I found a recipe for Butternut Squash Ravioli that sounds pretty good on Epicurious, and it calls for goat cheese in the squash mixture. I've also found recipes that use ricotta cheese in the filling, and some recipes that don't call for any cheese, just butternut squash and some seasoning.

What do you guys recommend? I've never tried it with goat cheese before and I'm afraid it might overpower the squash flavour? I've had it with ricotta and enjoyed it, but I'm willing to try something else if it will taste even better!

We're having a dinner party for 16 people next weekend so I have to decide soon!

Thanks!

We're hosting a large dinner party in a couple of weeks and I want to make something vegetarian but hearty; simple enough that I won't be spending all day and night in the kitchen preparing food!

I've decided on homemade butternut squash/ricotta ravioli with a brown butter sage sauce, but I'd like to add a little something extra as a garnish, like maybe one of the following toasted nuts:

-walnuts?
-pecans?
-chestnuts?
-hazelnuts?

Which of those would go well with the ravioli?

I'll also be serving some sort of salad, and dessert of course!

Thanks!

I think I actually have the recipe you're referring to, from LCBO's free Food & Drink Magazine! (I live in Toronto)
I printed it out a few years ago but never got around to making it. I'll have to see if I can find it, thanks for the reminder!
I wasn't planning on making my own pastry, I was definitely going to buy the puff pastry from the store...I'll already have enough to do that day without having to worry about making pastry too! ;)
I may have to take your suggestion and just put whatever vegetables I want it in, maybe broccoli, cauliflower, tomatoes, zucchini, onions....I'll have to think about that part. In that case I'll just need a recipe for a sauce of some sort, something creamy or cheesy as I mentioned before.

So I basically just have to cook/saute all the vegetables first, then wrap it in pastry, and bake it to crisp up the pastry? I like the idea of having 2 different strudel options.

I think I'll do a trial run this weekend, maybe try a couple of different options to see how they taste!

Thanks for all the great suggestions! Even if I don't end up making some of these dishes for my dinner party, I'll definitely be trying them sometime :)

So....in a temporary lapse of judgement I decided it would be a great idea to throw a pre-Christmas dinner party in early December for our closest friends - all 20 of them! I LOVE the Christmas season and have always wanted to have a dinner party with a nicely decorated table etc...however, now that the invitations have been sent out and the rsvp's are in, I am totally stuck for ideas of what to cook!

Here are the issues:

1) I am a vegetarian (I know, one of THOSE people...)

I prefer not to handle meat, and besides that I really don't want to poison my friends because I don't know how to cook meat properly! The group I'm cooking for are fine with (and likely expect) a vegetarian dinner, but I want to prove to them that vegetarian meals need not be bland and boring! If I NEED to include meat somehow then I guess I could get my husband to deal with that part of it.

2) I've never cooked for more than 6 people before. This is my first large dinner party. Eek!

3) I don't want it to be a full out traditional Christmas turkey dinner...just a nice dinner that happens to be taking place during the Christmas season.

My idea for the menu is this:

Salad
Butternut Squash Soup
Individual Vegetable Strudels
A side dish of some sort?
Dessert

I've had some DELICIOUS Vegetable Strudels at restaurants, but now I can't find a recipe that sounds really fantastic. I think it would be nice to have some fall vegetables incorporated into it, and maybe some sort of creamy or cheesy sauce inside or on top?

Does anyone have a recipe they think might fit the bill?

Are strudels really hard to make? Once I find a recipe I like, I plan to do a trial run to make sure it turns out well.

What could I serve on the side?

Any suggestions and tips are very much appreciated!
If you can think of a main course other than the Strudel idea I'd love to hear it :)

Thanks!