Yum, yum, and yum again!  We made fresh pasta in Culinary Skills today.  I chose to do a ravioli!  I caramelized chunks of squash and added some nutmeg and cream for the stuffing.  I then browned some butter and added some sage for the sauce.  This is the first time I have ever done this and it was so much easier than I could have ever imagined!

First we made the dough and let it sit for about 20 minutes.  Then we rolled it.  That part was pretty fun!  This is Chelsea and Chef Ron rollin away.

While the dough was sitting, I started making my filling.  I cut the squash into small chunks and carmelized them in a sauce pan.  Once they are soft enough, you can start squishing and pureeing them.  (gotta love my description!)  Then you add the cream and nutmeg and keep squishing away.

After I got done having my turn on the pasta roller, I was now ready to stuff the pasta.  I laid out my flat pieces, put half a spoonful of stuffing onto the pasta, covered with another flat piece of pasta, and used a flower cookie cutter to cut my ravioli pieces.  (Make sure to get all the air you can out of the pockets so they cook properly.)  These flowers were so cute.  You can use any shape of cookie cutter you want.  I think smaller is better though.  Also, make sure you use egg and outline the suffing piles so the top piece of pasta will stick to the bottom piece.   Here I am cutting the pieces out.  Make sure you push all the way down and then jiggle it a little bit so it cuts it out completely.  (Could I have any more flour on my chefs coat???  Geez!  But I had fun!!)

Then you throw them in very hot, but not boiling, water.  They should sink down to the bottom and will rise to the top when done and al dente!  Should only take about 5-7 minutes.  Not too long so keep your eye on them.  When those are done you can start on the sauce!  I used about 6 tablespoons of butter and about 6 sage leaves.  The tough thing about browning butter is not to burn it.  But you have to keep it at medium high and keep stirring in order for it to froth and brown.  Once it is all melted and starts frothing, add in the finely chopped sage leaves and keep stirring till the leaves crumple and dry up.  The butter turns a nice dark brown and has a nice nutty flavor. Let it sit for about 10 minutes and it will thicken up a little bit.  I didn’t let mine sit so it was a little runnier.  This sauce is also good on popcorn by the way!

Here is the picture again of the final product.  You can see the chopped up sage leaves and how the butter browned.  At first I thought I burned it because it was looking black to me, but it looks like there is dirt on the bottom.  It’s hard to describe what happens to the butter but it looks like I melted butter and added dirt in.  You’ll see what I mean!  Haha.  Thats how it gets that brown color.