TWO ‘FER

Tonight, I managed a two ‘fer.  I made a dish for both Presto Pasta Night and Sara’s Weekend Cookbook Challenge.  This is the one year anniversary of Presto Pasta Night (“Congratulations, Ruth!”) and this month’s Weekend Cookbook Challenge theme is All Things Nigella and I am all about Nigella.  So, this needed to be good, really good.

And it was.

Thumbing through How To Eat, I found a recipe for Butternut Squash and Pasta Soup.  Wow, what a good idea!  Beauty and brains, just like my wife.

Her recipe calls for a soup pasta, like ditalini – which makes sense, I mean, it’s a soup.  At the store while I was looking for ditalini, I came across a pasta I had never seen before.  It’s a tiny, cheese-filled ravioli called, not surprisingly, ravioletti.  I thought, “Hey, that’s gonna be great in this soup!”, so, I bought.

BUTTERNUT SQUASH AND PASTA SOUP

• 1/2 Tbls. Olive Oil
• 1/2 Small Onion, minced
• 8 ounces of Butternut Squash, 1/2 inch dice
• 1/4 cup of White Wine
• 2 1/2 cups Vegetable Stock
• 1 Bay Leaf
• 2 ounces of Ravioletti
• Salt

Put the oil in a biggish, heavy-bottomed pan on the stove and when hot add the onion. Cook for about ten minutes, stirring regularly, until soft, then add the cubes of butternut and turn well in the pan for 2 minutes. Pour in the wine, let it bubble up, then add the stock and the bay leaf. Bring to a simmering point, then leave to simmer away for about 10 minutes. Take out a ladleful, purée it, then put it back in the pan. Turn up the heat and add the ravioletti. Cook for about 15 minutes until the pasta is cooked, then taste for salt.  Ladle this thick, sweet stew of a soup into your bowl. 

The original recipe calls for grated Parmesan on the soup, but the cheese in the ravioletti is enough and it didn’t need the grated cheese.

I made my favorite Moosewood Veggie Stock for this and it was a good as always.  The final product was very good, a little sweeter than I expected, though that was balanced pretty well by the cheese in the pasta.  Maybe a touch of heavy cream wouldn’t be bad, either and hey, a little bit of fat is always good!