Joy the Baker » pasta

Green Pea Pesto Ravioli

joythebaker — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 18:40:57 +0000

This is total brain food.

If you think you know what I mean by that… think again.

This is the sort of dish that you can make seated at your kitchen counter, or at your the desk that you’ve cleared off, or sitting on the floor beside the coffee table. This is the sort of dish that you sit, and make, and think with your brain… while you let your fingers do the working.

Taking the time to making these little pockets is the slightly more productive equivalent to standing in the kitchen with buttery crackers, peanut butter, and Lucky magazine.

Taking the time to make these little treats is also the equivalent to listening to Van Morrison’s Veedon Fleece on repeat. It’s just good for the brain.

If you don’t know… now ya know.

This is no time to celebrate fresh peas. But! Frozen peas, brought to life with boiling water. We’re good to go!

…I should tell you how many times a week I defrost peas and call them dinner. It might make you worry about me.

Essentially, we making little ravioli pockets with pulverized peas.

We’ll mix the peas with lemon juice and zest, bread crumbs, garlic, shallots, parsley, and cheeeeeese!

This recipe is inspired by The Gourmet Cookbook…. my old standby.

The recipe combines pea ravioli with a lemon chicken broth… gorgeous! Think about it… maybe this is your dinner style!

Here’s the thing that we need to talk about.

I made these ravioli pockets using pre-made wonton wrappers. The kind of wrappers that are already perfectly portioned for fried wontons, boiled ravioli, or decadent Nutella pockets.

I know…. it seems like once you know how simple it is to make pasta… you’re not allowed to cheat with wonton squares.

But this is real life. I don’t have a pasta roller. And I have to desire to use a rolling pin and fight to make perfect little squares.

Wonton wrappers!! You can find them in most groceries, in the refrigerated section.

Let’s just go with it.

Pea pesto is easily brought together in a food processor. The toughest part about this step is, um… actually having a food processor.

I have this blender and mini food processor combo. It has made me happy. Boom.

Two edges of the ravioli square are moistened with water, using your finger. Then the edges are formed into a triangle and pressed together. Give it a good press.

Oh… also.. my watch calls it 11:07. Fyi.

After the pocket is well sealed, bring together the two far corners. We’re going to glue them together…

With just a dab of water… the corners get pressed together.

These little ravioli cook up in boiling, salted water in about 2 minutes. Top with spicy tomato sauce and you’re good for dinner!

A few helpful notes:

- Ravioli will begin to stick together if filled and left to sit atop one another. Lay them flat, separated by parchment paper, and refrigerate.

- Ravioli can be spread in a single layer and frozen. To enjoy, place in boiling water until they float and are warmed through.

- Don’t have a fancy food processor? I totally get it! These ravioli can be made with store bought pesto… no problem! Spruce pesto up with whole peas, chicken pieces, or bacon bits (not store-bought!)… use your imagination. Enjoy the project!

- Kids can help! I think they can, at least. Cats can not help. That much has been determined.

- Ravioli can also be filled with sweet treats. I’m thinking Nutella. If filled with chocolate hazelnut spread… consider pan frying until crisp. Boiled Nutella would be weird.

- Relax and enjoy making these. Don’t worry about the fancy food processor or pasta roller that you might not have. Cooking is all about making what you have work for you. Let’s just chill and do.

Green Pea Pesto Ravioli

makes about 2 1/2 dozen ravioli

adapted from The Gourmet Cookbook

Print this Recipe!

1 package prepared wonton wrappers

1 16-ounce bag frozen peas, blanched until just cooked through

1-2 small cloves garlic, minced

3 tablespoons diced shallots

1 tablespoon lemon zest

juice of 1 lemon

1/4 cup chopped parsley

1/3 cup bread crumbs ( just toast some bread and crumble it up)

1/2 cup grated or shredded Parmesan cheese

1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Bring a pot of water to a boil. Add a bit of salt. Boil the frozen peas for about 3 minutes, until just warmed through. Drain and set aside.

In a food processor, combine, peas, garlic, shallots, lemon zest and juice, parsley, bread crumbs, and cheese. If your food processor is small, you may need to do this in two batches. That’s fine too. Pulse until peas are broken down and the mixture is well incorporated. With food processor on, drizzle in the olive oil until you have a thick and glossy pesto. Remove from food processor and place in a bowl. Taste and season with salt and pepper.

To assemble the ravioli you’ll need the wonton wrappers, a bowl of the pesto, a small spoon, a small bowl of water, and a bit of time.

Place a square in front of you so that it shapes a diamond. Place a generous teaspoon of pea pesto on the bottom half of the diamond.

Dip your finger in water. Run your wet finger along one bottom edge of the diamond and the other. You’re moistening two edges so they act as glue when the ravioli gets folded over.

