Sasha's Kitchen: Swiss Chard Ravioli with Mascarpone & Ramps in Rose Sauce

Ah, my latest and greatest ravioli creation!  I just love coming up with new recipes for homemade ravioli that use seasonal ingredients.  This one was also a great success.  I wanted to incorporate swiss chard into the dough of the ravioli, rather than using spinach to make the ravioli green.  For the filling - I went all out into spring using ramps, mascarpone cheese and some lemon zest.  As usual, this made about six dozen ravioli so there were plenty for freezing for upcoming meals.  I served the ravioli with a bit of rose vodka sauce, which was the perfect match.

Sasha's Swiss Chard Ravioli with Mascarpone & Ramps
Ravioli dough
6 oz swiss chard leaves
3 1/2 cups of flour
5 large eggs

Filling
1 bunch of ramps, diced
1 500 gram container of mascarpone cheese
zest of one lemon

Rose Vodka Sauce
3 shallots, diced
3 cloves garlic, diced
1/2 cup vodka
1 1/2 cup heavy cream
1 24 oz can whole tomatoes, pureed
2 tsp thyme leaves

Prepare the ravioli dough in a stand mixer.  First, blanch the swiss chard leaves in boiling water.  Then squeeze every last drop of moisture from the leaves.  Blend the leaves with the eggs in the basin of your mixer.  Add the flour all at once and mix until you can form four balls of dough with your hands.  Wrap the dough with plastic wrap and allow to rest for about 30-45 minutes before rolling out into sheets to form the ravioli.  Mix the ingredients together for the filling.  Once pressed in a ravioli press, allow the ravioli to dry for an hour before freezing it in bags, or cooking it in boiling water.

To make the sauce, saute the shallots until soft and saute the garlic for an additional two minutes.  Add the vodka and allow the alcohol to burn off, which takes about two minutes on high.  Add the cream and tomatoes, and stir to form a sauce.  Season with salt, pepper and fresh thyme leaves and allow the sauce to thicken.

Sasha's Kitchen: Swiss Chard Ravioli with Mascarpone & Ramps in Rose Sauce

Sasha's Kitchen: Bucatini with Cauliflower and Ramps

I'm really into making pasta dishes with spring vegetables right now.  I love using everyuthing that's seasonal.  I'm happy to say that I scored the first rhubarb of the season at Union Market in Park Slope and am making a rhubarb crumble pie this weekend (posting it soon!).  In the meantime, I've been enjoying making some vegetable pastas.  Ramps finally arrived at FreshDirect just before Passover so I made this delicious dish just before passover started.  Ramps, if you are not familiar with them, are wild onions, usually gathered by hand.  They are a bit of a cross between leeks and wild garlic.  I like using them in pasta dishes during their short season.  Some people also like to make pickled ramps, but I haven't tried that yet.  Next week, I'll be making swiss chard ravioli dough with ramps/ricotta/marscarpone cheese and a rose vodka sauce.  Here's the first garden fresh pasta of the spring.

Sasha's Bucatini with Cauliflower and Ramps
1 lb bucatini pasta
florets from one cauliflower head, diced into small pieces
1 bunch of ramps, diced
zest of half a lemon
extra virgin olive oil
1 pint halved yellow grape tomatoes
1/3 cup panko bread crumbs

To make this dish, first saute the cauliflower in a couple tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, for about ten minutes, until soft.  Add the lemon zest and the ramp bulbs (separated from the green part of the ramps) and cook antoher two minutes.  Then add the diced green part of the ramps and the yellow tomatoes and saute another few minutes until the tomatoes are softened and shriveled.  In the meantime, cook the bucatini (hollow tubular pasta) according to the package instructions.  Toss the panko bread crumbs in with the vegables and mix in the pasta.  You can add a bit more olive oil if needed, and be sure to reserve a bit of the pasta water and add that in as well. This was delicious!

Sasha's Kitchen: Bucatini with Cauliflower and Ramps

Sasha's Kitchen: Homemade Ravioli with Ramps in Sage Butter Sauce

Ramps (also know as wild leeks) are one of my favorite vegetables of the spring. They're gone now, sadly, as the season has passed, but before they were, I tried them out in some delicious ravioli. I learned how to make ravioli and pasta at a wonderful pasta making class that I took at the Brooklyn Kitchen in Williamsburg, which is a wonderful place to take cooking classes. After the class, I bought a pasta machine and a ravioli press, very reasonably, both of which are needed to make ravioli. This was the first recipe I tried, which was a winner. The recipe made plenty, so I froze half of the raviolis rather than cooking them all.

