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: Asparagus Goat Cheese Ravioli with Sage Brown Butter Sauce

Passover started last week, which means no bread, grains, flour, corn etc. for me for eight days.  However, I made this recipe last week and haven't gotten around to posting it just yet (I scheduled posts in advance).  So, it was pre-Passover when I made this and when I posted it :)  At any rate, if you have been reading this blog for awhile, I love making my own ravioli and came up with this recipe for asparagus goat cheese ravioli, served in a sage brown butter sauce.  This was one of my husband's favorites, and mine too.  I made a second great pasta dish using ramps this past week, which I will be posting soon.  I love ramps in the springtime.  Once Passover ends, I plan to  make my famous ricotta-ramp ravioli. Another nice thing about spring is the emergence of fruit pies and canning.  I'll be starting my jamming in the next couple of weeks with a cantaloupe jam and a strawberry-rhubarb jam.  I'm counting the days until I can get strawberries and rhubarb at the farmer's market.  I can't wait to make a strawberry rhubarb pie as well!


Sasha's Asparagus Goat Cheese Ravioli
Pasta Dough (recipe from Mario Batali)
3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
five eggs
2 T tomato paste

Sasha's Ravioli Filling
bunch of asparagus, cooked lightly and pureed in a food processor
1 egg
10 oz goat cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Sage Brown Butter Sauce
15-20 sage leaves
6 T butter

To make the pasta dough, place the eggs and a mixer with the tomato paste and blend for a minute or two.  Then add the flour all at once and beat until a dough just forms.  If you need to you can add a tablespoon of water.  A dough won't fully come together in the mixer, as you will need to pull it together into four balls with your hands.  Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 45 minutes.

Roll the dough with your pasta maker to about a 6 or a 7 depending on your machine.  Press in ravioli press using your filling.  To make the filling, cook the asparagus in boiling water until it is just tender, and still a vibrant green in color.  Puree in a food processor and mix with an egg and 10 oz of goat cheese using a fork.  Season with salt and pepper, and add a little but of red pepper flakes if you prefer a little heat.  I left those out for this time.

Once you make the ravioli, allow to dry on a rack for about an hour.  Cook the ravioli in boiling water for about five minutes and remove using a strainer.  Place in the sauce directly.  I made a sage brown butter sauce.  Melt the butter over medium heat until it just browns, with the sage leaves.  The lovely crisp sage leaves lend delicious flavor to this simple sauce.

Sasha's Kitchen: Asparagus Goat Cheese Ravioli with Sage Brown Butter Sauce

Sasha's Kitchen: Goat Cheese-Roasted Pepper Ravioli

I love making my own ravioli so here's my latest batch.  I made this for Valentine's Day so I made it the pasta dough a lovely shade of pink using tomato paste.  The newest, latest and greatest ravioli flavor I came up was goat cheese, roasted pepper ravioli which was just a lovely food combination.  As usual, I produced these en masse and made six dozen so plenty went into the freezer for no-cooking nights. This is a great romantic meal that is worth the effort that goes into it.  My husband absolutely loved these!

Pink Tomato Ravioli Dough (from Mario Batali's Molto Italiano)
3 1/2 cups flour
5 eggs
2 T tomato paste

Sasha's Goat Cheese-Roasted Pepper Ravioli
11/4 cups roasted red, yellow and orange peppers, pureed in a food processor
10.5 oz goat cheese
15 oz part skim milk ricotta cheese
1/3 tsp red pepper flakes

To make the dough, put the eggs in your stand mixer and beat for a minute to scramble.  Then add all the flour and tomato paste at once and mix into a dough.  Divide into four balls and wrap in plastic wrap.  Allow to rest for an hour before using.

Roll the dough to 6 or 7 thinness using your pasta machine.  Using a ravioli press, press into ravioli.  This recipe should make about six dozen as each sheet makes 12 at once.  Allow to dry for about an hour on a drying rack before placing the drying rack in a freezer.  Once they are frozen you can put them in freezer bags.  To cook place in salted boiling water and cook about five minutes.

