This Pumpkin Ricotta Ravioli is made with homemade pasta, served bathed in a nutty brown butter. To offset the richness of the filing and butter, a little marinara sauce is delicious complement and the dish is finished with shaved Parmesan and crispy sage leaves. Hello autumn comfort food.

Round ravioli with fluted edges topped with browned butter, crispy sage leaves and shave Parmesan

These homemade ravioli are filled with pumpkin puree, ricotta cheese and warming nutmeg which helps enhance the all the flavors. The nights are chilly and what is more comforting than a great bowl of pasta? Making homemade pasta is not as difficult as it may sound and the results are so much more rewarding.  

Is ravioli hard to make?

No. Homemade pasta is easy to make by mixing just 4 ingredients, roll it out, add the filling and cut the shapes.

If you want to make this a REALLY easy pumpkin ravioli, and are not comfortable making pasta dough, many grocery stores self fresh pasta sheets that you can use instead of making your own. That’s a huge help.

If you’re not a pumpkin fan, why not try my Butternut Squash Cappellacci di Zucca?  Similar to ravioli but made in the cappelacci shape.

Which sauce goes with pumpkin ravioli? A simple marinara helps cut through the richness of the filling and brown butter sauce.

Marinara sauce being poured into a pan

How to make pasta dough

Working on a clean dry surface, add your flour in a mound and make a well in the center. Crack all of your eggs into the well along with the olive oil, salt and water.

The start of making pasta. Whisking eggs into flour

Use a fork to beat the eggs mixture; be careful not to break the sides of the flour and make a mess. I use my other hand to keep the sides intact.

Once the mixture is not so runny, use your hands to bring it all together and get well combined, then, start kneading. Knead using the heel of your palm for about 5-10 minutes, texture should be smooth and elastic. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Rolling out the pasta dough

Start with a tennis ball size ball of dough and shape it into a rectangle. Run it through your pasta maker at the largest setting, #1. Once it comes out, dust lightly with flour then fold both ends into the middle.

Using a pasta maker to roll out pasta dough

Run it through the machine again on the same setting, then repeat this 2 more times. After the 3rd time, turn the setting to 2, but don’t flour or fold the dough. Turn the setting to 3 and repeat and so on and so on until you reach the desired thickness. For me this is 7 on my machine because I don’t like the ravioli to be too thin or they can break apart.

Filling ravioli dough

When you lay out the dough, keep the dough and the surface under the dough well floured because as the dough gets thinner, it will stick to everything, including itself.

Pumpkin ricotta filling on fresh pasta

Tips for the raviolo filling: To make  life easier when portioning the filling (referring to the picture above) you can see that I made outlines of the ravioli with my cutter. I do this on half of the dough and leave other other half to be folded over. This way, I know exactly where to put the filling so they are evenly spaced. 

Folding the dough over the filling: This a delicate process. I like to push the air out starting in the middle and working my way to the sides, pressing out as much as possible and as close to the filling as possible. Any air could make the ravioli burst open in the water when cooking.

Fold fresh pasta dough to make ravioli
How do I stop my ravioli from bursting?

Make sure the edges are well sealed. Pressing firmly and also making sure there is no filling trapped between the pasta edge.

After cutting the ravioli, place them on a a floured or parchment covered baking sheet. I like to freeze them for about 45 on the baking sheet. You can cook them right from frozen, this makes handling them a lot easier. If you are not going to use them right away, put the frozen ravioli into a ziptop bag, then just cook them right from frozen when you need them.

This recipe yields approximately 20-24 ravioli, depending how thin you make your dough.

More pumpkin recipes:

Yield: 6

Pumpkin Ricotta Ravioli

6 round ravioli on a plate with shaved Parmesan and sage

Homemade pasta is made into pumpkin ravioli and served with a sage butter sauce and crispy sage leaves. 

Prep Time 1 hour 20 minutes
Cook Time 5 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 25 minutes

Ingredients

  • For the pasta:
  • 3 cups (255 grams) all-purpose flour
  • 3 large eggs, plus 1 egg yolk, room temperature
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 2 teaspoons water
  • For the filling:
  • 1 cup (262 grams) ricotta cheese
  • ⅔ cup (150 grams) pumpkin puree
  • ¼ cup (22 grams) Parmesan cheese
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • Salt & pepper
  • Fresh nutmeg
  • ¼ cup (1/2 stick/56 grams) unsalted butter
  • 16 fresh sage leaves
  • Parmesan cheese, grated or shaved
  • Marinara sauce

Instructions

  1. For the pasta:
  2. Working on a clean dry surface, put the flour in a mound and make a well in the center. Crack all of your eggs into the well along with yolk, salt, olive oil, and water. Use a fork to beat the eggs mixture; be careful not to break the sides of the flour and make a mess. I use my other hand to keep the sides intact.
  3. Once the mixture is not so runny, use your hands to bring it all together and get well combined, then, start kneading.
  4. Knead using the heel of your palm for about 5-10 minutes, texture should be smooth and elastic.
  5. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
  6. For the filling:
  7. While the dough is chilling, make the filling. 
  8. Dice the pumpkin and cook in boiling water for 10 minutes, allow to cool.
  9. In a bowl, mix the ricotta, cheese, egg, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Once the pumpkin is cool mash and add to the ricotta mixture, mix well. Set aside.
  10. Bring a large pan of salted water to a simmer.
  11. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and divide into 4 equal parts. Dust your work surface with flour in to receive the rolled dough.
  12. Using an electric or hand pasta machine, pass the dough through the 2 or 3 times until you achieve 1/8" thickness (you should be able to see your hand through it).
  13. Lay the dough out on your floured surface and brush half with the egg wash.
  14. Spoon the filling 2 inches apart on the egg washed half and gently fold over the other half of the dough. 
  15. With your fingers gently press out air around each mound of filling and simply cut the ravioli into any shape you like.
  16. In a medium saucepan melt the butter over low heat.
  17. Add the  ravioli to simmering water until they rise to the top, approximately 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Drain and place onto a towel
  18. While the ravioli cooks turn up the heat for the butter to medium. Add the sage leaves and cook for about 3 minutes until crispy and the butter is brown. Drain on a paper towel.
  19. Once the ravioli are cooked, drain them, add to a pasta bowl and top with the butter, crispy sage, shaved Parmesan cheese and a side of marinara sauce

Nutrition Information

Yield

4

Serving Size

1

Amount Per Serving Calories 574Total Fat 16gSaturated Fat 6gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 8gCholesterol 209mgSodium 917mgCarbohydrates 81gFiber 4gSugar 4gProtein 25g

This nutrition calculation is provided by Nutronix that is only a guideline and not intended for any particular diet.