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Pumpkin ravioli with brown butter sauce and pecans - everything is made from scratch! Great recipe during the holiday season (Thanksgiving and Christmas) with lots of seasonal ingredients: pumpkin, pecans, nutmeg.
Pumpkin ravioli was the first recipe idea that came to my mind after I found an unopened can of organic pumpkin sitting in my pantry, leftover, forgotten and unused from this past Thanksgiving / Christmas season. I've already posted two ravioli recipes on this site, and both of them involved cheese and greens. I thought it would be a nice departure to make ravioli without any cheese in the filling - somewhat different from the norm. The use of the brown butter and toasted pecans as a ravioli sauce is also not as common as the white cream sauce or the red tomato based sauce that usually accompany ravioli.
To make ravioli filling, I just used organic pumpkin puree straight from the can, with only a couple of spices added, and the filling was more runny than what I was used to. I used my ravioli mold again and was pleasantly surprised how well the mold worked (once again!) even with a more watery and runny ravioli filling, such as pumpkin puree. Thanks to the mold, I was able to make perfect shapes, and none of ravioli burst or opened up during boiling/cooking. It's key, though, not to overfill the holes in the ravioli mold with too much pumpkin filling - put just enough filling so that it's at the same level as the top of the mold.
Brown butter with balsamic vinegar and a small amount of brown sugar not surprisingly turned out to be an amazing sauce for ravioli filled with pumpkin-nutmeg-brown-sugar filling, and toasted pecans scattered on top made this dish absolutely perfect. I beg you - please make this! It's so good! I've had these ravioli as a stand-alone dinner entry, I've also had it with seared salmon, which was an amazing combination.
Now, if I only knew what to do with the 2nd unopened can of organic pumpkin still in my pantry....
How to make Pumpkin ravioli with brown butter sauce and pecans
Below are step-by-step photos illustrating some steps in making this pumpkin ravioli with brown butter sauce from scratch. For the complete recipe, scroll down below the photos.
If you're more of a visual person and would like photos that walk you through on how to use this ravioli mold, I have 2 more very good homemade ravioli recipes with lots of step-by-step photos on how to use ravioli mold:
Ravioli with spinach and ricotta cheese filling, in tomato cream sauce
Pumpkin ravioli with brown butter sauce and pecans
Ingredients
Ingredients for ravioli dough from scratch (makes 12 ravioli using mold, double this amount if you want to make 24 ravioli)
- 1 ¼ cup flour
- 1 egg
- ¼ cup hot water
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Ingredients for pumpkin ravioli filling (makes 24 ravioli):
- 8 oz pumpkin mashed, canned, organic
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- ⅛ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- salt and pepper
Ingredients for brown butter sauce:
- 4 oz butter
- 2 ½ tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- 1 ½ tablespoons brown sugar
- ¼ cup pecans , toasted, chopped
Instructions
How to make ravioli dough:
- Mix flour with salt.
- Stir water with egg until well mixed.
- 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.
- 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.
How to make pumpkin ravioli filling and assemble:
- 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.
- Mix pumpkin puree with brown sugar and nutmeg. Season filling with salt and pepper.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
How to make brown butter sauce:
- Preheat oven to 350 F. Toast pecans for 10 minutes until slightly browned, let them cool off and then chop them finely.
- 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.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition Disclaimer:
The nutritional information on this website is only an estimate and is provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed. It should not be used as a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
Want Thanksgiving recipe inspiration?
Check out this delicious Thanksgiving Side Dish - Roasted Brussels Sprouts, Cinnamon Butternut Squash, Pecans, and Cranberries
It appears that the dough makes 12 ravioli but top of the recipe says it serves 6. A serving size is only 2 ravioli? Am i missing something?
The recipe makes 24 ravioli (double the amount of ravioli dough), and the serving size is 4 ravioli per person, so that's why it says 6 servings on top.
Yeah,, It seems as if Julia is a cheap ass hostess.......
How rude are you? Grow up.
Debbie, thank you for being so kind. 🙂
Ha-ha! I think Robert was referring to my original comment right above about the serving size being 2 ravioli per serving. I agree that's not much - so Robert has a good point! 2 ravioli per person is not much at all!
I have reviewed the recipe and realized it's actually 4 ravioli per serving and I have corrected my comment above. That might not still be much as a dinner serving but better than 2 ravioli per person, LOL.
I would think pumpkin ravioli would make a better starter than a main, as it's quite rich. Best to keep serving sizes between 2 and 4. We don't have make pigs of ourselves!
You are quite a boor, aren't you Robert?
What a jackass! Common sense would tell you to multiply the recipe for however many you need...
Clearly you lack the common sense portion!
Very yummy. I added sage and rosemary to the sauce. It tasted just like the one they offer at Il Fornaio (a fancy Italian restaurant in San Francisco)
Thank you so much for stopping by and sharing such a kind comment! Glad you liked the recipe! 🙂
This sounds absolutely amazing, and I’m planning to make this as a side for a family gathering....but would have to travel with it, and was wondering how the sauce is when reheated? Any suggestions? Thank you!
Made the butter sauce with premade pumpkin ravioli from Costco. It was very sweet and looked just like the photo but it was missing something to balance out the sweet. I added sage to the sauce after it was cooked - just the thing it needed! I recommend to add sage to the butter sauce while cooking.
Great fall meal
Thank you, Maria! Sage sounds like a great addition to pumpkin ravioli! Very much a Fall flavor!
I did this, but went a step further adding pinches of clove(ground, obviously) cinnamon and cardamom to keep with the fall theme. smashing success, very easy to make and highly recommend! kudos!
What was the size of your can of pumpkin? Was your stick of butter 1/2 cup? Thank you!
I used half of 15 oz pumpkin can, and yes, the stick of butter was 1/2 cup of butter!
Do you have a gluten free recipe for this, I'd love to try it?
No, I have note yet been able to make gluten free ravioli from scratch. Seems pretty challenging to me. 🙂
I made this last weekend and my whole family loved it! I did cheat and used wonton wrappers, but followed the rest of the recipe and they came out great. Made them the day before. Am having my mom and her husband over for dinner tomorrow night and serving a fresh batch of these! Thanks so much!!!
Kelly, thank you so much for taking your time to leave a comment! I am glad you tried this pumpkin ravioli recipe!
I may have missed it but what size ravioli mold are you using? I'm trying to order one on amazon and they have a standard and a jumbo.
I made this last night and this sauce is the best sauce ever!!! You could pour it over literally anything and be in heaven. Of course the ravioli recipe is amazing too. Thank you for sharing this!!
Can't wait to try these! If I freeze them, how long will it take to cook frozen ravioli?