Quick Mushroom Ravioli

As much as I like to think I have time and attention to detail to make my own pasta dough and turn it into ravioli these days, it’s just not going to happen.  I love the taste of  homemade.  I’m overwhelmed by so many things right now like Storkbite’s moodiness due to a molar, Papa’s 40th birthday, international vacation planning avec toddler, and well my eternal problem — what to have for dinner.  The molar and what to have for dinner really got me today.  I wanted fresh pasta but lacked the courage.   I came very close to buying manufactured ravioli from the refrigerated section until the tiny Michael Pollan I carry with me in my subconscious barked at me and said “Eat Plants!”. I took the plunge, bought egg roll skins and developed a quickie variation on the original.  From an economic standpoint I would have saved $3 buying the manufactured ravioli, but they definitely would not have been as good.

Quick Mushroom Ravioli

These good looking raviolis were a little bit fiddly, I’m not going to make it sound like a breeze.

For the filling, use 1 box of baby portabellas, 6 cloves of garlic, about a dozen sage leaves, shredded parmesan and shredded mozzerella.   Make sure to chop the mushrooms, garlic and sage.  Then saute everything except the cheeses on the stove in olive oil and 1 tbs. butter, salt and pepper.  Once the mushrooms slightly carmelize, remove from heat and add to a mixing bowl.  Once cool, combine cheeses and mushroom mixture.

Take egg roll skins which can be found at most Asian markets (or the Met if you live in Sunnyside). Cut the skins into quarters.  Fix yourself a little bowl of water and with wet fingers go around each edge of your skin.  Put 1 tsp. of stuffing in the center, place a skin on top and smash the wet edges together.  I made approximately 16 raviolis that were about 2 x 2 inches.

Melt 1 tbs. butter and olive oil together in a skillet and pan fry the raviolis.  I imagine that one could also boil them, but we didn’t try it.  We were after some serious richness tonight.  The mushrooms, garlic, sage and butter worked so well together and was oddly enough exactly what I had a taste for.

Root Latkes

It’s almost like we can’t even get any cheaper.  We are clearing out the roots and potatoes for the next onslaught of CSA winter vegetables this Thursday.  I’m bogged down.  I miss the summer and my leafy greens.  I am going to persevere with seasonal eating in effort to make Mr. Pollan proud.   This is what I came up with in the past few days…

Root Vegetable Latkes

I thought that my root vegetables would become more palatable when fried and topped with sour cream and applesauce.  I wouldn’t recommend these latkes to the faint of heart simply because they didn’t actually “stick” together the way the potatoes do.  I used sweet potato, white potato, celeriac, white onion and carrots.  I shredded everything with my Cusinart.  Then I started wringing out the moisture.   I added two eggs to the heaping pile, then a 1/2 cup of bread crumbs, salt and pepper.  I did my best to squeeze them into latke form and dropped them into screaming hot vegetable oil.  They hissed.  Some of them lost their shape and had to be fished out in pieces.  Others were fine.  It really didn’t matter when they were served up with homemade applesauce and sour cream.  They were crunchy on the outside and juicy on the inside.  Very good used of lots of roots.   If you need a latke recipe to model your root veg latkes on, you can find one here.

Potatoes: Times are hard.

Even though we all hope that President Obama will save us, times are getting harder and harder.  In our effort to eat local all we have are potatoes this winter.  It explains why Storkbite and I have busied ourselves with other things — it’s hard for me to get excited by the 20 lbs. of potatoes festering in my cupboards.   The next several posts will convey my journey through the ups and downs of potato eating.  Even more exciting for the readers will be how to get Toddler Storkbite to also be a potato lover.

Potato and Rosemary Pizza

There is a lot to love about the combination of sea salted potatoes and rosemary.  Then add more goodness, i.e. all the cheese in my dairy drawer.  Yum.  Delicious potato pizza.

Take one pizza dough from your local pizzeria and spread it out on a half sheet pan.  Add some sauce.  Add some cheeses like romano, mozzarella, parmesan.   Add some thin slices of par-boiled potatoes.  Sprinkle with salt, rosemary and parmesan cheese.

Preheat oven to 450 and bake, reduce heat to 350 half way through and let it go until the crust is golden brown and the center is still when the pan is wiggled.

If you need exact proportions try this:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees

• 1 pizza dough from the pizzeria
• 5 small potatoes sliced very thin then par-boiled
• 2 sprigs rosemary
• sea salt and pepper
• 1/2 c. shredded mozzarella
• 1/4 c. shredded parmesan
• 1/4 c. shredded romano
• 1 c. bechamel sauce (2 tbs. butter + 2 tbs. flour + 1 c. milk + salt and pepper to taste)

Spread the dough, cover it with a light layer of bechamel, sprinkle with mozzarella and romano cheeses.  Lay down a single layer of potato slices, sprinkle with rosemary, sea salt and pepper.  Sprinkle with parmesan.  Bake for approximately 30 minutes until crust is golden brown.