LESSONS IN HOMEMADE RAVIOLI

As you all know, i went home a few weeks ago. And unfortunately, I forgot to cancel my Boston Organics order while i was there. (despite having written a little note to myself and writing a reminder on my hand. The minute I landed in LA, all aspects of life in Boston were forgotten). So upon my return, I had a load of veggies waiting for me, which had to be used ASAP.

As usual, the first resource i turned to was foodtv.com in order to get some inspiration. I had a bunch of what i thought was swiss chard (actually, it was red chard), so typed that in and out popped all these recipes. A creative one which I liked involved swiss chard ravioli. And as I searched other ravoili recipes, i decided to make a red chard, spinach, mushroom and ricotta ravioli. (since all those other veggies also came with the Boston organics order and had to be used). Of course, I wasn't about to make the pasta myself, so I had my sister by me two boxes of fresh pasta at Russo's.

Which means that all i had to do was make the filling and assemble the ravioli. Having worked in a kitchen, i knew that ravoili really isn't all that difficult to assemble, it just takes sometime. So first, i prepared the filling. I started off by slicing the mushrooms,
red chard (you can tell by the red veins in the leaves)and washing off the spinach, which i stored in a plastic bag with damp towels (very Rachel Ray-like).

As soon as that was done, everything was ready to be sauteed together. So first, i sauteed the mushrooms in a bit of olive oil until the liquid had dissappeared. Next, i tossed in the swiss chard, waited for that to wilt down, and lastly, added the spinach. I let all of that cook down together and ended up with this:I put this all in a bowl and let it cool down. Then, i put everything into the food processer and pulsed it a few times so that everything was chopped up together and mixed through.

Next, I added in about half a pound of ricotta cheese and grated in parmiggiano reggiano cheese. And seasoned with salt and pepper. Here's what is looks like.i layed out the pasta one sheet at a time and kept the rest of it refrigerated, so it didn't get too warm and hard to work with. i brushed the entire side of the pasta with an egg wash, and then spooned the filling right on. Here's what it looks like.Then, i laid my next sheet of pasta on top and made sure to press down on the top sheet with my fingers so that no air was trapped inside and the ravioli was firmly sealed.
After trimming off an excess pasta, I cut the ravioli into squares and laid them on a waiting sheet pan, under a damp cloth. Ok, I'll admit they ended up a little bigger than i expected. And i tried reducing their size, but it didn't really work out with the size of the pasta sheets. The little yellow dots you see around them is cornmeal. I used that to stop the pasta from sticking together.
Still, i think they turned out pretty nicely. And i wrapped them all up and stuck them in the freezer. I'm having all the friends over for dinner on Sunday night, and we'll be having the ravioli, so i'll tell you all how it actually turned out next week.