Gluten-Free Tri-Colored Ravioli With Roasted Butternut Squash, Chickpeas, Roasted Garlic, and Caramelized Onion

I had so much fun making chocolate ravioli yesterday, that I wanted to make a main course ravioli! Since I already had leftover gluten-free flours and still wanted to cook for my friend Annina (who has a gluten allergy), I decided to go gluten-free again. 

Although this recipe has a decent number of steps, I promise none of them are very difficult! Also, there are tons of steps along the way that you can vary this recipe to make it exactly what you like: don't have a gluten allergy? You can just use regular flour pasta recipe! Prefer other fillings? No problem! 

I tried to make up the simplest possible gluten free pasta recipe-- the most expensive ingredient was the xanthan gum, but I only needed a little bit so I know it will last me a long time.

For pasta: 
1/2 cup tapioca flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
3 Tbs potato starch
3/4 tsp salt
4 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
3 large eggs
2 Tbs vegetable oil
---for red pasta, also need about 1 Tbs beet powder (I stumbled across this in the bulk section of Whole Foods)
---for green pasta, also need about 2 ounces of spinach

For filling:
about 1 cup of chickpeas, either cooked or from a can (I give instructions for cooking them on the next step in case you want to do that)
butternut squash (about 1 cup roasted)
2/3 cup ricotta cheese
1/3 cup parmesan cheese
1/2 white onion
olive oil
2 cloves garlic
about 1 tsp chopped sage
juice from 1/2 lemon
salt and pepper to taste

For sage-infused butter sauce:
5 large sage leaves
4 Tbs butter
lemon juice (optional)
salt and pepper to taste

This step needs to be started a day in advance.* The night before you want to make your ravioli, rinse your chickpeas in cold water, place in a bowl, and fill the bowl with water. Let this all sit at room temperature overnight, for at least 8 hours.

The next day, drain water from the bowl, place the chickpeas in a pot, and fill the pot with cool water. Turn the heat to high on your stove, bring the water to a boil, and then reduce heat to a simmer with a cover on your pan. Simmer the chickpeas for about 3 hours, or until they are soft. Drain the chickpeas, salt them to taste, and set them aside.

*Note: I think this tastes the best, but for simplicity's sake you could definitely just use a can of chickpeas. Then, you just open the can and they are ready to go. Just be careful if there is any salt added. 

Put two peeled garlic cloves on a sheet of aluminum foil about 5 inches long. Add about a quarter teaspoon of olive oil and spread it over the garlic. Wrap the garlic up tightly in the foil. Add another layer of foil on top if you want to be extra careful! Place the wrapped up garlic on a foil-lined baking sheet. Wait until the next step to put the garlic in the oven-- it will be done at the same time as the butternut squash.

Preheat oven to 400F. Cut your butternut squash into 1 1/2 inch cubes. Place on foil-lined pan with your wrapped garlic from the previous step, and spray with non-stick spray. Salt generously. Place pan in oven, and bake until a fork can be inserted into the tender squash very easily. At this point, your kitchen will smell amazing!

While your garlic and butternut squash are roasting, dice half a white onion. Put it in a pan with about a teaspoon of olive oil. Turn to high heat for a few minutes, stirring constantly. After the onion has heated up, reduce heat to low, and let them cook slowly until they are a deep caramel color. Salt and pepper to taste.

Place about a cup of butternut squash into a food processor. (Set aside the rest to snack on!) Add the onion and garlic, and pulse until mashed up and well mixed. If you want your ravioli filling to have a super smooth consistency, pulse the mixture more. 

Next, add your ricotta and parmesan cheeses, chopped sage, and lemon juice. Adjust seasonings with salt, pepper, sage, or anything else you like. (chili pepper flakes might be good!) Mix well. 

Note: everything up until this step can be prepared the night before you actually want to make your ravioli.

Sautee spinach in a pan, and then pulse in a food processor until broken up and mushy.

Mix dry pasta ingredients together in a bowl-- do not add the beet powder or spinach at this point. Make a well in the center-- add in eggs and oil. Scramble eggs with oil in the bowl, slowly incorporating more and more of the dry ingredients.

Separate out about 1/3 of the dough. Split this smaller amount into two balls of dough, and place each one in a separate bowl. To one bowl of the small amount of dough, add your beet powder and mix well. To your other bowl of small amount of dough, add your spinach and mix well. Leave the larger amount of dough without any added color.


Knead each pile of dough separately for a few minutes. If they get too tough, let them rest for about 10-15 minutes while covered with plastic wrap.

Roll each pasta dough separately, using tapioca flour to flour your surface. Make each dough thin enough that when lifted towards light, it is slightly transparent. For ravioli, the thinner you can get your pasta dough the better! If you kneaded your doughs well and floured them well with tapioca flour, this shouldn't be too difficult.

Add color stripes: Cut thin, long strips of red and green dough and place them on top of your non-colored flour. Spread a thin layer of water over top where you want to lay your strips, to act like "glue" to hold the two doughs together. Next, roll out your dough to be thin again.

Cut out ravioli into any shapes you want-- I just went with squares since they are easy! Since your dough is only striped on one side, be sure to keep the pretty side facing out of your ravioli.

Add a small dollup of filling onto a square of dough. Using your finger, put a small amount of water along the clean edges of the pasta, to act like glue for the top layer. Lay on your top layer of pasta on top, and press firmly to seal. Try to push any air out of the center of the ravioli to avoid having the pasta open up while boiling later.

Boil water in a pot over high heat. Cook raviolis in boiling water for about 3 minutes, until they float to the top. 

While the ravioli are cooking, melt your butter in a pan, and add your whole sage leaves. Let the butter and sage cook together until the butter browns slightly. Salt and pepper to taste, and/or add lemon juice if here if you would like.

When ravioli are finished boiling, drain the water, and add the ravioli to the pan with your hot butter. Brown them just a tiny bit. 

Serve immediately; enjoy!!