Fold the top half of the diamond over the pesto dollop. Use your fingers to press the triangle edges together. Make sure that the triangle is not filled with air, and well sealed at the edges.

Grab the two farthest points and bring them together in the center. Use just a big of water to seal the two points together.

Set ravioli in a single layer on a plate. Marvel at your work as your ravioli numbers increase.

Ravioli can be cooked immediately in boiling, salted water, for 2-3 minutes, or until warmed through. Drain and serve with spicy tomato sauce and more cheese.

Ravioli can also be placed in the freezer, in a single layer until frozen. Once frozen, they can be sealed well in a plastic bag until ready to cook and serve. Cook in boiling, salted water for about 7-9 minutes, or until warmed through.

Big Fat Bolognese Sauce with Fresh Pasta

joythebaker — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 00:40:12 +0000

Remember a few months back when I made fresh pasta? Were we friends then?

I made fresh pasta at the tail end of summer this year. I wore a snazzy red apron. I got my hands dirty. I walked around the house showing off my ball of dough to anyone who would pay attention. No one really payed attention. That’s ok.

I have been feeling nostalgic for my summer times of a few months back. Times when I would spend weekends talking about wine and food with these lovely ladies. (My friends are gorgeous. It’s almost weird.) Times when we would drink way too much Rose and just be downright silly. Those times will come again… in many months. For now, I’ll satiate myself with a giant bowl of fresh pasta with this INCREDIBLE Bolognese Recipe. You should do this too. No joke. Pasta is calming and generally makes the world a better place.

For all things pasta, you’ll want to pop on over here and read this. For all things Bolognese, you’ll want to jump on over and sauce it up.

This Bolognese recipe is one I adapted from Mario Batali. The man knows a hell of a lot about Italian food and Crocs. I generally only take his advice on Italian food and not on shoes.

This sauce is so amazing because of its many layers of flavors. There’s wine, there’s thyme, there’s a touch of sweetness from carrots, there’s onions and garlic and two different kinds of meat. Yes. Yes. Yes. If, for some reason, you aren’t so keen on several different types of meat, I would gently suggest you reconsider. Combining ground pork and veal (or beef) adds a dimension to your sauce that you can’t get with one meat alone. It’s well worth the effort. True.

Cream too. Please don’t skip the cream. That’s downright criminal.

Big Fat Bolognese Sauce

adapted from Mario Batali

makes about 8 cups

Print this Recipe!

2 medium onions, finely chipped

4 celery ribs, finely chipped

2 medium carrots, finely chopped

5 cloves of garlic, finely sliced

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/4 pound pancetta or slab bacon, ground by butcher or thinly sliced and pulsed in a food processor until finely ground

1 pound ground veal (or ground beef will do too)

1 pound ground pork (not lean… sorry)

1 6-ounce can tomato paste

1 28-ounce can chopped tomatoes

1 cup dry white wine

1 cup water

1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves

1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt (or to taste)

1/2 teaspoon fresh black pepper ( or to taste)

1 cup heavy cream

Heat oil in a large saucepan. Add onions, celery, carrots and garlic and sautee over moderate heat until softened. This should take about 5 minutes.

Add the pancetta, veal and pork and cook until no longer pink, breaking up the meat as it cooks. This should take about 6 minutes.

Add the tomato paste, heating it and mixing it in the cooked meat. Add the white wine and deglaze the pan. Add the water, canned tomato and thyme and gently simmer the sauce, covered, until it thickens and reduces, about an hour to an hour and a half. Once thickened add salt and pepper and heavy cream. Stir.

Sauce can be made up to two days ahead and stored in the fridge. This sauce keeps in the freezer for 1 month.

Homemade and Handmade Pasta

joythebaker — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 08:12:55 +0000

Can I tell you a secret? Sometimes I lack all confidence in the kitchen. It’s true. Sometimes a project will keep me up at night. Sometimes the ingredient list will just baffle me. Sometimes I hold my breath as I incorporate the ingredients, or I second guess myself and reread the recipe with every turn of my spatula.

It’s the absolute truth. Sometimes I just need someone to hold my hand through a new recipe… or I at least need to be allowed to throw my hands up and call uncle at any point during the process.

I tell you all this so you know that when I stepped in the kitchen to make pasta this past weekend… well… I was totally intimidated. I wasn’t sure I could pull this off.

I know… I know… everyone was telling me how easy it was. Frankly, I was convinced they were liar liarpants. For real. Handmade pasta!? Easy? Not possible.

Well, let me be honest. Pasta isn’t as entirely easy as everyone would have me believe. That’s not to say it’s impossibly hard…. not at all. For me, making pasta by hand just involves a little talking to myself, a big area where I could throw flour all around, a rolling pin and willingness for a good arm work out, and a few hours set aside for doughing… mostly just patting it, talking to it, and walking around the house showing it to whatever family member would pay attention to me.

