Last week, I found 3 containers of various mushrooms in my fridge. My hubby had stopped by the grocery store on his way from home, apparently very hungry - and in the mood for mushrooms. He also picked up two bags of chips, as he does.
I am not a huge fan of mushrooms, but I knew these needed to be cooked and quickly. I remembered I had a secret stash of dried Porcini mushrooms hidden in my cabinet that I found a couple weeks ago at an Italian specialty shop in Federal Hill, Providence RI - where I also found a new ravioli stamp. I knew just what to do.
Pasta Dough: First, I started with my basic pasta dough recipe: 3 eggs, 2 cups of flour. Mix carefully into a dough, let sit for 20 minutes wrapped in plastic. Then I used my handy pasta machine to roll out sheets to form the ravioli.
Mushroom Filling:
Start by gently cleaning the mushrooms (we used 4 oz shitake) with a damp towel, removing the stems. Chop finely. I set the dehydrated porcini mushrooms to soak in warm water for 10 minutes (make sure to reserve some of this water for flavoring the sauce later), then chop finely once soft.
Mince 3 cloves of garlic. Chop up 1/2 of a small onion finely. In a medium frying pan, add 2 tablespoons butter. Cook the garlic and mushrooms together in a pan, add some freshly chopped parsley and cook until soft. This is called a DUXELLE
Duxelle: Duxelles is a finely chopped mixture of mushrooms or mushroom stems, onions or shallots, herbs such as thyme or parsley, and black pepper, sautéed in butter and reduced to a paste. Cream is sometimes used as well, and some recipes add a dash of madeira or sherry.
Once cooked, set the mushrooms aside to cool.
Ravioli Filling:
In a bowl, combine 1/2 cup Ricotta cheese (not too watery!), 1/4 cup fresh parmesean cheese, and 1 egg yolk. Add salt and pepper. Mix together well. Add the cooled duxelle and mix thoroughly. I like to add this mixture to a piping bag to help distribute to the raviolis (Reality check: I use a plastic sandwich bag and cut one corner, DIY piping bag).
Making the Ravioli:
I rolled out sheets of the pasta dough, placed a small mound of mushroom mix, and covered with another sheet of pasta and press together. I used my new ravioli stamp, as well as a rolling cutter as needed to help form the shapes. This is where the lesson lies: I have yet to get the perfect ravioli shape. I often forget to flour the counter and the ravioli ends up sticking, making it hard to lift up. Or, I have over stuffed, or understuffed the ravioli, leaving me to wonder what is the perfect ratio of ravi-to-oli? I don't know yet. Regardless of my failures, I amassed a generous quantity of irregular yet lovely raviolis that were ready to cook. They sure are pretty for pictures.
When making your ravioli collection, be sure to line them up distanced from one another. The moisture from inside the ravioli can make the dough soft and sticky - you do not want them to clump and tear before you get them into the pot. In a large pot of boiling salted water, I dropped 6-8 raviolis at a time to boil. Give your raviolis plenty of time to boil, the double layer and thicker pasta for these needs time to cook.
Mushroom sauce:
While you are boiling your raviolis, in a sauce pan, add 3 tablespoons of butter, and a few sprinkles of flour, stirring continuously. Once melted, add some of the porcini mushroom water. This will make a beautifully fragrant sauce for your raviolis. I added some fresh oregano and more parsley for flavor, and a hint of heavy cream. and then I added more butter. yum.
Once cooked, plate your raviolis and drizzle the mushroom butter sauce on top. Everything is perfect and not perfect and delicious. Enjoy!
Love & Pasta,
Linda
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