Miniature Things: Some thoughts about beets...

Awhile back, I wrote a post about some foods that were icky to me. Beets and Brussels sprouts included. Well I don't know what happened my friends, but recently I'm a changed women. I'm totally digging both! I discovered during the miracle tripping party that Andrew roasted some Brussels sprouts simple-style with olive oil, salt and pepper. I tried em out, and gosh darnit, I liked them! They taste like a nuttier, drier version of cooked cabbage (which I love), and I even made them AGAIN with some roasted shallots for an early Thanksgiving feast last weekend. I also taught Sylive to call them "shrunken heads," teehee! (I've been a bad, bad Auntie)
Beets though, are another story. I still don't love their texture enough to eat them on their own, but during a Taste of the Harvest cooking class with Molly a few weeks back, we made a recipe for beet ravioli, and I must say, it was interesting. And tasty. But then again, anything mixed with ricotta has to be tasty right? So tonight, I was feeling spunky, feeling inspired by fall flavors, and drawing on some recent inspiration regarding a goat cheese and beet salad from both Kristal and Stephanie, I decided to create a fall duet of ravioli. I present to you, butternut squash ravioli and Beet goat cheese ravioli in a butter chive sauce.

Finished ravioli dinner

First order of business in making these delicious ravioli's was to make the fillings. You start by grating cooked beets (I just used the pre-cooked beets from Trader Joe's). For the butternut squash ravioli, I had to cook the squash then scoop out the filling and mash.

Grate up your beets

Cook up your squash

Once the vegetable base for each ravioli is done, start by adding whatever you feel like! For the beet ravioli I went with goat cheese, ricotta, mint, sage, chives, salt, pepper, and parmesean. For the butternut squash ravioli, first I saueteed up some onions and garlic in a little butter with sage, then added that to goat cheese, ricotta, parmesean, nutmeg, salt, and pepper.

Fillings are starting to look tasty

Now to actually make those ravioli's, you can make and cut pasta by hand, or you can cheat and use wonton wrappers like I did. Quite honestly, this whole process was already so time-consuming that I don't know how people make pasta by hand in addition, but I give them mad props for it and will never complain about the price of a fresh pasta dish at a restaurant again. Back to my cheater method though. Use a biscuit cutter to cut the wonton sheets into 4 circles on a floured cutting surface (lots of flour is extra important). Next add a very small amount of filling (you will be seriously surprised how little filling you actually need), run some egg wash around 1/2 of the ravioli, then fold over, press out any air bubbles, and seal the ravioli best you can. Throw those puppies onto a pan coated in flour, and keep at it until you have enough ravioli's to eat or freeze.

Cutting ravioli dough

Loading up with filling

Laying those babies on a cookie sheet

My idea was to make enough of these ravioli so that I could freeze them to give to Jay and Molly when their new baby is born in a few months. When Sylvie was born, I stocked up their freezer with goodies like veggie lasagna, stuffed shells, soups, and the like. This time, I'll add the ravioli to the mix, in efforts to make Sylvie happy since I know she loves her beets! I wouldn't want to upset her apple cart with a new brother or sister about to steal her spotlight. So I shall win her over with food. After all, that's what dotting Auntie's are for, right? Now just prepare yourself for my new bento box obsession kiddo. Aunt Lisa is gonna rock your world with Octopus dogs!