Ravioli - Fill 'er up!

Warm creamy cheese and salty prosciutto wrapped in a tender pasta and covered in a perfect marinara or creamy sauce is something that you would expect to get from a four star Italian restaurant....or at one of our dinner club dinners!

What a beautiful setting!  Kathy always outdoes herself.

Ravioli has always been one of my favorites.  I think it has something to do with the hidden treasure of filling in the middle of these tasty pasta creations.  

If you've been reading the blog the past few weeks, you know that in April, Kathy hosted our dinner club and chose to make Ravioli.  Carol made dessert, which was the post last Sunday (see archives), Kathy made the pasta for the ravioli and used that pasta to also create an appetizer of fried ravioli...last week's post (also can be found in the archives).   

So for the ravioli for dinner, Mary made two sauces, a marinara and a cream sauce with pesto; Linda made the cheese filling and I made the meat filling.  Ricki also made a salad that was very tasty, but we gave her a hard time because she bought her salad dressing...however it was really good salad dressing, champagne vinaigrette!  

When we showed up to Kathy's house, she had the dough made, and was starting to roll it out.  Once it was rolled out to the proper thickness, we cut it into rectangles, approximately 2"x3", but you can just eye-ball it.  Then put them on a floured surface - we used waxed paper on a cookie sheet. 

Linda stuffed half the ravioli with the cheese and prosciutto filling...

and I filled the other half with the sausage and spinach filling.
 

Before you put the filling on the pasta, brush the edges with an egg wash to keep them together.  Place the filling on one end and fold the other end over top.  Press the edges together or use a fork to crimp the edges together.  

Place in boiling water until they float...usually 8 - 10 minutes. 

Sausage and Spinach filling

Cheese and prosciutto filling

Here are the recipes for the fillings:

Prosciutto Ravioli by Giada De Laurentiis; Food network


1- 15 ounce container whole milk ricotta cheese
1 - 10 ounce package frozen chopped spinach (thawed and squeezed dry)
4 ounces thinly sliced prosciutto, chopped
2 large egg yolks
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Ravioli dough  (for this blog - see Monday 5/7/2012 post for recipe)


Whisk the ricotta, spinach, prosciutto, egg yolk, salt and pepper in medium bowl to blend together.  Place 1 Tablespoon of filling on dough.  Fold dough over and pinch edges together or use a fork to seal.  

Cook in boiling, salted water, in small batches.  Cook until tender about 8 - 10 minutes. 

Meat and Spinach Ravioli by SherDurkee on AllRecipes.com

Ingredients:
1 lb ground beef (I used sausage because I like the taste better)
1 1/2 cups fresh spinach
5 Tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
1 1/4 Tablespoons dried parsley
1/4 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup olive oil
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1 pinch black pepper
 
Directions:

1. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat and stir in the beef (or sausage). Cook and stir until the beef is crumbly, evenly browned and no longer pink.  Drain and discard any excess grease.  Stir in the spinach and cook until wilted, about 1 - 2 minutes.  Remove from the heat and allow to cool for 10 minutes.
2. Transfer the meat mixture to a bowl.  Add the Parmesan, parsley, bread crumbs, olive oil, egg, garlic salt, and pepper and mix well.  Run the filling through a grinder until smooth (or puree in a food processor until smooth).
3. The filling can be kept in the refrigerator for up to four days or in the freezer for up to three months. 

All the pasta, salad and dessert tasted great!  Both fillings got great reviews, but people said they really liked the flavor of the spinach and meat filling.  If you have time, grab some friends and make some ravioli yourself.  You can even use wonton wrappers if you don't want to make the pasta; and you can add Nutella as a filling and have a dessert ravioli too (Great idea, Linda!)!

 

Happy Eating!

Dee