The Fresh Loaf

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Butternut Squash Ravioli and Dill Pickles :)

SylviaH's picture
SylviaH

Butternut Squash Ravioli and Dill Pickles :)

Yesterday I picked up some nice pickling cucumbers.  Since mine were a total flop trying to grow them in my tiny garden space...it's just gotten to shady with my pepper tree.  I'd rather have the shade and stick to the farmer's markets..we have so many.  I don't know why I even attempt to grow anything with all the locally available produce.  Well, I really do know why..it's fun to grow things.  Even my tomatoes were a flop this year...but not the tomato worms..yikes..I cringe at those things and will pick them off sqirmming more than they do.  

I also picked up some other nice organic veggies.  Among them were a nice butternut squash for the fresh ravioli.  I have been wanting to make it with my fresh supply of Caputo Italian 00 flour.

This recipe makes a lot of pasta.  Just for the fresh Ravioli for two.  I use 2 Organic Eggs, 200g C Tipo 00 flour, about a teaspoon of E.V.O.O and a pinch of salt.  

I mix it all in my food processor, until I get a nice texture that comes together in a ball and is not sticky..comes away from my fingers nicely.  I use extra flour while kneading the dough and making the pasta on my Artisan King Arthur (oops edit) thats a Kitchen Aide Mixer using, my pasta roller attachment.

Fresh Pasta Made With Italian Caputo Tipo 00 Flour

6 Organic Eggs

600 G Caputo Tipo 00 Flour

pinch of salt to taste

1 TBsp. Extra Virgin Olive Oil

For the Butternut Squash Filling and Cream Sauce.  

I used Fabio Vivani.com recipe.  He has a video making it.  He is so fun and entertaining to watch with many wonderful recipes.  I only changed the cookies that were added and made 1/2 a recipe.  I used some wonderful Italian Lady Fingers from Italy I picked up a Sprouts.  They are dry crispy with a slight sweetness...just delicious.

Dinner was delicious.   Light, Butternut Squash Raviolies, perfect for a hot summer day.

 

 

 

It's hard to get a photo before things get eaten

 

Easy Dill Pickles-  Great for just making a few jars at a time as your pickling cucumbers ripen.

I like Cold Packed pickles and peppers.  They are the firmest

Wash, slice, pack pickling cucumbers into Sterilized jars.  Use approved canning jars and rims with new seals for safe processing.

In a pot add 3 cups water, 2 cups 5% white vinegar/ or you can use apple cider vinegar, 1/8 cup pickling salt more or less to taste.  More is your making a lot of jars.  Bring to boil..turn down heat and keep hot until ready to ladle into jars.

I added a couple peeled garlics, lots of  fresh dill..I didn't have it so used dried.  Some pepper corns, a small amount of dried red pepper, pinch or two,  mustard seeds to each jar according to your taste...about a teaspoon per jar.  Fill to 1/2 head space with vinegar mixture. 

Remove bands and lids from hot water and skew into place.

Process in a hot water bath for 15 minutes.  

Remove and let sit several hours until cooled and you'll hear a 'pop' they've sealed..or press cooled top and if it pops..it didn't seal..just refrigerate and eat after allowing at least 2 weeks to full flavor.  Store 'sealed' jars in a cool place for at least 2 weeks for full flavor to develope.  Refrigerate before eating..they always taste better that way.

 

Sylvia

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

Isand66's picture
Isand66

Wow those ravioli look amazing and I love pickles!  I was going to try and make some myself but alas my cucumbers did not do very well this year!

Thanks for sharing.


Ian

SylviaH's picture
SylviaH

I got a little carried away seeing how thin I could make the pasta strips.  A little thicker would have been even tastier for the ravioli.  

Pickles are fun and easy..but it was a little warm boiling the water.  I canned late in the evening and that helped keep the kitchen a little cooler.  My hot water canning pot is over 40 yrs. old.  I finally got a new stainless steel jar holder for it.  The large still doesn't cover with water 2" over the larger quart jars and I have to use my pressure canner pot because it's taller.  I like the spear shaped pickles and they do need the quart jars.  The pint jars fit nicely in a regular hot water canner and make nice chip sliced pickles.

Sylvia

Isand66's picture
Isand66

Now all you need is some Jewish Rye and Patrami or Corned Beef!

Ian

SylviaH's picture
SylviaH

maybe even some good hoagie buns too!

I absolutely love corned beef...but hot pastrami sandwich with a kosher pickle...my favorite.

Sylvia

dmsnyder's picture
dmsnyder

Lots of work, but certainly worth it, eh?

David

SylviaH's picture
SylviaH

I haven't tried freezing fresh made ravioli, it would make preparing dinner go a lot faster.  I think they would be delicious too.  

Cold packed pickles and peppers are easy and fun..just warm in the kitchen.

