Ingredients:

1 cup smoked duck meat diced thinly (skin still attached to the meat)

8 ounces whole milk ricotta cheese

1/2 large butternut squash, approximately 3 cups, peeled and cut into 1 inch chunks

1/4 cup of salted butter or 1/2 stick

2/3 cup heavy whipping cream

1/2 teaspoon salt

⅔ cup chicken stock

1 whole head of black garlic peeled (fermented garlic)

1/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

1/8 cup durum flour

1/8 cup semolina 

4 full eggs

2 egg yolks

0–2 tablespoons of water, depending on humidity and elevation

1 teaspoon salt for pasta water

Directions

Dough

You will want to use a stand mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment, to make the dough. While mixing the dough, be careful that your machine motor is not damaged: You will want to hold the sides of the mixer as it mixes the flour and eggs so that the bowl does not jump; turn the motor off immediately if you hear the gears grinding. 

Add the 3 flours, 3 eggs and 2 egg yolks to the stand mixer, and mix until mixture forms moist crumbs.The dough will need to come together. Add water if needed, one tablespoon at a time. Add more water if the crumbs are dry with loose flour on the surface. Continue to beat until the dough comes away from the sides in a large dough ball. Transfer the dough ball to a wooden work surface, and knead it with your hands to incorporate any loose flour or dough balls. You will want to do this by pushing the dough away from you with the palms of your hands. Knead by folding the edge of the dough ball over and pushing away from you. Then rotate the ball and repeat. Do this for roughly 5 minutes or until it is smooth and even textured. 

Cover the dough with a damp towel or wrap in plastic wrap for about 30 minutes to rest. It will need to rest long enough for it to come to room temperature. 

There are two ways to form the pasta. You will need to either do so by hand or with a pasta sheeter attachment for your hand mixer. If you do not have a pasta attachment for your mixer, you will need a large wooden surface and wooden rolling pin.

Butternut squash puree:

Boil water in a large pot. Peel the butternut squash, dice it into approximately 1-inch chunks, and add to the boiling water. Cook on medium heat for approximately 20 minutes or until squash is tender. Strain the water from the squash, and let it cool. In a blender, puree squash with butter, cream and salt on high until smooth.

Black Garlic Puree:

Peel all the cloves of black garlic and place them in your small bullet blender with the chicken stock. Puree until the mix is smooth. Set aside.

Rolling pasta with a sheeter or attachment to your stand mixer:

Once your dough has rested and is at room temperature, divide it into 6 to 8 sections, covering all but one piece. This will keep them from forming a tougher, dry skin. Flatten the dough out with your fingers to form a rough rectangle. Using the widest setting on your pasta sheeter, begin feeding the dough through the rollers. 

Take the rolled pasta and lightly dust with flour. Feed it through the roller again, adding flour as needed. Once the rolled pasta is near the edges of the roller, place it on your flat surface, and fold the dough rectangle over in half lengthwise and fold the ends in toward the center, pressing down with your fingers to adhere the dough to itself. 

Feed the rectangle back into the roller, adding flour as needed. As you feed the dough through the sheeter, support the dough as it goes through with your hands. Begin to reduce the thickness of the rollers slowly until you reach the desired thickness for your ravioli dough. 

Add flour as needed, but do not have excess flour on the dough. There should be very little, if any, flour at all on the surface. If the dough forms holes as you roll it, simply fold it back into a rectangle shape roughly the width of the roller, dust with flour, and continue to roll until the desired thickness is achieved. 

Continue this process for all the dough.

Hand Rolled Pasta:

You will need a large wooden surface, approximately 2–3 feet by 2–3 feet. You will need a large wooden rolling pin. The dough will need to be softer for rolling with a rolling pin than if you use a pasta roller attachment. You can accomplish this by kneading the dough for a longer time. You may need to add a very small amount of additional water as you knead.

On your large wooden work surface, place your ball of dough in the middle, and use a rolling pin to flatten the center of the ball. Be sure to keep the even pressure on both sides of the pin so that each side is balanced. Use a steady back and forth movement to roll the dough out to the edges. Rotate the dough 90 degrees, and continue to roll it out using a firm back and forth motion. Try to keep the thickness even over the entire dough surface. Continue to roll out the dough, turning 90 degrees (but not flipping it over) to keep it in a rough circle. 

When the dough is about 1/4 inch thick, you will want to start stretching it. To stretch the dough, you will need to roll an edge of the dough over the top of your rolling pin, and gently press down so that it sticks to the wooden surface. With a portion of the dough rolled over the top of the pin, place your hands in the center and smooth the dough out toward the edges to gently stretch the dough out from the center toward the edge of the pin.

Duck Filling:

Leaving the skin on the smoked duck, cut off chunks of meat. Any part of meat from the duck can be used. Slice the duck meat into thin pieces, and cut again to form thin, square-diced pieces. 

In a mixing bowl, mix the diced duck meat and ricotta cheese.

In a bowl scramble 1 egg for an egg wash. This will act as a glue for the pasta dough when sealing the ravioli edges.

Assembling the Ravioli

Boil a pot of about 8 to 10 cups of water. Add 1 teaspoon of salt.

Using the straight edge of a pasta cutter, cut the flattened dough in squares roughly all the same size. On one square, brush the egg wash over the entire surface. Add a round spoonful of duck and ricotta cheese to the center. Place the second square over the top and gently press down from the center to the edges of the filling seal the two pieces of pasta, removing any air pockets. The filling should be in a round mount. 

Once the edges are sealed around the mound, using the rigid edge of the pasta cutter, cut a circle around the filling to remove the excess dough. Leave at least 1/4 an inch of dough around the filling. 

Assemble the ravioli until you have used all your dough and filling. Drop them into the boiling water to cook for 2 to 3 minutes or until they float. Be sure it is a gentle boil and not a rolling boil to prevent the ravioli from coming apart. 

Remove the floating ravioli from the water with a slotted spoon, and place in a bowl and toss with olive oil. This will keep them from sticking to each other.

To serve, place a about ⅔ cup of butternut squash puree on the plate. Place two or three ravioli on the bed of puree and lightly drizzle the black garlic sauce over them. Enjoy!