Squash Day

Today was my ode to squash day. :)

On the menu today was Pumpkin Syrup, Homemade Butternut Ravioli with Sage Brown Butter Sauce, and Chocolate Pumpkin Spice Latte Cupcakes topped with Cream Cheese Buttercream, Pumpkin Syrup and Cinnamon. It was a pretty aggressive cooking day for me, especially making homemade ravioli.

The Pumpkin Syrup took longer then expected, so I was a little discouraged. (We didn't get to eat it over our pancakes.) But I sucked it up and on with the next recipe, homemade ravioli. I have been looking forward to this dish for a while. Making the pasta was pretty simple, a little time consuming, but worth the time and effort. I love fresh pasta, but always thought it was too complicated to make it at home. I decided to do the "easy" method and use my food processor. Never again! It wasn't any easier. I still had to kneed the dough, so not much time saving. Here's a YouTube video I found, which made pasta making not so scary. But here's my finished product. :)

Butternut Ravioli

Fresh Fettucini

Butternut Squash Ravioli with
Brown Butter Sage Sauce

Fettucini with Butternut Squash
and a drizzle of
Brown Butter Sage Sauce

I started to get lazy, so I decided to make regular fettucini after I had enough ravioli for my family. Am I glad I did! It was so good. I thinned out what was left of the ravioli filling with a 1/4 cup of chicken stock, poured it over the fettucini noodles and drizzled a little brown butter sauce over the dish and it was fabulous! I never thought I could make something this gourmet at home. :)

Of course then it was on to la pièce de résistance, the Chocolate Pumpkin Latte Cupcake with Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting, Pumpkin Syrup and Cinnamon. These were soo...good! :)

Here's some pictures of Logan and Alyssa helping mommy make pasta. They were so excited to use the pasta machine to roll out the dough. :)

 

For a quick weeknight dinner, I highly suggest making the butternut sauce and serving it over your favourite pasta. The sauce is super easy and quick, especially if you already have left over butternut squash in the fridge. As you can see, even Logan really enjoyed it. :)

Butternut Sauce
Ingredients:
½ a large butternut squash, about a pound, cut into ¼” pieces
1 tsp olive oil
1 clove garlic
Salt and pepper
¼ cup pecans, finely chopped
¼ cup grated parmesan cheese
1/2 cup chicken or vegetable stock

Directions: 

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease baking sheet with olive oil. Place butternut squash and garlic on prepared baking sheet. Season with salt and pepper, and bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes or until squash is very soft. 
2. Let squash and garlic cool for 2-3 minutes, then place in a saucepan. Add pecans, parmesan cheese and stock. Using an immersion blender, blend mixture until almost smooth. 
3. Heat sauce until it starts to simmer and cheese starts to melt. Remove from heat and serve with pasta. 

Happy cooking!! :)