Pumpkin ravioli with brown butter sauce and pecans

Step 1

Mix flour with salt.

Step 2

Stir water with egg until well mixed.

Step 3

In a bowl, combine flour and egg-water mixture together and mix until well incorporated. Knead the dough until well-textured and firm. The dough should not be too wet or too sticky. It should only stick to itself, but not to your hands. It should not be too dry, either. Make the dough into a ball or disk, wrap with plastic wrap. Let the dough stand for 1 hour at room temperature before using. This allows gluten to work.

Step 4

This recipe uses ravioli mold to make ravioli (you'll see the pic of the mold if you scroll above).  This amount of dough is enough to make dough for 12 raviolis, using the mold (ravioli mold makes 12 ravioli). If you need to make 24 ravioli, make a second batch of this dough.

Step 5

If your pumpkin puree or mashed pumpkin is too watery, drain the pumpkin using a paper towel and a mesh strainer to get rid of any unnecessary liquid.

Step 6

Mix pumpkin puree with brown sugar and nutmeg. Season filling with salt and pepper.

Step 7

Unwrap a batch of ravioli dough from plastic, divide in 2 equal parts. Flour working area. Roll out each part of pasta dough very thinly, on a floured surface, using a roller. Make sure to flour the upper portion of pasta dough and the roller to avoid sticking. Lift the rolled dough several times during rolling to make sure it doesn’t stick to the counter, and flour working surface with more flour, if necessary.

Step 8

Flour the ravioli mold. After you have rolled the 2 portions of dough very thinly, place first layer of dough on the ravioli mold, so that it covers all 12 holes.

Step 9

Place a small portion of ravioli filling into each indentation, making sure not to overfill. The filling should be at the same level or lower as the flat part of the mold. Place second layer of pasta dough on top of filled ravioli.

Step 10

Using a roller pin, roll across the mold and along the edges to separate ravioli. As you roll the pin, it also removes all air from ravioli, which is very important for ravioli success. By now you should have extra dough hanging off the outside 4 edges of ravioli mold – carefully separate it. Continue rolling the pin along the inside edges of 12 raviolis to separate them from one another: you could also use your fingers to press across the edges to separate ravioli.

Step 11

Flip ravioli mold to release ravioli. Bring a large pot of water to boil. Boil ravioli for 5 minutes, drain and set aside – to be used with sauce below.

Step 12

Or, alternatively, if you’re not using ravioli right away, place them on a plate or baking sheet in the freezer to freeze. After they are frozen, place them in a plastic bag and keep frozen until needed.

Step 13

Preheat oven to 350 F. Toast pecans for 10 minutes until slightly browned, let them cool off and then chop them finely.

Step 14

Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Cook until butter just begins to brown, about 4 minutes. Do not overcook or butter will burn. Remove from heat. Mix in balsamic vinegar and brown sugar. Add ravioli to the hot butter sauce, spoon sauce over to coat ravioli. Transfer to plates. Sprinkle with chopped pecans.