What’d You Do Last Weekend?
With a little extra pastry cream and a simple crepe batter, try your hand at a gateau de crepes, also known as mille crepes.
Ham and Collard Ravioli
Okay, so I've admitted to being tired of ham & beans - and I'm nearly as tired of ham & greens too. But when Todd suggested this little variation, it inspired enough of the baker in me to want to tinker with homemade pasta. Besides, I'd recently had delectable plin at Serafina, and wanted to try my hand at something similar. We've made plenty of homemade pasta before, but this ravioli was a little more involved than my patience (and stomach) could handle. We kept making extra long after the desire to eat it had gone away, but I know we'll be happy when we reach into the freezer to pull out homemade ravioli in the future.
We didn't use a recipe, but here's what we did.
Ham and Collard Ravioli
For the filling
Ground ham (already cooked, ground in the food processor)
Thinly chopped collards (you could use any equivalent green - kale or chard would be fine)
Freshly grated nutmeg
Freshly ground black pepper
Salt, to taste
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
Olive oil, for sauteeing
- Heat the oil in a skillet and add the garlic when the oil's hot.
- Add the collards to the softened garlic and saute until limp. If possible, drain any liquid that remains in the skillet.
- Add the cooled greens to the ham, and season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Set aside to cool.
For the pasta dough (this recipe is courtesy of Bob's Red Mill):
1 1/2 c semolina flour
2 whole eggs
1/2 tsp salt
2 T water
2 T olive oil
- Combine the semolina and salt and toss to distribute.
- Combine the eggs, water, and olive oil in a separate bowl.
- Make a well in the semolina and pour the liquid mixture all at once into the dry ingredients.
- Stir to combine, and knead for 10 minutes or until the pasta dough is elastic. You may need to add additional semolina or all-purpose flour to make it a little less sticky.
- Rest the dough for 3 minutes, and then cut into smaller pieces to put through a pasta machine.
To make the ravioli
- Roll out the pasta dough into thin sheets, filling and sealing as you go (you don't want the pasta to dry out between fillings). It works best to put filling onto one sheet and then use the other sheet to cover the filling.
- Use your finger or a small brush to put water around the filling so the two sheets of pasta can stick together.
- Cut with a pastry wheel or a sharp knife, but make sure the edges are sealed together.
- Allow the ravioli to rest on a cookie sheet, and sprinkle with flour or semolina to prevent sticking.
- In a large pot, bring salted water to a boil, and drop pasta in one at a time. You'll want to leave them in there only a few minutes (2 minutes, perhaps), just about the time to let them float and the pasta cook. In fact, we probably only had them in there a minute each.
- Use a slotted spoon to transfer the cooked pasta to a colander.
Sauce
Sliced onion
Sliced fennel bulb
Olive oil
- Heat the oil in a pan and add both onions and fennel to the pan.
- Keep the temperature at medium and cook the vegetables until they are golden brown, about 15 - 20 minutes or longer.
- Top the ravioli with the caramelized vegetables.
