If the thought of making homemade ravioli intimidates you, read on. If not, read on anyway. It might be fun.Saturday was a gorgeous day and the perfect afternoon for the weekly farmers' market. The one closest to me is literally down the street, about 5 blocks away, and happens twice a week. Good deal! Unfortunately, Wednesday afternoons I'm tied up at school, but Saturday afternoons usually work out. This week, Official Taster and I walked away with tomatoes, oranges, scallions, corn, grapefruit, and plums for a grand total of $12.50. I was able to put the corn, tomatoes, and scallions to work right away, and I'll be posting that recipe in the next few days. (It was fantastic. Be sure to come back for it!)
Anyway, back to ravioli. I wanted to make some, but I also was a little wary. So I got some won ton wrappers at the grocery store (they're in the refrigerated section) and used those to wrap up some ricotta-pesto goodness. After I made about 30, I froze them to help them keep their shape during the cooking. The ones I didn't cook are still in the freezer, and should be good for quite a while. I discovered that making ravioli this way is still time consuming, but probably less than making the pasta from scratch, especially since I don't have a ravioli maker. Official Taster thought the texture of the won ton was a little odd since he's used to won tons being fried, but I thought they turned out well. I might try steaming them next time instead of boiling them because they were very sticky once drained. I had to be very careful removing them from the colander and getting them to plates. The pesto sauce you see in the bottom photo? That's actually the insides of a couple ravioli that broke as I tried to unstick them.
Pesto Ricotta Ravioli1 package won ton wrappers, found in the refrigerator section of the grocery store
1 C ricotta cheese
3 ice cubes worth of pesto, at room temperature
2 garlic cloves (optional)
1/4 C romano cheese (optional)
salt
1. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Stir together ricotta cheese, garlic, romano cheese, pesto, and sprinkling of salt.
2. Place 1 won ton wrapper on your work surface, spoon some of your mixture (approx 1 Tbsp) in the center of wrapper. Use your finger to brush water onto the edges, fold wrapper in half and line up edges, and pinch to seal. Or use a second wrapper instead instead of just one folded. Repeat with your remaining ingredients. Arrange in a single layer on your baking sheets and freeze at least 30 minutes.
3. Bring a pot of salted water to boil. Add ravioli- stir to help keep them from sticking. Cook about 2 minutes, or until tender. Drain, serve, and enjoy!
Notes:
I didn't make a sauce to go with these since I just used the insides of broken raviolis to spread over the top. This recipe is easily variable- just omit the pesto and add a different tasty amendment. If I were to make a sauce for this, I would choose something light that doesn't overpower the pesto taste. Experiment and let us know your results!
Frozen, uncooked ravioli can be stored for up to a month
Have you seen these? I love them for ravioli. . . but, then again, yours look nicer than mine do!
ReplyDeleteThey look yummy! The corn looks pretty good too!
ReplyDeleteI just learned that there are 2 different thicknesses of won ton wrappers. I'm not sure which would be better for ravioli. The cookbook I was reading recommended the thicker ones for pot stickers.
You can rinse off the won tons in water as you scoop them out of the boiling water rather than putting them all together into a colander. It eliminates a lot of the starch that makes them sticky, and they can go directly to the plate.
Jack- I suspect with your fancy press you can put the ravioli together faster than I could
ReplyDeleteMom- I did not know there are 2 different thicknesses. Official Taster actually found these at the store (I sent him on a mission while I did other things. Multi-tasking!) I think scooping them out would be a good solution, and probably the thicker ones would work the best.
Thanks!