Skip to main content

Garden Greens-Stuffed Ravioli for a Virtual Birthday Dinner Party


What a crazy time we're in, right?! Well, I wasn't about to let my 47th birthday go off without a dinner party. So, even though I couldn't have my friends over in this season of flattening the curve of the coronavirus and sheltering in place, I hosted a virtual dinner party and asked them to cook some pasta, open some wine, and sign in to chat. It definitely wasn't the same, but I still felt celebrated and it was nice to catch up with everyone.


My family and I had gone on a hike that morning. Public service announcement: When the trail goes from ridge to creek in 1100 ft elevation down...and the trail is one way...yeah, you're climbing that same 1100 ft up again. Happy birthday to me. It was a beautiful hike though.


And as soon as we got home, I had the boys wash their hands and roll up their sleeves and pull out the pasta maker* to make the ravioli while I kicked up my feet and relaxed with a book.

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you'll know that my younger son created a garden for his IBMYP Personal Project this year. And the timing has been perfect for giving us greens during this shelter-in-place ordeal; I can stretch out store visits because I have fresh greens that he and Jake are harvesting daily. In any case, I wanted a ricotta-green filling for the homemade ravioli. He came in with some lacinto kale and I supplemented with some mizuna greens from a CSA delivery box I had.

Ingredients serves 4

Filling
  • 2 C chopped garden greens
  • 1/2 small onion, minced (approximately 1/4 C)
  • 2 T butter
  • 1 C ricotta cheese
  • 3/4 C grated parmesan cheese
  • 1 egg yolk
  • freshly ground salt
  • freshly ground pepper
  • freshly grated nutmeg (appoximately 1/4 t)

Ravioli
  • laminated dough (see this post)
  • Also needed: flour, water in a spray bottle, ravioli cutter*

Serving
  • sauce
  • herbs
  • more parmesan cheese for grating


Procedure

Filling
Heat butter in a small skillet. Add onions and cook until translucent, approximately 5 minutes. Stir in the greens. Salt to taste and cook for another minute.

Transfer garden greens mixture to a medium mixing bowl. Stir in remaining ingredients. Adjust seasonings to preference. Set aside.


Ravioli
Roll the dough to a thinness of 5 or 6 on the pasta machine. They rolled it through at a 2, first, then moved to a 5 which worked well for our purposes.


Lay the dough on a floured surface or parchment paper.


Place a mound of filling on the dough and spray the entire surface with water.


Lay another rolled dough over the top.


Press out any extra air to create a seal around the filling.


Using a ravioli cutter, cut around the filling carefully. Place the finished ravioli on a floured parchment-lined cookie sheet. Repeat until all of the dough or all of the filling has been used.

To cook these: drop them into salted, boiling water. Cook for four to five minutes. Gently remove them from the post and fold them into a sauce.


For this batch, I made a quick sauce with garlic, this cherry tomato sauce, and fresh basil. My proud pasta makers...


Here's a close-up of their creation!


I was rushed to sign in to the virtual chat and I completely blitzed on taking a shot of the ravioli with sauce - uneaten! Whoops. It was delicious.


*This blog currently has a partnership with Amazon.com in their affiliate program, which gives me a small percentage of sales if you buy a product through a link on my blog. It doesn't cost you anything more. If you are uncomfortable with this, feel free to go directly to Amazon.com and search for the item of your choice.


      

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Quick Pickled Red Onions and Radishes

If you've been reading my blog for even a short amount of time, you probably know how much I love to pickle things. I was just telling a friend you can pickle - with vinegar - or you can ferment - with salt - for similar delicious effect. The latter has digestive benefits and I love to do that, but when I need that pop of sour flavor quickly, I whip up quick pickles that are ready in as little as a day or two. I've Pickled Blueberries , Pickled Asparagus , Pickled Cranberries , Pickled Pumpkin , and even Pickled Chard Stems ! This I did last night for an upcoming recipe challenge that requires I include radishes. Ummmm...of course I'm pickling them! Ingredients  makes 1 quart jar radishes, trimmed and sliced organic red onions, peeled and thinly sliced (I used a mandolin slicer) 3/4 C vinegar (I used white distilled vinegar) 3/4 C water 3 T organic granulated sugar 1 T salt (I used some grey sea salt) 6 to 8 grinds of black pepper Proce

Aloo Tiki {Pakistan}

To start off our Pakistani culinary adventure, I started us off with aloo tiki - potato cutlets. I'm always game for tasty street food. I found a couple of different recipes and incorporated those together for this version. Ingredients 6-8 small red potatoes, scrubbed 1 T cumin seeds 1 T fresh chopped parsley 1/2 t ground coriander 1 t minced garlic Procedure Boil the potatoes until they are tender. Drain and let cool. Mash the potatoes. Traditionally they are mashed without their skins. I left the skins on. In a small pan, toast the cumin seeds on high heat until the begin to give off an aroma and begin to darken. Remove from heat and transfer to a plate to keep them from cooking any more. Blend all of the spices into the mashed potatoes, then shape into small patties. If you wet your hands, the potato mixture won't stick to them. Heat a splash of oil in a large, flat-bottom pan. Dip each patty into beaten egg and carefully place in the oil. P

Hot Chocolate Agasajo-Style {Spice It Up!}

photo by D For my Spice It Up! kiddos this week, I was looking for an exotic drink to serve while we learned about saffron. I found a recipe from food historian Maricel Presilla that mimicked traditional Spanish hot chocolate from the 17th century where it was served at lavish receptions called agasajos . When I teach, I don't always get to shoot photos. Thankfully, D grabbed my camera and snapped a few. Ingredients serves 14-16 1 gallon organic whole milk 3 T dried rosebuds - or 2 t rosewater 2 t saffron threads, lightly crushed 3 T ground cinnamon 3 whole tepin chiles, crushed 2 vanilla beans, split lengthwise 1 C organic granulated sugar 1 lb. bittersweet chocolate Procedure In a large soup pot that can hold a gallon plus, combine milk, dried rosebuds (or rosewater, if you are using that), saffron threads, ground cinnamon, chiles, vanilla beans, and sugar and warm over medium heat till it steams. Whisk to dissolve sugar, then lower heat an