Butternut Squash Ravioli with Sage Sauce

Saturday, I made Butternut Squash Ravioli with Sage Sauce. Delicious, yes? Oh, yes.

This combination of butternut squash, vegan parmesan, panko breadcrums, and Earth Balance is stuffed into a lovely little wonton wrapper, quickly boiled, and tossed with the sage sauce. Sounds simple right? Well, it is.

But would you like to know what is not simple? Making wonton wrappers.

I began making the wrappers around noonish with the idea that I would be able to eat the ravioli for lunch before two. Oh, what nice little thought that was! I was still working on the wonton wrappers by the time two o' clock rolled around. Hunger pangs broke me down and I made a snack out of strawberry slices and some almond butter on toast. Now, it wasn't the making of the dough that gave me trouble. That bit was simple enough- mix flour, salt, and warm water together and knead until smooth. However, after letting the dought sit under a clean towl for 20 min., the task of rolling the dough out and forming the wrappers began. And it was hell.

Ok, maybe it wasn't that bad, but it took much longer than anticipated. I had absolutely no idea the man power it was going to take to roll that dough down to one sixteenth of an inch. I rolled. And rolled. And rolled. And rolled some more. Fianlly, after a good hour plus I got 17 wonton wrappers out of the dough (I was supposed to have 24, but not all my wrappers were a uniform 3" x 3" square, nor were they perfectly one sixteenth of an inch). And earlier I had seriously been worried about not making time to work out. Let me save you money on the gym- make wonton wrappers everyday. Your arms will get all the work out they need.

When it came to making the butternut squash filling, it was a snap. Although, this recipe made me officially hate my blender and I am  now purchasing a food processer ASAP. While my blender rocks at whipping out a great smoothie, it's awful with sauces and oh say, blending squash and Earth Balance. Normally, I can deal with having to poke the contents of the blender continuely with a spatula until reaching the desired texture, but my patience was running a little thin at this point after how long it took to make the wonton wrappers.

Blender issues aside, after assembling the contents of the ravioli, they boiled nicely while I worked on the sage sauce. Now, the sage sauce isn't so much a "sauce" as it is, a bunch of sage breify sauteed in a ton of Earth Balance. I felt like that was a nice little homage to miss Julia Child and her love of butter, since I modeled The Skinny Bitch Project after The Julie/Julia Project.

The ravioli turned out to be much better than I expected for my first time making them. Actually, they turned out pretty damn well if I do say so myself. The sage is a perfect complimentary flavor for the squash. The texture of everything was smooth and creamy...delectable!