Holy Ravioli Batman! (A post by Molly)

What do you do when you’re handed a bag filled with tomatoes, a block a cheese, and a carton of mushrooms, all with only a short time left until spoilage claws them in his sour clutches? Well if you’re me and my mom you have no choice but snap into action like the Batman and Robin of the kitchen (me being Batman, of course).

This wasn’t our first time fighting against the clock to defeat spoilage, usually we ended up with a hodgepodge fruit pie filling, or chicken soup loaded with chunks of turnips unfortunately passed off as potatoes.

We thought we’d class it up a little this time by taking the Italian route, my mom, with her crowd pleasing pasta sauce, and me, throwing a wildcard with my first attempt at ravioli.

Everything was going according to plan, but just as I rolled out my last sheet of dough, and my mom cut up her last tomato into the sauce pan, the phone rang. The voice at the other end of the line reminded us of an appointment that we were both 20 minutes late for and also informed us that, unfortunately we are not the Batman and Robin of organization. However, this brief interlude ended up working to our benefit. In our absence my mom’s sauce continued to simmer at the perfect temperature and was just as far along as if we hadn’t left (who needs organization?). By dinner time, there were no tomatoes to be found in the entire house, and the cheese and mushrooms were safely cooked in their pasta cocoons along with chicken and spinach. Spoilage was kept at bay… for now.

 Spinach Mushroom Chicken Ravioli

Dough:

2 eggs

1/3 cup water

1 3/4 cup flour

1 pinch salt

Filling:

2 fully cooked small chicken breasts (chopped)

1/3 cup chopped spinach

1/4 cup chopped mushrooms

1/4 cup grated mozzarella cheese

1 clove garlic (minced)

1 tsp. oregano

1 tsp. rosemary

 

1 egg white

 

1. For dough: Mix salt and flour, and stir in eggs and water until a stiff dough has form. On a floured surface knead dough for several minutes until elastic. Wrap dough tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 min.

2. After 30 min. removed dough from plastic wrap and divide into 3 pieces, run each piece through a pasta machine at its widest and keep running it through moving it one setting thinner each time, until you’ve gotten to the thinnest setting. Cut dough with a pizza cutter into 2 in. squares (you don’t need to actually measure it, but make sure you have an even number of squares and each piece has a match).

3. For filling: In a food processor blend together chicken, spinach, and cheese until smooth. Stir in mushrooms and seasonings and refrigerate until the dough is ready.

4. To assemble: place a spoonful of filling on the center of the square and brushed the edges of the square with egg white. Lay another pasta square over this square, press the edges together tightly, making sure there are no air pockets. Repeat with the rest of your pasta squares until you’ve used all of the them (if you’re not going to cook the ravioli right away brush each dumpling with flour and refrigerate).

5. Boil ravioli for 12 min. or until they’re all puffed up and floating.