It’s been a while since we last made some homemade pasta – in our defense, we’ve been pretty busy! But on a recent weekend we decided to crack open our pasta book again and try a new shape. This occhi we made is a variation on ravioli and was invented by Missy Robbins (who wrote the cookbook we’ve been using) for her restaurant Misi. The name comes from the Italian word for eyes, because a finished occhio looks kind of like a dog’s eye peering back at you from its face. We liked this shape because it comes out looking very neat and tidy, and when it came time to decided on a filling, we took inspiration from the season and grabbed a pumpkin from a store nearby. As for the sauce, we based it on a pasta dish we’d had a few weeks earlier that we really liked, so we decided it would be the perfect accompaniment to our occhi. Here’s what we did, from start to finish.
To make this, you’ll need:
- 00 flour
- 5 eggs
- Semolina flour
- A medium-sized pumpkin
- Vegetable oil
- Ricotta cheese
- A 8-ounce block of fontina cheese
- A stick of butter
- Poppy seeds
- Parmesan cheese
** You’ll also need a set of round cookie cutters, like this
You can first make your filling: take your pumpkin and slice it in half, then scoop out all the seeds and pulp. Brush the outside and inside with vegetable oil, then place the halves cut side down into a baking pan. Roast at 350°F for at least 50 minutes, until the inside is tender and soft.
Let the pumpkin cool off, then you should be able to peel away the skin. Place the pumpkin flesh into a food processor, along with 1 1/2 cups of ricotta, 2 tablespoons of grated Parmesan, and some salt and pepper, and blend together until you get a smooth mixture that’s not at all chunky. Scoop this into a gallon-sized plastic bag and stick in your freezer.
Now for your pasta dough, follow the first three steps here, except that when you’re rolling the dough out, roll it only to the 5 setting and send it through that setting just once. When you have your sheets of dough, cut them exactly in half.
Right before you get started shaping your pasta, take your block of fontina and use the smallest cookie cutter to punch out circles of cheese, then slice each one of these into 1/3-inch thick discs.
Now take two matching halves of pasta dough and lay one on your work surface. Place the cheese discs spaced about 1 1/2 inches apart. Bring your pumpkin filling out of the freezer and cut a 1/2-inch slit in one of the bottom corners of the bag. Push all the filling down toward this hole and pipe a not-too-large dollop of filling on top of each piece of cheese.
Lay the other half of the pasta sheet evenly on top of the cheese and filling and use your fingers to gently press down around the filling, pushing any air pockets out from between the two dough sheets and shaping the filling into a mound. Make sure you don’t press too hard or you may tear the dough.
Take a 2-inch cookie cutter and press it dull side down around each mound of filling – you don’t want to cut the dough with it, just further shape and contain the filling.
Now take a 2.3-inch cookie cutter (it should be the next size up from the one you just used), center it on top of each piece of filling, and cut out individual occhio. Once you’ve cut them all out from the sheet, just peel the extra dough back and you’ll have your occhi.
Place the occhi on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper that you’ve sprinkled with semolina flour. Repeat this process until you’ve filled, shaped, and cut out occhi from all your dough sheets.
To cook the pasta, bring a pot of heavily salted water to a boil, then drop in a handful of occhi at a time. Immediately turn the heat down so your water is only simmering, and cook for no more than 2 minutes.
Meanwhile, melt a stick of butter in a large pan over medium heat. Once the butter starts to foam up and just slightly turn brown, after about 5 minutes, add in 2 teaspoons of poppy seeds.
Stir the poppy seeds into the butter, then use a spider strainer to take the occhi out of their cooking water. Transfer them to the pan with the butter and swirl the pan around to let the sauce coat each one.
Take the pasta out and set onto a platter, then boil the rest of the occhi in batches and place them into the butter sauce. Once all the pasta is cooked, you can serve up your occhi with extra brown butter and Parmesan grated on top.
We were a little intimidated when we got to the filled pasta section of our cookbook, but like the other stuffed shapes we’ve already done, these actually weren’t so bad. Using the cookie cutters really helps in perfecting the round shape, and as long as you don’t overfill these they’re pretty easy to make. It was a brilliant idea, if we do say so ourselves, to make a filling out of one of the many pumpkins hanging around at this time of year, and adding in pieces of fontina gave us some extra cheesy occhi. The sauce was a really good pairing here as well: it’s simple enough that it doesn’t take away from the pumpkin flavor, and the addition of the poppy seeds is a nice extra taste. We’re glad that we got to try this cool shape, and to make our own poppy seed sauce after trying it at a restaurant. Now make sure you tune in later to see some more of our pasta journey!