Thanksgiving 2009: Butternut Squash Ravioli with Crispy Sage Brown Butter

Here's my absolute favorite from Thanksgiving this year -- butternut squash ravioli from Emeril Lagassee. Man he is on it for Thanksgiving; the turkey brine I've been using for years is his too. This pasta is simply delicious.

It's funny because this was made after Thanksgiving; we made it Friday night. I had leftover filling and it was so good, I made it again this weekend (the above pic). I'm still working on shaping the ravioli. I also need to get it in my head that I need a lot of pasta and space for this. Yes, I'm a student of Alton Brown. I remember the episiode when he made ravioli on an ironing board. Mine isn't that clean!

So, it all starts with butternut squash puree. This was simple, I roasted the squash and sweet potatoes for my pie together. Y'all know I'm anti-boiling whenever possible. The oven really intensifies flavors whereas boiling washes them away. After roasting, just store the squash flesh in a plastic bag.

This recipe is really easy. Add the squash and mascarpone cheese to the bowl of your stand mixer. Yep, Old Faithful is doing it big for another Thanksgiving. Season with salt (kosher please) and pepper (freshly ground).

Emeril and I rarely disagree, but here's where I had to improvise. The filling was a bit bland. I ended up doubling the amount of cheese and adding nutmeg.

Let's turn to the pasta, shall we? I've made pasta before. This time I was sharing the magic of it with a seven-year old, Livvy. After I pulled the dough together, it was time for her to rock and roll. By this time, she was right at home in the kitchen.

Here's the beautiful dough. Doesn't that just beg for hot salted water and a drizzle of olive oil?

Let the transformation begin!

This is the only pic I have of Livvy making the pasta, but trust me -- she was all in the mix. After she rolled the sheets, we got busy applying the filling.

Once we got the ravioli filled and cut, We (I) headed to hot salted boiling water. I'm still loving my All-Clad pasta pentola. (Alas, I don't think Santa is brining me any All-Clad this year since I'm not spending my free time selling stuff at Williams-Sonoma this holiday season. I miss that discount!) You know the rules; when pasta floats, it's done.

Drizzle the pasta with a little olive oil and let it hang out while you tackle the brown butter.

Told you I need to work on cutting the ravioli. Livvy did a wonderful job crimping the edges, only one piece wasn't sealed properly. It just kind of hung out at the bottom of the pot.

I didn't read the instructions for the brown butter, but I knew it had butter and sage! The solids are just starting to darken in this shot.

Once it was plated, add roasted pecans. I added rosemary too. 'Twas tasty!

Tools of the trade

• Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer
• Kitchen Aid Pasta Roller Attachment
• All-Clad Pasta Pentola
• All Clad 10" Fry Pan
• WMF Spider
• Glass Mixing Bowl

Cheap Date

Here's the deal: You know the economy is tanking; it's getting more and more expensive to be a foodie, and the kicker?!! Thanksgiving is on it's way. Yep. I'm looking for food on the cheap, so that I don't have to sacrifice anything when the Big Challenge (Thanksgiving Day) arrives. With that said, I had to return to one of my childhood favorites: salmon croquette. Inexpensive and tasty. What more could you ask for?

Let's get to it. Start with canned salmon, pepper, salt and Spike.

Move to the veg. Finely dice some celery and onion.

Now for the binders. There are three. First? Crackers.

Next? Flour and egg.

Mix it well and shape into patties. I go an extra step and lightly dredge the patties in flour spiked with Spike. Head for a preheated nonstick skillet. Add just a touch of olive oil.

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Fry until golden brown on each side, turning once. Add soup and frozen corn and you've got a filling and inexpensive meal. You know my corn and soup aren't just any old corn and soup, I had to go back to the sautéed corn with sage and roasted butternut squash soup.

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Tools of the trade:

• Glass Mixing Bowl
• Glass Prep Bowls
• WMF Nonstick Fish Spatula
• All-Clad 12" Nonstick Skillet

Blue Chip

Morton's is one of my favorite restaurants in Chicago. We tend head over after work at least once a week. They have $5 appetizers. Order three and you have a steakhouse meal for $15. One of my three is always the blue cheese fries.