Sylvia     

HeidiH's picture
HeidiH

I make ravioli in batches and freeze it for grabbing for a quick meal.  Just freeze it flat on a foil-lined cookie sheet then toss them in a plastic bag when frozen.  I use the same method for gnocchi, other pastas, pot stickers, pierogies, etc.  Cook them while still frozen.

Hmmph.   Speaking of which, some ravioli would be good this weekend.  There's pork ravioli in a basil pasta in the freezer right now. 

SylviaH's picture
SylviaH

Heidi, reading your posts and blogs...I know you must be a great cook and baker!  

My daughter's favorite ravioli is butternut squash and I have been meaning to make her and family a large batch.  I think they would very much appreciate them being handy.  Frozen will be perfect.  

I hand crimped these but, I do have all those gadgets and rollers for a large family size batch...though they don't eat pork...I do..your's sound fantastic and, I will have to put to use all my garden basil.  I just love basil.

Thanks for your much appreciated comments and, have fun this weekend.  

Sylvia

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

sadly reminds me that my hand cranked pasta machine toasted itself somehow.  Now I can get the attachment for the KA since we have one of those now!  We just love raviolis since my wife is from the home of toasted raviolis; St Louis.  The freeze great if frozen separately on a cookie sheet before bagging.  The butternut squash ones freeze exceptionally well.   We love Butternut squash soup with corn, wild rice, smoked sausage and a ton of chicken stock soup in the winter time.  It too freezes very well.

You examples are just beautiful!  An they must taste great.  What kind of sauce do you put on them?

I'm into less work and do refrigerator pickles now that I am lazy and retired......We use much less vinegar and salt, add a little sugar allspice berries, turmeric, bay leaves, whole cloves, coriander, fennel & caraway  seeds along with crushed green cardamon pods to our spice mix and a hot pepper sliced open (chose your poison), dill and celery seeds with a few sliced garlic cloves to make them kosher.   Like our pizzas we load it up too :-)

We used to put more vinegar and salt but after watching Jamie Oliver who said you don't need to do that much vinegar and salt because you have no intention of needing your pickles to last for 5 years like a manufacturer does.  Yours only need to last for a couple of months at the most - so save the vinegar and hold back the bad salt.   He was wrong,  They last about a month then we add more cukes to the old brine with a little more vinegar, salt and sugar to get two - one month batches out of them.

Your  lovely pickle pictures made my apprentice make another couple of batches using regular cukes skinned with a peeler to get rid of the wax.  We love the B & B ones and really hot ones.  Same recipe with more sugar or more freash hot peppers.

Thanks for posting and getting my apprentice out of her coma.

SylviaH's picture
SylviaH

Thank you, I always appreciate your comments.

Ravioli sauce...these had only a plain cream sauce with parm. reg. cheese.  I do love brown butter sauces and also using a marscapone cheese with butternut squash filling..this was new recipe from Viviani.

These pickles need to ferment in the jars for at least 2 to 6 weeks before eating for full flavor.  I reduce my salt somewhat and hope these don't taste to salty but, they are dill pickles and no sugar is added.  Not the beloved delicious bread and butter pickles.  

I love Jamie Oliver, especially his WFO cooking series.  Vinegar, it's cheap and if using apple cider, it is good for you.  I have pickled ... green tomatoes and, I've opened them up a few years later...they were meticulously canned, sealed, stored cool, dark and still tasted pretty darn good.  I haven't made that a habit and try to only make enough from season to season..just had to many canned.  I'd rather be safe than sorry.

The pickle recipe your making sounds like those beloved what, I refer to as 'Bread and Butter' pickles...so delicious, they were my dad's favorite..though the only pickles I ever saw my mom make were some brined onions pickled and refrigerated..Irish style.  They were fantastic alone or on sandwiches and I can only vaguely remember her recipe..though very simple.  I've had the onions, now I need to get them made.

I only use organic fruits and veggies for canning.  Pesticides go into the pulp and skins.  I learned that way back juicing and vinegar will kill just about anything growing bacteria.  I don't think I've ever seen a waxed pickling cucumber only table cucumbers as I call them.

Sylvia 

 

 

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

regular cucumbers are on sale 10 for 99 cents, I use them for pickles instead of $1.50 a pound pickling cukes which are never waxed.  The regular ones are waxed so we peal them.   Theu too make good crispy pickles if done refrigerator style.  We make sour,  hot, semi hot, Kosher Dill and Bread and Butter pickles,  All have dill, garlic, vinegar water, pickling spices, salt, peppers and sugar in them.  The K. Dills have just a tiny bit of sugar and the B& B has just as much sugar as vinegar.  Hot has habaneros, semi hot has Serranos the mild have 1 jalapenos split . We pickle cabbage, eggplant squash, asparagus, broccoli and its cousins,  onions, carrots,  peppers...just about anything :-)  We love pickles and pickled veggies but just do refrigerator ones where no canning is necessary.  We do can the sour ones though.