The end result is beyond… BEYOND comforting. The process was super satisfying, and really? So Much Fun! Pasta! I made pasta! Daaang! I’m going to go ahead and pat myself on the back for this one. Don’t mind me… I’ll be done in a minute.

Pasta is pretty straight forward. Flour and eggs, mixed, rolled, cut and boiled. But. And there’s always a but. What kind of flour do you use? There’s 00 flour. There’s semolina. There’s all-purpose flour… and don’t even get me started on the combinations! I used all-purpose flour because I wanted to experiment with a recipe that you could easily replicate at home. We’re in this together, right?

There is one thing worth noting…. this one is a big deal. Pay attention to egg size with this recipe from Mario Batali. All of the baking recipes that I post call for large egg. Large eggs are standard baking practice. This recipe calls for extra-large eggs. You’ll need that added moisture. It’s important.

Here’s a snazzy step-by-step followed by the recipe and official instructions. Yea? Yea!

Six eggs and a dash of olive oil in a flour well. Things are about to get good.

Whisk up the eggs and slowly bring in the flour. Cool. I’m totally playing with my food!

Coming together. Getting there!

This might just be a ball of dough! Almost! Dang I’m good. Confidence is growing.

I had a lot of the initial 5 cups of flour left over. I decided that was ok. I dumped the excess in the trash. So there.

The sixth and final cup of flour got sprinkled on the counter and put to work inside the pasta dough.

But I even had some of the last cup of flour left over!

Excess flour is fine fine fine! Look how pretty this dough ball is!

After a 30 minute rest it’s time to roll this beast out. Roll and roll and roll….

and roll and roll… until I just couldn’t roll anymore. Then it’s time to slice.

Slice and slice and slice and slice.

What do you think? Your turn?

Want a little YouTube courage? I watched this video before I started my pasta adventure. It was nice to see a visual.

Homemade and Handmade Pasta

recipe from Mario Batali

serves 6

Print this Recipe!

5 to 6 cups unbleached all-purpose flour or bread flour
6 extra-large eggs
3/4 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil

Make pasta dough:

Put 5 cups flour in a 12-inch-wide mound on a work surface. Make a 6-inch-wide well in center (down to work surface) with fist. (The outer wall should be 1 1/2 to 2 inches high.)

Break eggs into well and add oil. Beat eggs and oil together with a fork, then gradually beat in flour from inner side of well wall, keeping wall intact while mixture is runny, until it comes together in a cohesive, kneadable mass (about two thirds of flour from mound will have been incorporated).

Knead dough with floured hands, incorporating just enough flour on work surface until dough no longer sticks to hands. (It will still be a little tacky; you will have flour left over.)

Set dough aside and scrape up and discard flour from work surface

Lightly reflour work surface using some of remaining cup flour and continue to knead dough, reflouring hands often, until smooth and elastic, about 6 minutes more. (Dough should still be slightly tacky.)

Form dough into a ball, then dust well with flour and wrap in plastic wrap. Let dough rest 30 minutes at room temperature.

Rolling out the Pasta:

Here’s where the arm work out comes in.

Unwrap the dough from the plastic wrap. If the dough is sticky.. mine was… just dust it with flour. Cut the dough in half, put half on the big clean counter where you’re going to roll the pasta out, and rewrap the other half so it doesn’t dry out.

Lightly dust your work surface with rice flour or a little bit of all-purpose flour. Slowly and evenly begin to roll the dough out. Flip and twist the dough on the counter top to ensure that it isn’t sticking. If spots are sticking, lift the dough and lightly dust the surface with flour and continue rolling.

How thin do you need to roll the dough? Thinner than you think, it’ll plump up when cooked. I rolled mine thin enough so that I could vaguely see a magazine cover when placed under the dough. It should be thin enough to see something under it. Yea?

Once rolled out, take a pizza cutter and cut strips in your desired thickness. I made fettuccine sized noodles, but you can go just thinner for linguine or fatter for pappardelle… or even fatter for lasagna noodles. Just eyeball it if you have a steady hand. You can do it!

Once sliced, I loosely piled up the fresh noodles with just a bit of flour so they didn’t stick. I re-floured and fluffed them every once in a while just to make sure they didn’t stick. Loosely cover the cut noodles with plastic wrap and begin to roll and cut out the other half of dough.

Don’t want to cook your pasta right away? Want to store it? Here’s how!

Cooking your Pasta:

Once all your pasta is rolled and sliced, bring 8 quarts of water to a boil. Add 2 teaspoons of kosher salt to the boiling water and add half of the cut pasta. Cook for 1 or 2 minutes until al dente. Remove cooked pasta from boiling water with tongs, and drop in the other half of cut pasta to cook. Drain all of the cooked pasta in a colander. Do not rinse.

Sauce? How about a big ol’ Bolognese? Recipe coming soon!