The Slapdash Cook

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A 28-ounce can of pumpkin turns out to hold rather a lot of pumpkin puree. I had originally bought it for, I think, pumpkin muffins. I made those, then I made some pumpkin cookies, then I narrowly avoided making pumpkin pancakes, and I still had more than a cup of pumpkin left. Fortunately, my friend F. happened to mention that she was making pumpkin ravioli, and I thought it was a brilliant idea — a savory use of all that lovely squash.

However, I don’t have the patience or the equipment for making pasta. Thus, the cheat referred to in the subject line — I used egg roll wrappers. This is a cheat that you will find in many recipes. Pasta purists turn up their noses at it, and I do think there are a few practical problems. But unless you know where to buy your own fresh pasta sheets, this is the low-fuss solution. (I do not count buying canned pumpkin as cheating. Sure, I could roast and puree my own pumpkin, but there’s no flavor loss and no preservatives with canned pumpkin, and I have a job.)

This was actually my second batch of pumpkin ravioli. The first was dressed with a sauce of brown butter, sage and a dash of balsamic vinegar. If you can stand the cholesterol, this is a really tasty sauce that takes about 45 seconds to make. Unfortunately, large amounts of butter don’t agree with me, so this time, I went with my mushroom/wine/milk sauce. This second time, I also made way too much filling, so now I’m thinking I have weird pumpkin manicotti or a weird pumpkin calzone in my future.

Cheater’s pumpkin ravioli
One package of egg roll wrappers
1/2 to 3/4 cup pumpkin (I threw in everything I had left)
1/2 cup ricotta cheese (I used low fat)
1/4 cup grated parmesan
1/4 tsp salt
half of a big onion
2 to 3 cloves of garlic
pepper to taste (my taste is lots)
a generous pinch each of nutmeg and thyme
half a tablespoon chopped Italian parsley (probably optional)
one beaten egg (you can probably skip this)

1. Saute the onions until they are brown. I did that in my old friend, the slow cooker, which allowed me to throw in the garlic cloves as well, whole and still in their peels, which roasts them effortlessly.

2. Put them in a reasonably capacious bowl. I did this in a resealable container because I was stretching the prep out over two days. Do as I say, not as I do! Then you add everything else, including the pumpkin…

The spices and herbs…

The cheeses….

And the egg.

Ta-dah!

3. Now the assembly. I used a Food Network recipe’s advice for this, which was to lay out sheets of egg roll wrapper, put generous amounts of filling on each quadrant, then brush the area around them with water. The recipe, and my friend M., both recommended an egg wash with a little water, but I hate using extra eggs if I can avoid it. YMMV.
(Unfortunately, there’s always one picture that seems to get rejected when I try to upload, and this one was the one it chose this time. Which is annoying, because the layout here is important. I’m going to try again tomorrow in case it’s a server maintenance issue or something.)

With my first batch, I found that creating a really tight seal was very important, which is why I used forks and spoons to really mash the edges together. I also suspect that I could have used more filling than I did, which is the opposite of my usual problem. The Food Network recipe recommended a pasta cutter, but not being an Italian chef, I used a steak knife. I suspect the pasta cutter might help with the sealing. You might also want to make borders a lot smaller than the ones I made.

Ta-dah!

The things dry out, so don’t let them sit too long.

4. Boil a large pot of water. Here’s where I did implement M.’s advice: the water should be boiling gently rather than hard; don’t put in too many at a time; and remove the ravioli as soon as they float back up to the top. This happens almost immediately. I had sauce standing by this time because I wanted to make sure they didn’t stick to one another. Oh, also, best to drain well.

Serve to appreciative J.

I would like to try this again with fresh pasta sheets if I can think of a place to buy them, just to see whether the real problem was the egg roll wrappers or my own lack of detail orientation.