It’s that time of year again! Pumpkin season. When the leaves are falling and the air is crisp, and every street corner market has an abundance of fresh pumpkins decorating the store front. I recently baked my own pumpkin and froze the pulp for future pumpkin endeavors. There is just something extremely satisfying about using your own baked pumpkin, although there is certainly nothing wrong with using commercially canned pumpkin.
For instructions on how to roast your own pumpkin, Kevin from Closet Cooking has a great technique. Start with the smallest time, though…my pumpkin roasted a lot faster than his. (Same with the seeds if you are roasting them–start with 5-6 minutes. You can always add time, but you can’t fix burnt seeds).
Kevin also has some yummy sounding Pumpkin Cream Cheese Raviolis, which were the inspiration for mine. I was looking for something a little less TexMex though, so I started searching for some different variations. Love and Olive Oil has some yummy sounding raviolis too, more in the flavor profile I was looking for, but a little too heavy with the addition of all the cream. I opted for a marriage of sorts between the two recipes, substituting Kevin’s cream cheese for the heavy cream, and Lindsay&Taylor’s seasoning for the TexMex Cumin flavors. So here is my version, which freezes nicely. Next time I think I will double it, because I really want more in the freezer.
Pumpkin Cream Cheese Ravioli
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups pureed pumpkin
- 3 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
- 1/2 teaspoon thyme
- 1/4 teaspoon sage
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
- 1-12 ounce package wonton wrappers
1. Mix together pumpkin, cream cheese, thyme, sage, salt, and pepper. Brush one of the wontons with water. Place a teaspoon of the pumpkin mixture in the middle of the wonton and place another wonton on top. Using a ravioli cutter/sealer, cut and seal the ravioli.
*If you don’t have a ravioli cutter/sealer, use one wonton, brush with water, place 1/2 – 1 teaspoon of pumpkin mixture in middle and fold diagonally (so you end up with a triangle shape). Press the edges to make sure they are sealed. You will probably get more raviolis this way–but I like the pretty shape that my ravioli cutter makes.
2. Place on a cookie sheet and freeze. Three or four raviolis per person. Place in freezer bags. Freeze.
3. Cooking instructions: Bring a pot of water to a rolling boil. Drop in frozen raviolis and cook for 4 – 6 minutes.
The Pampered Chef has some yummy sounding sauces for when you are ready to cook those ravioli. Here are two of my favorites:
Walnut Pesto
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup walnuts
- 1/2 cup lightly packed fresh basil leaves
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 garlic clove, pressed
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/4 cup fresh Parmesan cheese
1. Place walnuts in a small microwave-safe dish. Microwave on high for 1-2 minutes, stirring after each 30-second interval, until fragrant and lightly toasted. Cool completey.
2. Place walnuts and basil on a cutting board and chop together until finely chopped. Combine basil mixture, oil, garlic, salt, and pepper together in a small bowl. Spoon over pumpkin raviolis.
Sage Brown Butter
This is a winner in any category. Google this recipe and you will come up with thousands of versions. Yum!
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 3 tablespoons snipped fresh sage leaves
- 1/4 cup grated fresh Romano cheese
- black pepper
1. Heat oil and butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add sage and cook 1 minute or until butter just begins to brown. Add cooked ravioli. Cook without stirring until ravioli are golden brown on one side.
2. Remove from skillet; spoon onto serving plates. Sprinkle cheese over ravioli. Top with ground pepper.
