Italian Cooking: Pumpkin Ravioli

Plate of ravioli with parsley garnish and brown butter sauce on a white plate. Dish on a light table setting, evoking a cozy, appetizing mood.

Good day Humphreys cooking society! What’s cooking up in your kitchen today? Spring

brings breezy afternoons with long sunny days. Good weather seems to always lift my mood in the kitchen which tends to make my taste buds crave for flavorful meals. Well, I can’t go wrong with taking a cooking class with the Humphreys United cooking sub club.

Two smiling women knead dough on a wooden table in a room with a blue banner. Both wear aprons and gloves, creating a cheerful mood.

Today we are here with our Home Chef, Sara Bolzan. Guess where Sara is from? What do you think she will cook up for us today? Can we spell “PASTA?” Well we are making Ravioli today. A type of pasta filled with delicious filling. She is Italian!! Humphreys Cooking Society

lets us get to know our Home Chef. Welcome Sara! (Sneak peak into the recipe, it is Vegan

Approved!)

Q&A

Please introduce yourself and tell us where you are from.

My name is Sara. I’m 25 years old. I’m from Campo Molino, a little town of 600 people in the

north of Italy, 1 hour from Venice.

What are you doing here in Korea?

Three people making dumplings at a table with flour, rolling pins, and red bowls. A mural of a woman's face is in the background.

I’m at Osan AB with my husband, who is in the Air Force. We will be here for only a year. As soon as he told me that he would come to Korea I couldn’t wait to join him on his journey.

To live in another country different from mine, with another culture to experience, is a great addition for my personal exploration.

Where did your passion for food come from?

As you know, Italian cuisine is the best known and most loved in the world. So, for us, cooking and eating are daily foundations. It’s in our blood. Growing up over the years and since I became vegan, I realized how passionate I was about it.

How did you learn how to cook?

Five people in aprons smile while cooking in a kitchen. Ingredients and kitchen tools are on the table. Bright, cheerful atmosphere.

I started cooking at the age of 10. I saw my mom start cooking and I joined in to help her.

She had this cookbook written entirely by hand with recipes handed down by her mother, friends and grandmothers that I enjoyed reading.

Obviously the first thing I learned to make was really good pasta with tomato sauce. Then I moved on to pastry making because every birthday we celebrated I tried my hand at making desserts, cakes and biscuits. I went to my old computer, looked for the recipe, printed it and added it to all the other printed recipes because smartphones didn’t yet exist. Now I open Instagram, I go to the archive, and I have a lot of recipes saved from the profiles of food

creators that I follow.

What were your first mistakes in the kitchen? Funniest?

Two smiling women make pasta at a table with dough, a pasta machine, and rolling pin. White background, bag of flour on the right.

I was preparing a very simple carrot cake. I was very happy with the fact that the dough was really good. I put it in the oven. 45 minutes pass. I take it out of the oven. It was beautiful, golden, with a delicious scent. I let it cool. The moment of cutting arrives and…. In the middle it was raw. From there I understood all the secrets for better cooking.

As for the savory… I was preparing a delicious mushroom risotto in my husband’s kitchen when he lived in Italy, and I had used fine salt to salt the broth water. Italians use coarse salt. When the Risotto was ready, we tasted the first bite and… it felt like we were literally eating the crystal of salt. From there I understood the difference between fine and coarse salt.

What is your signature dish? Your husband’s?

I don’t have a special dish because I always try to make different things every day especially because here in Korea I don’t have many vegan options. My husband eats everything I make so I’d say almost everything I cook can be considered a signature dish.

How do you describe your overall cooking philosophy?

For me cooking is healthy. In my case, being vegan is a philosophy and cooking has a huge impact on it.

“You are what you eat!!!”.

I think it’s important to understand what we’re eating and how much good or bad it can do for us.

Cooking saved me from “bad periods” of overthinking because it helped me relax my mind and, obviously, gives me a great sense of satisfaction.

How do you enjoy eating your Ravioli?

A group of nine smiling people in aprons pose with dishes in front of a blue "Humphrey's United Club" backdrop.

The combination of pumpkin ravioli with cashew cheese sauce is perfect but even just a little melted butter or extra virgin olive oil and a sprinkling of parmesan or nutritional yeast will make it a simple and special dish.

The following is one of my regular vegan dishes. I hope you all will enjoy the recipe as much as I do! Buon appetito!

Thank you to our Home Chef CEO for guiding us through a little part of your culture and Italy. Humphreys Cooking Society, we hope you will take this challenge and make some delicious pumpkin ravioli with fresh pasta!

Pasta

Groceries on a wooden table include onions, potatoes, squash, lemon, olive oil, cashews, oatmeal, yeast flakes, and non-dairy milk.

Ingredients

Flour 400 grams (3 cups)

Water 200 grams (¾ to 1 cup)

Extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO) 40 grams (4 tablespoon)

Salt 1 tsp (smooth)

Method

Place flour on the table in the shape of a volcano.
Sprinkle with salt. Slowly add (EVOO) and water.
Knead for about 10 minutes until the dough becomes elastic.
Let the dough rest for 10 minutes before rolling and stuffing (Hint: Using a pasta roller can make this process easier.)
Use a ravioli press or cookie cutter to assist with shaping the ravioli

Person making ravioli with dough and cutter on a wooden table. Flour dusted surface, dough pieces, and a roller visible. Cozy kitchen vibe.

Pumpkin Ravioli

Pumpkin (full small green)

Potato (1 medium)

Onion (1 small)

Soymilk (1 cup as needed)

Olive Oil (to sauté onion)

Sage (to taste)

Sauce

Plain Cashews 60 grams

Soy Milk 100 grams

Nutritional Yeast 2 big tablespoons

Lemon juice 1 tablespoon

1 cup pasta water

½ tsp salt

Directions

Sauté chopped onion until translucent, add Peeled pumpkin and diced potato and sauté until soft. Add Fresh sage, soy milk and mash until soft texture. Then cool before stuffing ravioli.
Heat soy milk until very hot and let cashews soak for 10 minutes. Then transfer to a food processor. Add salt, nutritional yeast and lemon juice and pulse until thin and well blended.
Add to pasta and thin with ½-1 cup of pasta water.