Mushroom pesto ravioli with sage butter sauce

Mushroom pesto ravioli with sage butter sauce – these delicate parcels, stuffed with the most delicious mushroom filling, coated in rich, velvety, sage butter sauce, showered with cheese and served with a glass of Cabernet, are truly outstanding, and deserve a spotlight on your table this fall.

Dark days and cold nights call for cozy meals and good red wines (old proverb) 😉

I hope you’ll find today’s recipe the perfect antidote to the chill in the air, and the gloom in the sky.

These mushroom pesto ravioli with sage butter sauce taste like an Autumn forest after rain – earthy, dank, and whimsical, dark and mysterious, yet totally refreshing, and satisfying. The woodsy aroma of mushrooms, the earthy flavor of toasted walnuts, mixed into a pesto like sauce, perfumed with sage, thyme, and truffle oil for even more depth of flavor, then enveloped in thin sheets of pasta, and served with butter sage cream sauce. I say, cheers to that!

While homemade pasta is unmatched in flavor to store-bought, I’m cheating a bit in this recipe, and using won ton wrappers instead.   Three reasons for that: 1) I still don’t possess a pasta machine 2) It makes for a much faster meal prep.   3) I’ve always been all about the filling, rather than the canvas, and I think in this recipe, the mushroom pesto really outshines the pasta.

Won ton wrappers are quite versatile – they are thin, and pliable, and similar in ingredients to pasta, so they serve as an excellent substitute.

But the real hero here is the mushroom pesto.   It’s a mixture of cooked mushrooms, enhanced in flavor with a bunch of umami-tasting ingredients like cheese, walnuts, garlic, and truffle oil, and perfumed with thyme and sage.  Its deep, earthy flavor feels almost shockingly rich by itself, but when parceled out in small portions between thin pasta sheets, it mellows out to a pleasant, buttery-mushroom-y flavor.  The mushroom pesto is also quite versatile.  The recipe will make a little more than you need for the ravioli, so here are some ideas about what to use the leftover mushroom pesto for:

• add it to other cooked pasta
• mix it in with scrambled eggs and cheese, or fold into omelette
• spread it on toasted garlicky bread and serve Bruschetta-style
• make potato croquettes stuffed with this mushroom pesto

I happened to have truffle salt and truffle oil on hand, so I used them for the pesto, to give it that extra oomph, but even if you don’t have these, it will still have a very rich flavor.

Don’t forget to pair these ravioli with an equally rich, deep-flavored Cabernet.

Other mushroom dishes to try:
Mushroom salad with lentils and caramelized onions
Stuffed mushrooms in creamy pesto sauce
Caramelized onions, lentils and mushroom soup
Creamy mushroom and leeks quinoa risotto

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Mushroom pesto ravioli with sage butter sauce

Prep Time

40 mins

Cook Time

10 mins

Total Time

50 mins

 

Course: Main Dish

Servings: 4

Calories: 589 kcal

Author: Viktoria

Ingredients

For the Mushroom pesto

• 2 cups cooked mushrooms (from 650g raw brown mushrooms)
• 1/2 cup toasted walnuts
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 6 Tbs truffle oil (or olive oil)
• 1/4 cup mushroom broth (from cooking the mushrooms)
• 1 garlic clove
• 2 Tbs fresh sage leaves, chopped
• 1 Tbs fresh thyme leaves
• 1 tsp truffle salt (sea salt)
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp dry mushroom mix * (optional)

For the sauce:

• 1/2 cup reserved mushroom broth (from cooking the mushrooms)
• 1/2 cup cream
• 2 Tbs butter
• 15 sage leaves

For the ravioli

• 1 packet Nosoya round won ton wraps (32)
• 1 1/2 cups mushroom pesto **

Instructions

To make the mushroom pesto

1. Chop the mushrooms, and cook in 2 Tbs olive oil + 2 Tbs butter, with a pinch of salt.  In the first few minutes of cooking, as the mushrooms release their liquid, remove from the heat briefly, drain the mushroom broth, and reserve for later (you should get about 3/4 cup of liquid).  Return the pan back to the heat, and continue to cook for another 7-8 minutes, until the mushrooms are fully cooked.

2. Transfer the mushrooms to a food processor, fitted with the S-blade.  Add the rest of the pesto ingredients, and pulse a few times until you get a thick pesto consistency.  Taste and adjust the seasoning if needed.

To make the ravioli:

1. Place 1 tsp of the mushroom pesto in the center of a won ton wrapper.   Moisten the edges with water, and place a second wrapper on top, pressing the edges to seal the filling.  Using a cookie cutter, press on the sealed ravioli to cut into shape.  I used a fluted-edge circle cookie cutter.   You can also use a fork to press on the edges.  

2. Bring a large pot of salted water to a gentle boil.  Add the ravioli in batches (without overcrowding the pot), wait until they float to the surface, and cook for two more minutes.  Remove with a slotted spoon.

To make the sauce:

1. Melt the butter in a small pan and add the sage leaves.  Cook on medium-to-low heat until the sage leaves get crispy, and the butter gets brown.  Remove the leaves to a plate.

2. To the butter in the pan, add the rest of the reserved mushroom broth, and the cream, and continue to cook until the sauce thickens.  Taste and adjust the seasoning.

3. Pour the sauce over the ravioli and serve with a generous shaving of Parmesan cheese, and the reserved crispy sage leaves.

Recipe Notes

*  See how to make your own dry mushroom spice mix

**  The recipe for the mushroom pesto makes a little more than you need for the 32 round ravioli.  You can use the leftover on Bruschetta, in omelettes, in potato croquettes, or simply stir in other pasta preparations.