Jamie Oliver's WFO series was great.  I loved his 'Who wouldn't want some roasted veg to go with their roasted sausage?'  I like him because he is practical while using  green, simple and fresh based techniques to make great tasting well balanced meals.  I loved his WFO roasted beet and carrot episode where he paired different oils, vinegars, and seasoning with all the different varieties and colors to get different sides - all made in the same pan. 

The one thing I have made that didn't come out like we though was his ketchup .  It tasted great but not like ketchup!  It was  a fine pizza or pasta sauce though.  He did thank Heinz for amaking a good ketchup though :-)

breadsong's picture
breadsong

Hi Sylvia,
I bet the camera had to be super-quick to catch the photo of those beautiful butternut squash ravioli,
before they were gone! :^)
I can appreciate all of the work that went into making those beauties!
:^) breadsong

SylviaH's picture
SylviaH

They were so light and delicious and I honestly think the Tipo 00 was wonderful and did make a difference.

I have to tell you.  Mike was so funny..his first remark was...they look like eggs :)  I took it as a compliment because the pasta was so thin and transparent and the shape was...well the size of a fried egg 'lol'. 

It is so fun making fresh pasta..I can't hardly call it work.  I quess it's just a matter of absolutely organization and the biggest factor is using the electric appliances...I know the hand mixed dough and,  hand cranked pasta machine is great...but honestly, electric is the only way for me to go with pasta making.

Sylvia 

Thaichef's picture
Thaichef

Good Morning Sylvia:

   Both of your foods are beautiful!  I would like to make your butternut ravioli ( I have "glut" of butternut squash. I didn't grow them but it was a volunteered from my compost heap. I have more than 10 large one and we only have two people to eat it.) Got to make something with it.   My question: if I don't have the Caputo Tipo 00 Italian flour, what should I use? Bread flour? Regular flour?

Thank you.

mantana

HeidiH's picture
HeidiH

Mantana, I'm sure Sylvia's  00 flour ravioli are glorious but I've made pasta out of all sorts of flours.  Most recently, I've been using durum flour but most of the time I've just used regular all-purpose white flour from the supermarket.  Maybe ravioli made from bread flour would be less likely to rip and therefore fewer ravioli might split open during cooking?  I don't know but it would be an interesting experiment.  I have a simple, small-batch pasta recipe here: http://www.justapinch.com/recipes/main-course/italian/fresh-pasta-in-the-food-processor.html.  If you don't have a food processor, just mix the pasta with a spoon or your hands.

One of the difficulties I have had with butternut squash ravioli (which are incredibly delicious so worth the effort) is getting the filling dry enough.  I would roast the squash, not boil it or steam it.  Also, you will probably want to freeze this ravioli immediately, even if you are going  to cook it in a few hours, because the relatively wet filling will want to melt the pasta and make a sticky mess.

It's great having homemade ravioli at hand in the freezer to grab for a quick supper.  Last night, with all this talk of ravioli, I grabbed some I made a couple weeks ago.  They were pork ravioli in a green pasta made with fresh basil.  I just sauteed two kinds of mushrooms and spinach, poached the ravioli in some salted water, and tossed them together.  Oh, yeah, there was a lemon and some butter involved, too.  Yummy.

 

SylviaH's picture
SylviaH

Great advice for mantana too.  

I loved using the Italian cookies in the squash.  I used the lady fingers and they were wonderful you can also use the little Italian amaretti cookies..just wonderful.  The mixture's texture was perfect and no wet squash and a flavor booster.

Sylvia   

SylviaH's picture
SylviaH

I do use my durum flour for pasta as I usually have plenty on hand.  There is also a 'pasta semolina' available and can usually be found at your local food stores.  You could even mix it with the all purpose flour if you wanted to but, it's not necessary.  Just plain all purpose flour is great too.  Pasta can be made with a variety of different flours for different tastes.

I just love the convenience of an electric pasta maker, mine being the attachment on my Kitchen Aide Mixer.  Also the food processor really does a fantastic job and these appliances take most the work out and leave the enjoyable part.

You can purchase some simple tools for ravioli.  A simple pizza slicer, a crimped and smoothed side roller, ravioli shaper trays.  I have a large rolling pin for ravioli shaping...makes things go very fast.  Or just use a bisquit cutter or glass and a fork to crimp the edges as I did with these.

You can also fry ravioli, bake or use them in soups.

Fill them with whatever you like and also don't forget you can make flavored pasta's..like spinach, basil, spices..let your imagination run wild :) just have fun and reap the rewards at dinner.

 

The Italian Tipo 00 flour I used in these ravioli was wonderful and is also very popular to use in Italy for pasta making.

The squash can be a bit watery......the 'hand smashed' cookies work wonderfully for flavor and keep the squash from being wet and add a lovely texture and flavor.  Using a marscaponi cheese makes for a wonderful mix with squash a dash of nutmeg...or whatever you like.

Sylvia