Last week, we switched it up a little and went to a different spot, Sullivan's. When I saw the blue cheese potato chips on the menu, I was a little disappointed because I am not a fan of potato chips. Since I was familiar with the concept of fries and blue cheese, I decided to give these a shot. Oh my damn. Who knew??! These were excellent!! Creamy blue cheese (I'm still trying to figure out the creamy part.) The chips were thick-cut and some were just slightly soggy from the cheese. Oh man.

I had to see if I could recreate these at the house. Here's the attempt:

Get a baking potato. Scrub it well (I leave the skin on.) Slice using a mandoline. You can use a V-slicer or your knife if you like. I wanted thin, even slices. My knife skills aren't that good. I sliced mine thicker than wafer-thin Lay's, but still relatively thin.

I put the sliced potato to ice water. I let it hang out there for about 30 minutes. I pulled the potatoes from the ice water, rinsed them and patted them dry.

I let the canola oil heat to 325 in a cast iron skillet. I fried the rounds in batches. Each batch fried for two minutes. Drain on paper towels. The easiest way to do this is to use a strainer or a spider.

I know these look woefully underdone. Never fear -- we're going for round two!

After your last batch, crank up the heat and get the oil to 375. Fry again, in batches, until you have the desired crispness and color.

Here's the magic. As each batch comes out, drain the chips on paper towels and salt immediately. Transfer to a serving dish and sprinkle with blue cheese. Repeat until all the chips are done. Try not to drool into the bowl as you layer. You can stash these in a warm oven, about 200 degrees, as you wait for the next batch.

These didn't make it to join their brothers. (I had to taste test my frying skills.)

Now that all are done, sprinkle your last cheese on top. The cheese on the first layer should have melted by now. Give the cheese on the top layer time to melt, or sit the dish in the oven for a moment. Wow.

All is now right with the world.

Tools of the trade:

• Lodge Logic 10" cast iron skillet
• de Buyer Mandoline
• WMF Spider

The Cookie Rush

For Christmas, my extended family pulls names for the grown folks, buys for the kids and exchanges "family gifts." I decided to bake cookies this year. I baked on Monday and decorated on Tuesday. The baking was easy. I wanted to revisit the Cook's Illustrated butter cookie recipe and decorate them properly this time. I chose circles (in hopes of making cookies that looked like ornaments), snowflakes, Christmas trees, stars, stockings and candy canes.


Make the dough, chill it, roll, cut and chill it again. I roll the dough between parchment or Silpats. I tried the Silpats after I noticed that the parchment tended to wrinkle underneath the dough. Just make sure you flip the dough over to make sure it doesn't wrinkle. I also use rings on my rolling pin to make sure the dough is the correct thickness.

I think the metal cutters are sharper, I just don't like the way some of them bend out of shape so easily. For really intricate designs, use metal cutters.


Save the scraps from each initial rolling and roll them together for a final batch.
Everything baked up nicely. Let the decorating begin (after cooling of course)! My favorite spatula for transferring cookies to the cooling rack is a WMF flexible nylon spatula. I wanted a nonstick spatula that resembled a fish spatula. This is the best I've found.



Now for the fun (and slightly stressful) part -- decorating! I made two types of icing, melted fondant and royal icing. The fondant was the easiest. I melted it in the microwave with glucose, lemon juice and sugar syrup. After tinting, I just dipped the cookies in and sat them on cooling racks to dry. I noticed that if I used more sugar syrup to thin the fondant, it dried with a glossy finish.

Royal icing is always difficult for me to make and I don't know why. For these cookies, I kept it white. I used it for the tops of the stockings, candy cane stripes and decorations on the snowflakes. The candy canes did not turn out well. Too much icing for such a small cookie; it was like eating raw sugar. I couldn't get the stripes right either. I ended up throwing them away.

I used white, red and green sanding sugar to finish the cookies. I placed them in cellophane bags tied with ribbon and packed them off to the post office. I hope they're enjoyed.


Tools of the trade:

• Silpat
• Rolling Pin Rings
• WMF Spatula