So I decided to take an evening off from friends and family and hole up in my house to cook, drink some wine and relax. The past few weeks have seemed so hectic with all the parties, the holidays and football games. I needed some me time and have thoroughly enjoyed it. For dinner, I prepared myself a sweet potato ricotta ravioli which was fabulous. I always have bigger eyes than my stomach when it comes to ravioli though. I feel like I need 6 or 8 of them but really after 3 or 4, I'm completely stuffed. Not sure why that is as they are really so small and barely have any filling. Anyhow, I had never made ravioli from scratch and since that is my theme lately, I decided to attempt it. I didn't really have a recipe to work from but I will outline the steps I took to create this great little dish.
First, I made my ravioli filling. To make sweet potato ricotta ravioli filling you need:
1 large sweet potato
3/4 cup ricotta cheese
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
Skin the sweet potato, cut into small chunks and chop in a food processor until nearly pureed. Heat the butter and EVOO in a large skillet and add in sweet potatos and brown sugar and sautee. After the potatoes are cooked softened and tasty, turn off the stove and let cool.
Now, moving on to the pasta dough. You need to make a basic dough and will need:
2 large eggs
2 cups flour
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon sugar
A dash of rubbed sage
A pinch of salt
A splash of water
Mix with either a pastry whisk or a blender fitted with a pastry attachment the above ingredients until a dough ball forms. If needed, slowly sprinkle additional flour into the mixture as you are blending together to form the ball.
Knead the ball of dough on a floured countertop then either roll by hand to a very thin layer or run through a pasta machine. Cut into a rectangle approximately 5 inches deep and however wide you can make it.
Back to the filling, transfer the potato filling to a bowl and add in ricotta cheese. Fold together then transfer to a pastry bag.
In a small bowl, make up a quick egg wash with one egg and a splash of water, whisked together. Lightly brush the egg wash over the surface of the pasta dough and dab the filling in a straight row of dots about 1/5 inches apart from each other. You want the filling to be 3/4 of the way from the bottom of the dough. Fold the dough over top the filling and gently, but firmly press the dough all around each filling to seal the individual ravioli. Careful not to tear the tops. Cut between the filling to seperate the ravioli and trip off any excess from the edges.
In a large boiling pot of water, add a dash of salt and a drizzle of olive oil. Add in, one by one, the ravioli and let cook for approximately 10 minutes.
While the ravioli are cooking, you will need to make the sage and brown butter sauce.
In a sauce pan, melt 4 tablespoons butter and add in approximately 1 cup brown sugar. Stirring, dissolve the sugar and add in a teaspoon of sage and a pinch of salt. Keep stirring and add a dash of cinnamon. Splash with a bit of water to thin out the sugar sauce just a bit and continue cooking over medium-low heat.
Once the ravioli are done, spoon the sage and brown sugar sauce over top and serve immediately. Enjoy!
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