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Homemade butternut squash ravioli stuffed with creamy squash and mascarpone cheese, drizzled in a buttery truffle sauce and topped with a pan fried prawn and crispy sage.

We first tried butternut squash ravioli at the Cactus Club and it was melt in your mouth delicious! Debbie now orders this dish almost every time she goes to Cactus Club and because she loved it,  we had to create a copy cat recipe for the blog.

Making this butternut squash ravioli at home is definitely more time consuming that ordering off a menu, and a hell of a lot messier!  But let me tell you, it is just as good (if not better) and you get to eat as much as you want lol.  Its well worth the effort and I must say, we have given Rob Feenie a run for his money with this one!

Steps Involved in Making this Recipe

Making homemade pasta can seem a little intimidating. But it doesn’t have to be. I think breaking down the steps helps it to be less daunting. Here we go:

1. Make the Pasta Dough – you can do this by hand or with your mixer. We like to use a mixer just because it can take a fair bit of kneeding. We use this recipe for homemade pasta.
2. Make the Filling – this is easy. Cook the butternut squash and onions and then blend everything up in your food processor.
3. Make the Ravioli – this is the only part that can be a touch tricky, but a little trial and error and it becomes easy too.
4. Make the Sauce, Prawns and Sage – the hardest part is making sure the sage doesn’t burn.
5. Put it together and serve!

Tools You Need to Make Ravioli

1. Hand Crank Pasta Roller – you need this to get your pasta sheets nice and thin.  It comes with 4 attachments to make fettuccine, spaghetti and others too.
2. Ravioli Maker – this makes awesome ravioli and its the one we used for the ravioli in the pictures of this post
3. Food Processor – you need one of these to make the filling.
4. Kitchenaid Pasta Roller – If you have a kitchen aid mixer, you can get this attachment to make the pasta sheets
5. Kitchenaid Ravioli Attachment  – another mixer attachment that makes a lot of smaller, perfect ravioli.  A little pricy though… 

Make the Pasta Dough

You can find a detailed description of how to make homemade pasta here.

This dough can be made the day you make ravioli or even a day or two ahead of time if you like. The dough must rest for a bit in the fridge so making it ahead of time is always a good idea. Though you can also let it rest while you make the filling for the ravioli.

Make the Filling

The filling for the ravioli can be made ahead of time too. It will store in the fridge for a couple days.

1. Peel and chop the butternut squash. Spread it on a pan, drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast at 400 degrees for 25 – 30 mins until squash is fork tender.
2. Meanwhile sauté the onions and garlic in a little olive oil till soft and translucent.
3. When the squash is done, place 2 cups in a food processor with the sautéed garlic, chopped onion and mascarpone cheese.  Puree till its smooth. Season with salt and pepper to taste and move to the next step.

Make the Ravioli

This part can be a little tedious, but once you give it a try, it gets easier.

1. Take your dough and separate it in to 4 equal sections. While working with one section, keep the others covered.
2. Shake a little flour on that section and run it through your pasta roller on the widest setting. Sometimes we do this setting 2 or 3 times till the dough gets into the right shape.
3. Run the dough through the roller on the next smaller setting. Keep doing this till you get a long, thin sheet of pasta. Keep in mind that you don’t want it too thin or too thick. This is where you will have to see what works best for you. For us, its the second thinnest setting that works the best.
4. Use your ravioli maker to make the ravioli. For the one shown here, you drape the pasta sheet over the ravioli mold, fill each section with filling. Don’t use to much or it will squish out and not seal properly. Cover the filling with another sheet of pasta and using your rolling pin to seal the edges and cut the ravioli by pressing down.

See, not too hard and once you do one set of ravioli, the rest will be easier. Repeat these steps till you have the amount of pasta you need.

We often make extra because it freezes really well!

Make the Sauce, Prawns and Crispy Sage

1. Combine the vinegar and white wine in a saucepan on medium to medium low heat. Reduce until the liquid forms a light syrup.
2. Reduce the heat to low and add the teaspoon of cream. I often heat the cream first because I find that it curdles less if you heat it first. I hate it when things curdle… Don’t be tempted to use light cream, it is more likely to curdle.
3. Whisk in butter, one cube at a time until well incorporated. Make sure it doesn’t start to simmer.
4. Add lemon juice, and truffle oil.  Do not substitute the Truffle Oil. It wont taste how it should. The oil makes this sauce.
5. Heat another pan on medium low. Sauté the prawns in about 1 tsp of butter, 1 to 2 minutes per side, until they are orangey, pink.
6. Melt the remaining butter in a pan. Add the sage leaves and fry till crispy.

This dish is not exactly healthy, especially when the buttery sauce is poured on top! But its oh so good! Lick the plate good. I’m not joking… Plates were licked. Yet another benefit of making this at home.

Tips for Making this Dish

• We suggest getting a pot of boiling water going just before you start making the sauce and get the prawns cooking.  Then you can drop in the ravioli and saute the prawns as you make the sauce so they are ready at the same time. 
• Make the fried sage leaves first.  They don’t need to be hot.  

How to Cook the Ravioli

Boil some water, add some salt and throw in the ravioli. When it floats, it’s done!

Can I Use Canned Butternut Squash?

Yes you could, if you can find that. However, freshly roasted butternut squash will taste a million times better.

Can you freeze butternut squash ravioli?

Yes! This homemade ravioli freezes really well. We usually make more than we need just so that we can freeze it and keep it on hand for when you need it quick or have a craving! To freeze, lay it on a tray lined with parchment paper. Then when its frozen, put them in a ziplock bag to store. This keeps them from sticking. When you are ready to use them, there is no need to thaw, just cook from frozen.

Serving to Guests

This is such a great recipe for an appetizer or a main course when entertaining.  Its so damn good, but in addition to that, we love that you can prepare the butternut squash ravioli the day before and then make the sauce and the toppings just before your company arrives or just before you eat.  I guarantee you will get rave reviews!  

Looking for another appetizer to serve with these, check out our beef carpaccio recipe, another restaurant inspired dish.  

Other Homemade Pasta Recipes to Try

If you’ve tried this fresh homemade butternut squash ravioli recipe then we would love it if you could rate the recipe by clicking on the stars in the recipe card and let us know how it turned out in the comments below.  We love hearing from you! 

We also love to see your creations!  Tag @Cookswithcocktails if you post a picture of this recipe on INSTAGRAM