looking for a really special ravioli recipe...

Arundel Pajo · Post by **Arundel Pajo** » March 20, 2004, 5:22 pm

Having a small dinner party tomorrow evening, and I was thinking about cooking Italian.

I was thinking of doing a homemade ravioli as the main course, and I have a few recipes, but they're all feeling a bit tired to me, and I wanted something special...so I figured I'd ask VV.

The only catch is that it has to be vegetarian. Or easily modifiable to be vegetarian (i.e. vegetarian chicken and beef-flavored stocks are available.)

So - any suggestions? Arb? Pherr? I'm looking in your direction...

Lalanae · Post by **Lalanae** » March 20, 2004, 5:29 pm

I can't recommend anything I've made first-hand, but epicurious has a few that look good (damn I'm hungry). (some have meat, but many don't!)

http://www.epicurious.com/s97is.vts?act ... rd=ravioli

Arundel Pajo · Post by **Arundel Pajo** » March 20, 2004, 5:34 pm

^_^ I love epicurious! I was actually probably browsing that while you were typing your reply. The artichoke and brin d'amour ravioli in three pepper sauce and the artichoke and fennel ravioli in tomato fennel sauce both look really good.

Thanks for the speedy reply! Any other suggestions?

noel · Post by **noel** » March 20, 2004, 8:52 pm

I was at an Italian restaurant in Santa Barbara with my girlfriend last weekend and we had some ravioli with a butternut squash filling that was delicious.

That's vegetarian, and might be worth a try. You're a good enough cook that I'm fairly certain you could figure out how to pull that off.

Arundel Pajo · Post by **Arundel Pajo** » March 21, 2004, 12:06 am

What kind of sauce did it have? Not tomato, I'd imagine...cream based?

Pherr the Dorf · Post by **Pherr the Dorf** » March 21, 2004, 5:12 am

For a butternut squash ravioli make a sage brown butter. Literally melt the butter slowly until it turns nut brown, season with S&P and add the sage (it'll crackle) then toss the cooked ravs into it. If the weather is still kinda chilly that'll rock, if not let me know and I'll give you a more spring-ey one

Arundel Pajo · Post by **Arundel Pajo** » March 21, 2004, 3:05 pm

Pherr the Dorf wrote:For a butternut squash ravioli make a sage brown butter. Literally melt the butter slowly until it turns nut brown, season with S&P and add the sage (it'll crackle) then toss the cooked ravs into it. If the weather is still kinda chilly that'll rock, if not let me know and I'll give you a more spring-ey one

Man, that sounds delish, but yeah - it's running about 80 degrees around here lately, so probably a little too warm for that. What was the spring-ey one you had in mind?

My girlfriend has, sadly, ruled out artichokes - much to my dismay.

(I'll definitely save that brown butter idea for next fall, though.)

Pherr the Dorf · Post by **Pherr the Dorf** » March 21, 2004, 4:26 pm

Aye the squash and sage are fall/winter flavors, I cook a lot by season so those are out to me (tho I hear there are cold parts of the country that don't have 85 and sunny all day weather). Spring makes me think of Asparagus, Peas, Spring onions or garlic, fava beans, and of course morel mushrooms (rare this year yet again, chefs everywhere hang their heads in mourning). I would say if you can get spring onions or garlic use those in a light vegetable stock for the sauce with some fresh Asparagus or the peas or favas, whichever, hope this makes sense

Pan-->hot-->olive oil-->garlic-->light toastey color-->vegies-->lil white wine-->veggie stock-->2 mins simmer then finish with enough butter to give it some"mouth feel" (like so it coats your mouth with flavors instead of sliding over your palate). Maybe add some thyme to that, fresh only tho (thyme is an every season herb, but it screams spring). Doing those with a nice simple spinach ravioli would rock (ricotta, parm, spinach, nutmeg, salt, white pepper filling). Buy a block of real parm reggiano and use your veggie peeler to shave some over the top, much better presentation then grated.

If you wanna get nutty and kinda cool, make an asparagus ravioli, and make the sauce with garlic, ginger and carrot juice thyme and of course some butter, literally reduce the carrot juice by 1/3 and finish it with butter (follow the same technique as always on pan sauces like I wrote above)

Drolgin Steingrinder · Post by **Drolgin Steingrinder** » March 21, 2004, 4:41 pm

artichoke hearts with fennel

sundried tomatoes, goat's cheese and sage

Ricotta, Mozzarella, roasted peppers

mozzarella, eggplant, sundried tomatoes

ricotta, pesto (green) and mozzarella

wild shrooms, walnuts, ricotta and mozzarella

Drolgin Steingrinder · Post by **Drolgin Steingrinder** » March 21, 2004, 4:42 pm

artichoke hearts with fennel

sundried tomatoes, goat's cheese and sage

Ricotta, Mozzarella, roasted peppers

mozzarella, eggplant, sundried tomatoes

ricotta, pesto (green) and mozzarella

wild shrooms, walnuts, ricotta and mozzarella

Arundel Pajo · Post by **Arundel Pajo** » March 21, 2004, 4:47 pm

Thanks, Pherr, those both sound wonderful!

