Smashed Butternut & Orange No-Roll Ravioli from Weeknights with Alice
Servings: 4
Here’s a lazy person’s answer to pumpkin ravioli – all the flavour, none of the folding. I like using fresh pasta sheets here because they cook so quickly, but you could even serve the pumpkin sauce over a nice shop-bought ravioli, finishing with more blobs of ricotta on top. And while we’re talking ricotta, I prefer hunks from those hefty wheels you see in the deli counter, rather than the stuff you’ll find in a tub. It has a more delicate texture and a tang that’s lovely against the sweetness of the sauce.
15 minutes
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Ingredients
- ½ butternut pumpkin squash; about 700 g (1 lb 9 oz) washed and cut into 3 cm (1¼ in) chunks (skin on is fine)
- 2 carrots roughly chopped
- 1 large brown onion peeled and halved
- 4 garlic cloves peeled
- ¼ cup (60 ml) olive oil
- 50 g (1¾ oz) butter
- 1 stock cube (veg/chicken), or 1 cup (250 ml) stock
- a good scrape of fresh nutmeg
- 350-400g (12–14 oz) fresh lasagne sheets
- zest and juice of 1 orange
- ⅓ bunch (about 60 g/2 oz) flat-leaf parsley finely chopped
Home stretch
- 250 g (9 oz) fresh ricotta (from the deli section) drained well
- 50 g (1¾ oz) parmesan or pecorino finely grated
- toasted almonds hazelnuts or macadamias roughly chopped
- extra virgin olive oil
Instructions
Blitz the veg
- In your food processor, blitz the pumpkin, carrot, onion and garlic cloves to a fine paste.
Bikram butternut
- Gently heat the olive oil and butter in a large deep heavy-based pan over medium–low heat. Scoop in the pumpkin and allium mix and swish about to coat in the fats. Crank the heat up to medium–high, listen for a sizzle, toss about, then whack a lid on. Set a timer for 15 minutes and leave to sweat, stirring occasionally, scraping any caramelised bits from the bottom of the pan.
- Once the timer goes off and your mix has turned a suitably burnt umber shade and tastes like roasted pumpkin, stir in 1 cup (250 ml) water, along with the stock cube and nutmeg. Tilt the lid halfway off the pan, then cook the lot over medium–high heat, stirring occasionally, for 5–10 minutes, until thick and saucy.
Bubble the pasta
- While your sauce is doing its thing, bring a large pot of well-salted water to the boil. Slice the lasagne sheets into raggy, fork-friendly strips, loosen into strands and dump into the water, stirring about for the first minute or so. Cook for 3–4 minutes, depending on how al dente you like your pasta.
Swirl together
- When the pasta is cooked to your liking, scoop out using a slotted spoon and stir it through the sauce, over a low heat, adding in a little of the pasta water to loosen the sauce (the water will reabsorb). Stir the orange zest and 2 tablespoons of orange juice through, along with the chopped parsley, allowing the residual heat to soften it.
- Taste for seasoning, adding salt and pepper to your liking.
Bring it home
- Ladle into serving bowls, then use a teaspoon to scoop blobs of ricotta over each bowl. Sprinkle with the grated cheese and nuts, finishing with a lick of olive oil and another crack of pepper.
Notes
Double duty
This sauce reheats a treat. You could cook the sauce ahead and stir the freshly cooked pasta and blobs of ricotta through to finish, or just reheat the lot – the ricotta will change texture slightly but it’ll still be delish.
Recipe from Weeknights with Alice (Murdoch Books)
