A heartier yet potentially healthier dish than the winter squash ravioli restaurant favorite which involves ravioli stuffed with a little bit of squash and served with a stick of browned butter to act as a sauce. To make a lighter cheese ravioli, mix 1 ½ c part-skim ricotta cheese with ¼. Parmesan to make the filling.  A nice grating of nutmeg, salt, pepper rounds out the flavor.  Otherwise buy the ravioli.

1 butternut squash

1T butter

1T brown sugar

1/2t ground ginger

1/4t cinnamon

1/4t nutmeg or fresh sage

1/2c sour cream

2c chicken or vegetable broth

Cheese ravioli*filling mix above

 

Preheat oven to 400.  Cut the butternut squash in half lengthwise and place cut side down on a lightly oiled or nonstick baking sheet. Bake for about an hour or until very soft.  When still warm but not hot, scoop the contents into a food processor, discarding the skins.  Add 1T of butter, 1T brown sugar, 1/2t ground ginger, 1/4 t cinnamon and nutmeg (or 1T fresh sage) and process.  Let cool a little bit and add ½ C of sour cream. (Low fat sour cream can separate if the squash is too hot. If you prefer the full fat sour cream you don’t need to worry so much about this.) Process again until very smooth.  Place in a saucepan, stir in  2C of chicken broth and bring to a soft simmer.  Boil ravioli in water until almost done and toss with squash sauce for a few minutes to complete the cooking.

Cooking time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Serves 4