There are three surefire ways to tell that my food photography was done at my parents’ house:
(1) Everything is well lit (thanks to this room); (2) Blue agate Bennington Pottery makes an appearance in 90% of my photos; (3) I am so bored that I will actually spend three hours making ravioli from scratch.
Yesterday I drove an hour to brave a very busy farmers’ market, and returned home with a bag filled with goodies. (While I am certain that I will never make any sort of “haul” video in my lifetime, if there was one thing that could get me to make one, it would be a successful farmers’ market trip. Dilly beans! Hot pepper jelly! OK, enough.) And despite the hour drive both ways, perusing the market, and a pit-stop at a coffee shop on the way home, it was still only 2:30 when I arrived back at my parents’ place. And as much as I tried to justify drinking a glass of wine alone at 3:00 in the afternoon, I really couldn’t. So I made ravioli instead.
This ravioli was begging me to make it, from all directions. A garden full of chard. Freshly cut garlic scapes, ricotta, parmesan, and eggs in the fridge. A giant jar of flour in the pantry. And a scrumptious little jar of lemon, rosemary, & garlic spread that I picked up at the market earlier that day. And despite a mega pasta-from-scratch headache and almost getting in a fight with my dad’s “fancy” tripod, the end result was worth it! Unless you happen to live somewhere near Halcottsville, NY (or another place where you can purchase Grey Mouse Farm products), you probably won’t have the latter ingredient. So I’ve written the ingredients below to include lemon zest, rosemary, and additional scapes instead. You will want to taste the filling as you go, as I am just guessing at the measurements. If you do happen to have this spread or something similar, use around 2 tablespoons.
Swiss Chard & Garlic Scape Ravioli
yield: approximately 2 dozen large ravioli
- 1 bunch of swiss and/or rainbow chard, washed and roughly chopped
- a fistful of garlic scapes (approx. ⅓ cup, diced)
- 1 cup of ricotta
- ½ cup of parmesan
- zest of one lemon
- 2 tsp fresh rosemary, minced
- olive oil (for stir-frying)
- 1 batch of egg pasta dough
Heat oil in a pan over medium heat. Add diced scapes (reserving about a tablespoon for garnish) and cook for a minute or two, then add chard and cook until just wilted. Transfer to a wooden cutting board, to absorb some of the excess liquid. (Depending on how watery your ricotta is, you may actually want to press out some of additional liquid from the chard with a large spoon.)
Combine chard and all other filling ingredients in a large bowl, then set aside.
Cut your pasta dough into two even pieces. Roll one half out on a floured surface until it is pretty thin, but not in danger of tearing (approximately 1/16 in. thick). If the dough becomes difficult to work with, just let it rest for a minute before continuing. Place evenly spaced spoonfuls of the mixture along the surface of the dough. (My spoonfuls were slightly smaller than a tablespoon, which yielded pretty large ravioli.)
Roll out the second half of the pasta dough, taking care to make it as close to the same size and shape as the first. Before placing the second dough on top, brush a little bit of water all along the exposed dough of the first layer (to ensure a decent seal). Place second dough on top, and press all around the fillings to seal. Work from the inside out, to avoid air bubbles. With a knife or a pasta wheel, cut ravioli.
Give the edges of each ravioli a once over, pressing together any that don’t appear to be properly sealed. I liked to use a fork on the edges, because it assures a decent seal and it looks fancy.
Bring a pot of water to a boil. Add ravioli and let cook until they are puffy and begin to float. Now, you can stop here, transfer them to a plate, garnish with the leftover scapes and some freshly grated parm, and serve. Or, you could go the extra fatty mile and pan fry them in butter, like I did. To do the latter, melt a couple tablespoons of butter in a large pan over medium-high heat. Fry ravioli until they are a light golden brown. Garnish with scapes and extra parmesan, and serve!
sounds delish!! can imagine how it tastes! yum fried in butter
These look so delicious. There is something about homemade pasta that just makes me happy. Especially if it’s stuffed with deliciousness!
Agreed! Despite the amount of time it takes, I always feel so satisfied after making any sort of pasta from scratch. :)
Wow. These look fantastic! I fell in love with garlic scapes this year, and this looks like a terrific way to use them. I love homemade pasta!
I discovered garlic scapes last year, and was instantly smitten as well! What a great way to make the most of the plant, and a yummy seasonal “prelude” to the garlic itself. :)
I have sauteed them, grilled them, and steamed them. I just can’t get enough and am going to be soooo sad when the season is over! I’ve also got the green eyed envies over that spread! What is in it to make it so creamy looking?
Mmmmm—grilled! My first experiment with them last year was to make garlic scape pesto. I definitely didn’t cut it with enough basil, and it was a bit . . . intense. I learned to tone it down after that. :)
I think that appearance must come from the combination of garlic paste and lemon juice with the rest of the liquid. It’s just those two, plus rosemary, vinegar, and water. I might try to replicate it once this jar is gone!
Ooooh pesto! What a great idea! But yeah, they’re pretty harsh raw. I am still trying to engineer a way for them to retain some of their heat, during cooking though. Still fiddling around with the timing…
I’m in love with scape pesto.
http://bluecheesehighways.wordpress.com/2011/07/08/garlic-scape-pesto/
Yum! You did it with 100% scapes and it wasn’t too intense? Perhaps I didn’t cut mine with enough cheese or nuts when I made it last year.
Also, I ate more Buddhapesto, and I think it gave me pine mouth again. (I didn’t eat much, but there was a subtle bitterness to my meals a couple days after.) So I think I’m converting to making my own all the time, and using walnuts instead of pine nuts.