Sasha's Roasted Red Pepper Tomato Sauce
2 cans organic whole tomatoes or San Marzano tomatoes
2 red, orange or yellow peppers, diced
1 onion, diced
four cloves of garlic, minced
fresh thyme to taste (I used about 5 branches)
fresh oregano to taste (I used about a tablespoon)
salt and pepper to taste
1 T balsamic vinegar

Dice the onions, pepper and add the herbs and garlic and saute in three tablespoons of olive oil for a few minutes.  Add the tomato puree and bring to a boil, stirring, then simmer for a half an hour.  When the simmering has concluded, stir in the balsamic vinegar and season with salt and pepper.

Sasha's Kitchen: Goat Cheese-Roasted Pepper Ravioli

Sasha's Kitchen: Mario Batali's Mint Love Letters (Ravioli)

Mario Batali's Babbo is one of my favorite Italian restaurants in New York.  Once when I was there about five years ago, we were seated a table away from U2 Frontman Bono and his entourage, which was pretty cool.  The food there is amazing.  One of my favorite dishes on the menu is a dish called mint love letters, which is a triangular shaped ravioli filled with a cheese, mint and sweet pea filling, served with a lamb ragu pasta sauce.  I've been wanting to make a regular ravioli version of this dish for awhile, since I make my own ravioli at home (such a rewarding process!).  I made the mint love letters square shaped, rather than triangular because it was easier to use my ravioli press.  This turned out to be one of my husband's favorite dinners and it's been requested again for next week since we already ate the two dozen raviolis I made in the original batch (yay for leftovers).  Making your own ravioli at home is fun and rewarding, although it does require a little bit of work.  This was one of my best ones yet.  Sorry the only pictures I have are of the final product and none of the lovely filling.

These were made last weekend, not last night, as yesterday my husband and I went out to a fondue restaurant in the East Village (The Bourgeois Pig) for my birthday!

Mario Batali's Mint Love Letter Ravioli (adapted from this recipe)

Filling
kosher salt

1 cup shelled sweet peas (I used frozen ones)

2 cups mint leaves
1 cup parmesan cheese, grated
1/2 cup heavy cream
fresh pepper

Ravioli dough (my perfected formula)
3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
5 eggs
1/2 tsp salt

Sauce
1 spanish onion, diced
2 28 oz cans peeled whole tomatoes, or tomato puree
1/2 of a peeled carrot
thyme
pepper
oregano
1 lb spicy lamb sausage

First, prepare the ravioli dough.  Beat the eggs, and then add the flour and salt all at once and beat into a dough.  You may have to bring the dough together with your hands to form four balls.  Wrap each ball in plastic wrap and allow to rest for half an hour either in your refrigerator or at room temperature.

Prepare the filling by first bringing three quarts of water to boil and adding a teaspoon salt.  Submerge the peas and cook for 1-2 minutes until tender yet still bright green.  Remove using a slotted spoon or hand strainer, saving the boiling water.  Set the peas aside and blanch the mint in the hot water for 30 seconds, before removing. Once removed transfer the peas and mint to an ice bath.  Drain well.  Then puree the peas and mint in your blender (we just got a new one after ours broke, sadly).  Add the parmesan cheese and heavy cream and pulse to form a paste.

Roll out the pasta dough to the desired thickness using your pasta machine.  You can make squqare shapes using a ravioli press like I did, or you can cut out squares in a knife and fold into triangular dumplings, like the mint love letters recipe suggests. Allow to dry on a drying rack, and then freeze.

Prepare a basic pasta sauce, like mine above, or like Mario Baltali's basic pasta sauce, and bring to a simmer.  Cook the lamb sausage in small pieces using canola oil, and add to the sauce.  Serve the mint love letters with the lamb sausage pasta sauce.

