Cappellacci are the underrated cousins of tortellini — fatter, more rustic, shaped like little hats that have had a long day. Josh Gale, who runs The Chef Out West platform and works as a private chef in the American West, makes his pasta from a dough that has been rested long enough to stop fighting the pin.
Gale's filling is a winter squash and ricotta composition that requires the squash to be roasted at 425°F until it's caramelized at the edges — not just soft, which is what you get if you steam it, but genuinely concentrated in sugar. The filling ratio runs 60% squash to 40% ricotta, with a full egg yolk per cup of filling to bind without stiffening. He folds and seals with a thin water-and-egg wash on the edge rather than water alone, which holds through a hard boil without blowouts.
Gale has no restaurant you can drive to, which is the only real injustice here. Bobby's cappellacci, by contrast, was available on national television and still lost.