I love food. And I love butternut squash. It’s not like other squish (heehee). It is sweet and melony…in the best way possible. It smells like a pumpkin that mated with a cantaloupe (delicious, of course) and it’s versatile too.

Isn’t it pretty? Another cool thing about this squash is that it makes SUCH good vegetarian food because its perfect taste/texture can stand up to meat. I ain’t a vegetarian, but this recipe is accidently vegan… I wanted to pair my fave pasta dough recipe with a perfect butternutty filling, so here it is for your viewing, and (hopefully one day) eating  pleasure:

For the filling I combined one medium roasted butternut squash (to roast: core it and cut it in quarters and stick it in a 350 degree oven for an hour), one large caramelized onion, 1/2 tsp dried thyme, 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg, and some salt and pepper to taste…and I threw some parsley in there for color.

Whip up the dough from this recipe. Add a tablespoon of oil, and make sure to use 1/2 tsp of salt. Then forgive me for the next blurry pic :O

Stupid, shaky, trying-not-to-get-flour-in-my-new-camera hands!

Anyways, you don’t need to use a pasta maker (the guy in the recipe tutorial doesn’t) but it sure helps! Here is a video with some random Australian showing you how to use a pasta maker. It also features some kid dressed up as batman at the end??!?

Once you’ve got your dough thin enough, pipe heaping teaspoons of filling like a-thissssss.  Next, seal the raviolis-paint some water around the filling bloops. (I can’t believe that the spell-check red squiggly lines didn’t pop up on that word!)

Place another sheet of dough over the bloopy one (OMG ‘bloopy’ is a word too!) and work out any air that got trapped while you are sealing the raviolis with your fingers. I used a measuring spoon to help make the BLOOPS look pretty 🙂

Make sure you go to a thrift store the morning before you make these and find a ravioli cutter for 50 cents! What luck! If you aren’t as lucky as me, you can use a pizza cutter or just a boring old knife to cut them.

Gah, they were so delicious! Seeing this photo again just compelled me to take a break from writing this just so I could have my second lunch. (Everyone has second lunch, right?)

My favorite way to eat these bad boys is to sauté about 4 cloves of garlic in some olive oil while the ravioli is boiling (which takes about 3 minutes if it’s fresh, and 4 minutes if it’s frozen.) Scoop the cooked pasta into the frying pan and shake it like a polaroid picture add some fresh parsley. If you aren’t vegan or a slave to a dairy sensitivity, bring on the parmesan!

They are also delish with a simple jar of store bought tomato sauce.

Any pasta that you don’t use right away needs to be frozen on sheets. Then get your trusty sidekick (AKA kid #3) to help you put the frozen ravioli into a ziplock bag.

Take a photo and insert it at the end of your blog post. Write a rushed conclusion so you can get to lunch #3.

Happy blooping  😉