Best Meal Rhett's Had in A Long Time

This week is Spring Break for Rhett, and there's not much to do in Kirksville with the cold weather, so he decided to take a night for homemade pasta. Rhett got a pasta maker for Christmas, and has loved it. This time he went gourmet and made

Tortellini filled with

Pumpkin and Sage.

FILLING:
2 lb pumpkin or butternut squash
6 T olive oil
1 small red onion, finely chopped
1/3 c. ricotta cheese
1 egg yolk, beaten
1/4 c. grated Parmesan
1 tsp nutmeg
2 T chopped fresh sage
Cut squash in large chunks and place in smal roasting pan, skin side down. Drizzle w/ 3 T of the olive oil, and lots of salt and pepper. Bake at 375 min or until completely soft. Scrape out of shells into mixing bowl. Using the remaining 3 T olive oil, cook onions until soft, add to squash and mash. Add remaining ingredients for filling.

Cut your pasta sheets into 2 or 3" squares. (Rhett makes his own pasta, but you could buy fresh lasagna sheets.) Brush w/ egg wash (1 egg & 2 tsp milk, beaten). Put a small tsp of filling on and seal seam of triangle, and bring edges together on top to make tortellini. Place pasta on baking paper and cover with damp teacloth.

Boil in salted water until al dente.




The sauce Rhett made had sweet onions, garlic, fresh roma tomatoes, salami, and I don't know what else he threw in there, but it was really good. I made focaccia bread and he made Orancatta, which is carbonated orange juice. For dessert, we wimped out and just bought Blue Bunny brand Gelato, which wasn't the real thing, but not too bad.

All in all it was another great pasta experiment, and we made a ton, so we have frozen tortellini in the freezer. We have a lot of fun cooking, but it was more intense this time...I think Rhett was giving me payback for making him watch No Reservations Saturday night--he hated that movie. So he kept insisting I refer to him as "Chef" and he'd make comments about having to find another sous chef after tonight, telling me to hurry, and overall teasing me the whole time. It was pretty funny and I think it did make me shape all the little pasta blobs faster than I would have otherwise.