I was totally looking for something with some lighter spring flavors like that first one. Such a simple sauce, too...

The second one sounds awesome, though I think it might be too adventuresome for some of the people in attendance. I'll definitely try it sometime when I'm cooking for just me, though!

I'll save your ideas, too, Drolgin, to try later on - they sound good as well.

Thanks guys for all the responses!

Arborealus · Post by **Arborealus** » March 21, 2004, 4:47 pm

gruyere, pine nuts and morels

Drolgin Steingrinder · Post by **Drolgin Steingrinder** » March 21, 2004, 4:47 pm

I am a goofy swede

Arborealus · Post by **Arborealus** » March 21, 2004, 4:48 pm

Drolgin outta control!

Laliana · Post by **Laliana** » March 21, 2004, 4:57 pm

That silly swede!

Drolgin Steingrinder · Post by **Drolgin Steingrinder** » March 21, 2004, 5:56 pm

fucking lag

noel · Post by **noel** » March 21, 2004, 8:44 pm

For the record, Pherr was spot on on the sauce.

The ravioli wasn't the main feature of the dish. It was a Chilean sea bass with a tomato something topping (don't remember the specifics) and steamed asparagus. Anyway good luck.

Dregor Thule · Post by **Dregor Thule** » March 21, 2004, 8:52 pm

Arborealus · Post by **Arborealus** » March 21, 2004, 9:40 pm

Aranuil wrote:For the record, Pherr was spot on on the sauce.

The ravioli wasn't the main feature of the dish. It was a Chilean sea bass with a tomato something topping (don't remember the specifics) and steamed asparagus. Anyway good luck.

did the ravioli have parmesan and chocolate shavings?...does ciarello own the restaurant?...

...I've seen him do that one before

Pherr the Dorf · Post by **Pherr the Dorf** » March 21, 2004, 11:57 pm

Arborealus wrote:
Aranuil wrote:For the record, Pherr was spot on on the sauce.

The ravioli wasn't the main feature of the dish. It was a Chilean sea bass with a tomato something topping (don't remember the specifics) and steamed asparagus. Anyway good luck.
did the ravioli have parmesan and chocolate shavings?...does ciarello own the restaurant?......I've seen him do that one before

Micheal Chiarello is my old boss (back in 95-96), to me he'll always be Jeffe, total ass to work for, I mean we had a rule as cooks if you had one day you didn't want to quit a week, you didn't give notice, many weeks came down to that last day. But I will also say, I learned more working for him (8 hours a day paid, and at least 2 a day that you never got paid for) for 15 months then I did in 2 years in cooking school, I figure 10 hours a week times 65 weeks, that was OMGIAMRETARDEDCAUSEALOTISTWOWORDS cheaper education then my schooling was. He also sold his share of Tra Vigne (and his shares in true alliance restaurant group) a few years back due to a rather nasty divorce, he is now out of the restaurant business altogather (yay for food gossip noone really cares about).
The dish we are talking about has been done in Italy for like ever in the fall, we add a twist sometimes, a signature if you will, but mostly we just try NOT to reinvent the wheel, it rolls just fine.

Arundel Pajo · Post by **Arundel Pajo** » March 22, 2004, 3:35 am

Dinner tonight turned out wonderfully!

I made the spring veggie sauce and spinach ravioli that Pherr suggested, with a few slight modifications:

Could not get any fava beans, so just used asparagus tips, peas, and spring onions.

Added a bit of lemon zest in while sauteéing the garlic, and just a bit of the lemon juice in with the veggie stock. Just a tiny bit - I didn't want it to taste overtly like lemon, because I was having a lemon dessert, but I wanted a slight citrus note in the back to tie the courses together.

Added just the *slightest* bit of cream in with the butter at the end. Not enough to make the sauce heavy.

Served it with some good bread, the rest of the bottle of wine, a nice stacked tomato/mozzarella salad, and a homemade lemon ice cream for dessert.

Everybody loved it! Thanks again, guys!

VeeshanVault

looking for a really special ravioli recipe...

looking for a really special ravioli recipe...

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