Sasha's Homemade Ravioli with Ramps in Sage Butter Sauce 
pasta dough (see below)
2 15oz containers of ricotta cheese
1/2 cup grated pecorino cheese
1/2 to 1 tsp red pepper flakes
bunch of ramps, diced
4 T butter
4 T olive oil
7-8 sage leaves

Pasta Dough (recipe from the Brooklyn Kitchen class i took)
4 cups flour
4 large eggs
4 T extra virgin olive oil
4 tsp Kosher salt

To prepare the dough, beat the eggs, extra virgin olive oil and salt in your mixer until smooth. Then add all of the flour, and beat until it forms a dough. You may need to add some additional water (I added about 3 T) to bring it all together. Take the dough out of the stand mixer once it is coming together, and form int four balls. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 45 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the filling with the two cheeses, red pepper flakes and ramps.

Then roll the first ball of dough in your pasta machine, starting at the widest setting, following the manufacturers instructions.  Flour the machine before using it and roll several times at the first setting to form a nice, even sheet. Then roll two times at each setting, getting progressively thinner. I stopped after setting number 7. Cut the sheets into sheets the length of the ravioli press and press one into the ravioli press, using the top to mold it into form. Fill each with a teaspoon of the filling. Lay a second pasta sheet neatly on top and roll over both as hard as possible with a rolling pin to press the ravioli and cut it into shape. Remove the ravioli carefully from the press and separate. The  dry for about 20-30 minutes on a drying rack before cooking. Continue with the rest of the dough - the recipe makes about four dozen ravioli. It's like magic, isn't it? To cook, place in salted water brought to a boil and cook for about five minutes.

Serve in a butter/sage sauce. I browned the butter in the pan, then added the sage and olive oil and cooked for a few minutes, before mixing in the cooked ravioli. Serve with a bit of grated cheese.

Sasha's Kitchen: Homemade Ravioli with Ramps in Sage Butter Sauce

Sasha's Kitchen: Bucatini with Ramps and Fiddlehead Ferns

I will share my much awaited recipe for beef sauerbraten with sweet and sour cabbage and pretzel dumplings tomorrow - just don't have time to write it up today, as we are headed off to spend the day with family. But, in the meantime, I wanted to share a fantastic spring pasta dish that uses the fabulous, hollow tubular bucatini, and one of my favorite spring vegetables - ramps, or wild leeks. Nothing could be better than that little bit of garden fresh onion green with your bucatini, trust me. My mom also has been talking up fiddlehead ferns, another delicious green vegetable that you can only get this time of year, so I threw those in as well. The first time I tried making them, I seasoned them badly and they looked like fried insects, but not this time - everything was sautéed in butter and olive oil, with some panko breadcrumbs for a delicious, garden fresh, spring dinner!

Sasha's Spring Garden Pasta with Ramps and Fiddlehead Ferns
1 12oz package of bucatini
1 large bunch of ramps, finely chopped, bulbs removed
4 oz fiddlehead ferns
3 T butter
3 T extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1 cup panko breadcrumbs

First, sauté the ramps and fiddlehead ferns in the butter in a large saute pan. Saute the fiddlehead ferns first, for about 3-4 minutes, then add the ramps and saute another five minutes, until the ramps are well cooked and wilted and the fiddlehead ferns are soft. When adding the ramps, add a half teaspoon (less or more to taste) of red pepper flakes.

In the meantime, prepare the bucatini in a pot of salted boiling water. Toast the breadcrumbs on a frying/saute pan for a few minutes until lightly browned.  When the pasta is cooked, add it to the pan with the butter/ramps/fiddlehead ferns. Add a tablespoon or two of the leftover pasta water (a trick I learned from watching the Food Network), and two to three tablespoons of olive oil, and sauté the pasta for a minute or so, until everything is evenly mixed. Mix in the toasted panko and serve.

Sasha's Kitchen: Bucatini with Ramps and Fiddlehead Ferns