A Ravioli Fiesta

I was away last week, and had a particularly wonderful dinner one night of butternut squash and sweet potato ravioli. I have never made ravioli before, but did some experimenting today and made several dozen raviolis in two flavors.

Making the Pasta Dough:

4 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons egg beaters
water

Mix the flour, salt, egg and small amounts of water.
Knead dough, adding water as needed to mix in all the flour.
Form fully kneaded dough into a ball and set it aside.

Making the Ravioli Fillings:

Spinach and Ricotta
8 oz Ricotta cheese
1 cup chopped fresh spinach
1 teaspoon pesto
salt

Mix all ingredients together. Set aside.

Butternut Squash and Sweet Potato
1 sweet potato - baked and mashed
1.5 cups butternut squash - baked and mashed
cinnamon
cardamom
cayenne
salt

Mix all ingredients together. Set aside.

Shaping the Ravioli:
Roll out the dough.
Place a teaspoon of filling about 2 inches apart on one half of the roll.

Fold the dough in half.
With a sharp knife, cut through both layers of the folded pasta, and then trim to squares.
Seal the edges by pressing with a fork.

To cook, boil water. Add a small amount of olive oil.
When the water is boiling, add the ravioli.
Cook until the ravioli rises to the top of the water (about 5 minutes).

We had the spinach/ricotta/pesto ravioli tonight with homemade tomato sauce. 

I've frozen the butternut squash and sweet potato ravioli for another day.

Ribbolita

Several days ago, I made this French Onion Soup. It was delicious. It was so yummy I decided to use some of the leftovers as a basis for a hearty Ribbolita. Ribbolita is a thick, hearty Tuscan vegetable soup, rife with vegetables. Perfect with rustic, thick bread. 

There are tons of Ribbolita recipes on the web. Here's a good one to start with: Bon Appetit Ribollita. I barely followed this recipe, since I had slightly different vegetables (celery, kale, carrots, potatoes, butternut squash, tomatoes, canellini beans). I went heavy on the spices (thyme, basil, garlic, salt, pepper, oregano). And I added liberal amounts of red wine. And of course, all that is in addition to the French Onion soup base. 

The verdict? YUM. 

Corn Pie (otherwise known as Verrill Farm's Famous Corn & Tomato Tart)

Here is the recipe (Verrill Farm's Famous Corn & Tomato Tart) I use as the basis for Andrews Family Corn Pie. I've made the recipe exactly as listed, but over time, I've made some modifications.

For example, I use mozzarella instead of cheddar & egg whites instead of whole eggs. I find the cheddar too strong and the eggs too quiche-like. This recipe is all about the CORN. This time, I had an extra bunch of cilantro, and some red peppers, but no chives, so I substituted accordingly. Oh, and fat free 1/2 and 1/2 instead of heavy cream.

Plenty: Vibrant Vegetable Recipes from London's Ottolenghi

I picked up two new cookbooks at Williams-Sonoma last night. This is one of them: "Plenty: Vibrant Vegetable Recipes from London's Ottolenghi". Yotam Ottolenghi is both the author, and the owner of several restaurants in London. I had never heard of him before, but I liked the cover, browsed the recipes in the store, and made the purchase.

Today, I picked up vegetables at the CSA and was faced with the need to do something with eggplant, peppers and several types of squash. Rather than return to my standby ratatouille, I instead found this recipe: "Very Full Tart: A fantastic Mediterranean feast, full to the brim with roasted vegetables."

I had to substitute several of the ingredients from the original recipe, based on what I had available. Butternut squash instead of sweet potato, delicata squash instead of zucchini, and baby mozzerella instead of ricotta.

First, to roast the vegetables. Two kinds of peppers on the top shelf. Eggplant, butternut and delicata sqhash on second shelf. Tossed with olive oil and sea salt.

Onions sauted in olive oil with bay leaves till they get soft and brown.

Heirloom tomatos

I made this with no crust because we're watching our carbohydrates. This is really more of a crustless quiche than a true tart.

All assembled and ready for the oven. Onions on the bottom, then roasted vegetables, tomatos and mozzerella. Finally, thyme to taste, two eggs (I used egg beaters) and some heavy cream (for which I substituted fat free half and half).

35 minutes in the oven and look what we have here: A Very Full Crust-less Quiche-like Mediterranean Feast!

Caprese Salad

Bruce is out tonight and I didn't feel like a big meal. With fresh farm tomatos,  locally made mozzerella and garden picked basil in the fridge, there was really only one thing to do. Caprese Salad.

Ingredients

• Tomatos, the fresher the better, chopped
• Mozzerella, the fresher the better, cubed
• Basil, the fresher the better, hand shredded
• Olive Oil, 1 tbsp
• Balsamic Vinegar, to taste

Mix. Pour wine. Eat.

Assuming all the other ingredients are fresh, the only way to ruin this meal is to use sub-par balsamic vinegar. Mine comes from Di Bruno Brothers. If you haven't heard of them, go here for their mail-order website. This is a great place to find gifts when you just can't send another basket of fruit or boquet of flowers and you're looking for something different and yummy. I can personally attest that the Abbondanza gift box is out of this world.