Sorry to post two food posts in a row, but there is something so fun for me about tackling a new recipe. My plan to try home-made pasta has been in the works for a long time. Ever since I saw Wil's post about pasta being an 'Inconvenience Food' that is worth the effort WAY back in August, I've been planning on giving it a go. I finally decided to take the plunge for a special dinner for Mike on Saturday to celebrate Valentines Day. What better way to show my love for my Italian-American boyfriend than by making a little home-made pasta? Way to think inside the box.
I chose to make ravioli. So I made some dough, rolled out the pasta. (Cranking the dough into paper thin ribbions was by far the most fun part of the process. All hail the inventor of the pasta machine.) I made a filling with ricotta, chicken, and basil. Yum. Here they are ready to be wrapped.
When it came time to wrap the little buggers, I was on my own. All the recipes I had (I was using a mash up of several) said something along the lines of 'seal the ravioli'. NOT very helpful. So I got a little creative and basically wrapped each of the twelve or so ravioli differently. Scientifically speaking, it was a sound plan: try many techniques, observe which are most successful. Alas, aesthetically speaking they were not such a success. My camera actually ate the picture of the wrapped ravioli and the finished product. Perhaps my camera judged it a sight better left unseen.
I think my experimentation with Ravioli is the biggest failure that I have yet shared on the blog. I feel it is my duty to be honest that trying new things doesn't always work out perfectly the first time. While my ravioli certainly were not the worst thing I've ever eaten, they were far from the best. Next time I will 1) Flour the surface that I place the wrapped ravioli on. They ended up sticking and all but one had to go into the boiling water without a bottom. This made the previously delicious insides watery and a bit flavorless by the time they got out. Not to mention my wrapping durability experiment was completely foiled. 2) I will NOT fold over many layers of pasta to 'seal in' the sides. The pasta cooks up to be thick and a pretty tough. We ended up eating out the middles of the pasta leaving rings of stiff dough on our plates. Lessons learned.
I am not discouraged. In fact, I am yearning for another excuse to tackle ravioli again. Nothing brings me more determination than a setback. I'll certainly let you know how it goes. Until then,
Claire Out.
3 comments:
Ravioli terrifies me. Also, gnocchi. Kudos for trying!
Happy Valentine's Day!
if i remember correctly, when we made the pasta for that post, it was supposed to be ravioli- and i think we brushed the inside edge with water or egg, pressed around the filling (trying to get the air out completely), and then used a fork to crimp and seal.
but the reason it became just a 'pasta' post was because ours didn't come out either! our sauce became a big white blob and looked like vomit on the plate, no matter how we styled it! whoops!
Amanda - I've make gnocchi once, and it worked out pretty well. But that is WAY more work than pasta. I wonder if there are vegan gnocchi recipes out there?
Kris - See, I tried a very similar approach at first but my dough didn't crimp. Did I roll it out too thin? Was it too dry? So I settled for rolling the sides. Not a good plan.
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