Inevitably in spring time I have an excess of ramp leaves. If you like ramps or have a friend that knows where some grow, you likely do too. This recipe is a great example of how you can be creative with them.
I like to keep some fresh, filled pasta around for when friends stop by or when I’m not feeling up to making something labor intensive. If you feel like making the whole dish or only the ravioli, the sub-recipes are valuable here.
The ramp ravioli here can be individually frozen and then placed in plastic bags, then all you need to do is reach into the freezer and toss them in boiling water. The simple tomato broth is a crystal clear one, it could also be the base of a soup or cooked down to make a light sauce.
Goat Cheese-Ramp Ravioli with Tomato Broth, Peas, and Shiitakes
Serves 4 as a light entree, to be accompanied by a salad or additional courses.
Ingredients
- 1 recipe tomato broth follows
- Two cups peas preferably english shell peas
- 5 oz shiitake mushrooms thinly sliced 1/4 inch
- Goat Cheese-Ramp Ravioli
Pasta dough
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 cup semolina flour
- teaspoon salt
- 3 eggs
- 2 tbsp of water
Goat cheese-ramp filling
- 20 Ramp leaves blanched for 5 seconds in boiling salted water, then shocked in ice water
- 8 oz cream cheese
- 4 oz soft chevre/goat cheese
Instructions
Dough
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine all ingredients until the dough pulls away from the bowl and is springy when touched, about 5 minutes.
- If the dough does not want to come together or looks dry, simply add another tbsp of water and keep mixing on the lowest setting of your mixer.
- When the dough is nice and springy to the touch, remove it and wrap in plastic wrap for 10 minutes or so, this allows the dough to rest, making it easier to roll out.
- Squeeze and drain the ramp leaves. then chop the blanched and shocked ramp leaves finely.
- Put these in a blender and puree until very smooth, you should end up with about a 1/4-1/3 cup of super green ramp leaf puree.
- If it is not very smooth, add a tbsp of water and puree in the blender again, making sure not to overmix and heat the mixture though, which would turn it brown. Mix the puree with the cheese and reserve.
Fill and shape the ravioli
- Roll out the pasta dough, using 1/4 of the batch each time. Roll it out to the thinnest setting of the pasta roller, this should be "0". Cut out individual circles with a glass of a or a ring mold. You will want two circles per ravioli.
- lightly brush the bottom circle of each ravioli with beaten egg, then place a tbsp of the ramp goat cheese mixture in the middle of each ravioli, sealing with a top circle of pasta dough.
- From here the ravioli can be dusted with semolina flour and frozen on a cookie sheet, make sure they are not touching each other though, this can make them crack and break when you try to cook them. The ravioli will keep for a month in the freezer.
Finishing and plating
- Heat the peas, broth and mushrooms, season with salt to taste and a splash of champagne vinegar
- Boil some salted water and cook the ravioli until they are tender and cooked through, about 3 minutes, 6 minutes if previously frozen.
- Place 4 ravioli in each of four preheated dinner bowls, ladling a cup or so of tomato broth, peas and mushrooms over the top. Serve immediately.
Notes
Makes about 20 4 inch ravioli, more if you reuse the leftover dough.
Tomato Broth
Makes 1 quart
Ingredients
- 1 large ripe tomato, preferably a hot house or one with a lot of seeds and capillaries inside, these will make the richest broth
- 6 cups water
- 1/4 cup carrots chopped
- 1/4 cup onion chopped
- 1/4 celery chopped
Instructions
- Slice the tomato and then dice into 1/4 in chunks.
- Place all the ingredients into a small stockpot and bring the mixture to a simmer, then quickly turn the heat down to as low as possible and let infuse/gently cook for an hour or so.
- After and hour, season the tomato broth to taste with salt
Ramp Ravioli
Thank you for the great looking recipe! Next time I buy shiitake mushrooms I will give it a try.