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Mushroom Ravioli with Freshly Sauteed Corn & Tomatoes
Last week I shared my recipe for Butternut Squash ravioliand teased you with talk of two other delicious fillings. So today, as promised, I am sharing recipes for Chicken & Corn and Mushroom & Ricotta. Buon Appetito!
My Beloved Ravioli Maker
Here is a photo of a pretty basic ravioli maker that does 12 squares at a time…as you can see it resembles an ice cube tray. The dough is laid out over the stainless ridged frame, then the white part is gently pushed down to make an indentation. Next we fill each indented square with about 1 ½ tsp of filling, brush all the edges outside and in with egg wash (for 360 we used three eggs beat with one tablespoon of water). The next piece of noodle dough is put on top and we roll, pressing down, to have the ridges pierce through and separate the ravioli. It sounds complicated, but it’s not. I must say that I tried three other makers and this was clearly my fave, although the ridges aren’t really sharp enough and it takes a lot of elbow grease to cut through the dough. And last year we forgot to use an egg wash — the beautiful squares came apart when boiled so never again!
Chicken & Corn Filling
(Fills 10 dozen)
Ingredients:
- 4 chicken thighs, bone and skin on
- 3 ears of corn
- 3 carrots
- ½ sliced onion
- 1 Tbsp butter
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Zest of one large lemon
Instructions:
Prepare the chicken the night before: Rub thighs with salt, pepper and some spice rub. In a large straight sided sauté pan, sear chicken thighs in two tablespoons olive oil for 5 minutes, turn with a tongs and cook another minutes adding sliced onion. Add 3 cobs of corn without kernels, 2 cups of water, 3 sliced carrots, and bring to a boil, turn down heat and simmer, covered until very tender- 45 minutes or so. Cool and remove thighs from broth. Remove skin and bones and shred meat.
Meanwhile sauté corn kernels in butter until softened a bit. Keep the chicken and the corn kernels covered and refrigerated until you are ready to assemble the ravioli
To make the filling:
Chop chicken meat in food processor and add corn kernels along with a little salt and a small amount of pepper. I leave it a little bit course so it has texture. Taste and add lemon zest and more salt to taste.
To make the raviolis, put one sheet of trimmed pasta on the ravioli maker bottom and follow directions for your ravioli maker. Press the top to make indentations and fill with about 1 ½-2 tsp filling per ravioli on each tray. Brush between the raviolis with a diluted egg wash (1 beaten egg + 2 tsp of water-make more egg wash as needed). Lay a second pasta sheet on top after the egg wash in brushed and roll with a rolling pin well so it cuts apart. Remove raviolis and place on a large parchment lined tray so they are not touching each other. We fit about 40-45/tray. Freeze each tray overnight and then bag them (10-12 per bag) so they didn’t stick together.
When ready to serve, boil them frozen for 8-10 minutes. Cook as many as you want – figuring 5-6 per person for a first course, or 10-12 for a main. I use a large pot of boiling water so the ravioli has room to move around and cook. Drain well and coat with a sauce of your choice.
To top these raviolis, we halved one pint of cherry tomatoes and diced half of a red pepper and sautéed in a little olive oil – simple and delicious!
Mushroom & Ricotta Filling
(Fills 8 dozen)
Ingredients
- 2 ½ cups mushrooms (we used a little over a pound of a combo of white, crimini, shiitake, trumpet and oyster mushrooms-remove stems and slice ¼ inch thick)
- Butter to saute
- ½ cup + whole milk ricotta
- salt to taste
Instructions:
Saute the mushrooms slowly in butter and drain as much liquid as you can in a strainer over an hour. When cool, roughly chop in food processor then add the ricotta and mix by hand so that it has a little texture.
Follow instructions above for filling the raviolis.
This mushroom ravioli was wonderful with some simple homemade tomato basil sauce – like the kind I created for my Eggplant with Red Sauce. Or make a rustic diced tomato-corn-pepper sauteed sauce.