Sasha's Kitchen: Mario Batali's Mint Love Letters (Ravioli)

Sasha's Kitchen: Butternut Squash Ravioli with Sage Brown Butter Sauce

I love making ravioli en masse using my ravioli press and pasta maker.  Yes, it's a bit time consuming, but it really doesn't take so long and you get several quick meals out of it in the end as your reward.  So, it's a great activity for a Sunday morning after yoga class.  Being that its fall, I figured it was time for butternut squash ravioli and what's a better way to serve it than a sage brown butter sauce. This meal was a huge success and there's plenty left in the freezer to enjoy for future dinners in a pinch.

Sasha's Butternut Squash Ravioli filling
32 oz cubed butternut squash, roasted and pureed
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp brown sugar
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

Sasha's Pasta Dough
5 eggs
3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 T cold water
1 tsp kosher salt

Sasha's Sage Brown Butter Sauce
6 T butter
12 sage leaves
2 tsp lemon juice

Roast the squash at 400 until soft.  Puree in a blender.  Mix with the other ingredients for the filling and set aside.  To make the dough, I used my mixer.  Combine the eggs and flour on medium speed and pulse until mixed.  Add 2 T of water until a dough forms.  You may need to use your hands to bring it into four balls of dough.  Wrap the balls of dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for one hour.

Roll out sheets of dough to setting seven on your pasta maker and press using the ravioli press, adding the filling.  Allow to dry for an hour on a drying rack.  Then place the drying rack in your freezer and freeze for an hour before placing in bags.

To prepare the sauce, melt the butter until brown.  Add the sage leaves and cook another minute, before stirring in the lemon juice.  Cook the pasta for five minutes or so in boiling salted water and toss in the butter sauce and serve hot.

In the mood for most pasta? Check out my baked ziti on ShopRite's food blog, Potluck - my newest ShopRite post using their organic pasta.

Sasha's Kitchen: Butternut Squash Ravioli with Sage Brown Butter Sauce

Sasha's Kitchen: Homemade Three Cheese Ravioli with Marinara Sauce

I'll admit it, making your own ravioli is time consuming and tedious. It takes a long time and a bit of upper arm strength, and is a bit tricky at first. But once you get the hang of it, it is totally worth it. not only does your ravioli taste 1000 times better than anything I have ever bought, but it is much less costly than buying gourmet ravioli, and a typical recipe makes enough to freeze for several meals, so it's actually good at saving time in the long run. Here's my second foray at ravioli making which may have been even better than the first. The first time though, I was fortunate enough to use ramps, but now that it's summer, ramps are out of season, so I used scallions instead. The dough recipe is from my pasta class that I took at the Brooklyn Kitchen, but uses less salt. 

Sasha's Three Cheese Ravioli
1 15oz containers of skim milk ricotta cheese
8 oz goat cheese, crumbled1/2 cup grated pecorino cheese
1/2 to 1 tsp red pepper flakes
1 eggbunch of scallions, diced
zest of one lemon4 cups flour
4 large eggs
4 T extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp Kosher salt

about 3 T of water

First, prepare the dough by mixing the four eggs, salt and olive oil in your mixer. Add the flour all at once and mix until it has a sandy texture. Add about 2-4 T of water to bring into a dough in the mixer (and with your hands to help bring it together, as it may not fully come together until you squeeze it together with your hands). Divide into four balls, wrap with plastic wrap and chill for an hour before using. 

Roll out to the dough to the Number 7 setting on your pasta machine and press into the ravioli molds. Mix the cheeses, egg, scallions, red pepper flake and lemon zest and fill for the filling. Dry the ravioli on a drying rack so they dry uniformly and do not become sticky (note - this was a mistake I made the first time). Prepare by placing in boiling water for about five minutes, freezing the extra. This recipe makes about six dozen ravioli.


For the pasta sauce
1 can san marzano tomatoes, squeezed and crushed by hand
1 onion diced
4 cloves of diced garlic
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1 T balsamic vinegar

Saute the onions and garlic until lightly browned. Then add to the tomatoes and mix in the spices. Bring to a boil and then simmer. Add more oregano and thyme as needed, and season with some pepper. Just before serving, stir in the balsamic vinegar.

Sasha's Kitchen: Homemade Three Cheese Ravioli with Marinara Sauce

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