan and stir..jpg "pumpkinravioliblog08")
Your filling is now complete and should look something like this. Remove it from the heat. Make sure you taste it at this step and adjust the seasonings and cheese to your taste..jpg "pumpkinravioliblog09")
I take out 2 wonton wrappers at a time and leave the rest covered in plastic wrap so they don’t dry out. Use a brush and a little water to dampen the edges of the wonton wrappers.
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Place a small dollop of filling into the center of each wrapper. .jpg "pumpkinravioliblog11")
Next, fold your wrapper into a triangle and seal the edges. Make sure you push the air out around the filling so you aren’t left with big air pockets. Please note the wonton wrappers I purchased are not exactly square, so my ravioli are a little wonky!.jpg "pumpkinravioliblog12")
Next, dampen the top two edges of the triangle and fold them into the center of the pasta. Viola, you have a little ravioli… okay, stuffed pasta..jpg "pumpkinravioliblog13")
Midway through my cooking I had a stroke of genius and remembered we had some prosciutto in the fridge. I rolled the prosciutto and sliced it into thin strips. I then added a few strips to the remainder of my ravioli. .jpg "pumpkinravioliblog14")
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To differentiate, I make the pumpkin and prosciutto ravioli look like little piggies… =).jpg "pumpkinravioliblog17")
Just before my last few ravioli were finished I set a pot of salted water on the stove to boil. After finishing the ravioli I cleaned out the pan I cooked the filling in, and added a pad of butter (roughly 3 T). .jpg "pumpkinravioliblog18")
I cooked the butter over medium-high heat for just a few minutes until it began to brown..jpg "pumpkinravioliblog19")
At this point, I turned off the heat and added the balsamic vinegar. You will want to make sure you have your fan on for this, and perhaps stick the lower portion of your face down your shirt, because the smell created when vinegar hits the hot butter makes you cough, but it only lingers a few moments. Stir the butter and vinegar together gently, and then add the cream and continue to mix until the sauce is smooth and light brown. .jpg "pumpkinravioliblog20")
Next add your ravioli to the boiling water (I cooked mine in two batches). They will only take 2-3 minutes to cook..jpg "pumpkinravioliblog21")
Add the cooked ravioli directly to the sauce and let it sit for a few moments. Gently turn the ravioli a few times to coat them in the sauce- I promise, it’s so delicious you’ll want to lick the pan!.jpg "pumpkinravioliblog22")
Plate your ravioli and drizzle any remaining sauce over the pasta. Then, devour! YUM! YUM! YUM!.jpg "pumpkinravioliblog23")
Enjoy! If you try this out, please let me know what you thought. Happy cooking!
