Mushroom Ravioli

I apologize to those of you without pasta rollers.  I'm having fun with my new kitchen gadget and tonight the most wonderful mushroom ravioli came from it!  Well, the ravioli tasted amazing, but it looked kind of funky.  I think I still need to get the hang of the consistency of pasta dough and rolling the dough thinner.  Or maybe I just need to remember that pasta expands a lot when you boil it, so I should make my ravioli and dumplings a lot smaller.  Ha ha!  Oh well, no matter.  Who doesn't love a giant ravioli right?  Especially if it tastes amazing!

I found the recipe for Mushroom Ravioli from foodgawker (it was submitted by a blog called "These Days") and I didn't make too many adjustments.  Just a few. 

Like....
- I didn't have cognac, so I omitted it.
- I didn't have semolina flour, so I used all purpose (I can't seem to find organic semolina anywhere either.  Anyone found this somewhere?  I usually get my flours from bulk sections because they're cheaper, but organic semolina is always absent)
- I had some portabella mushrooms, so I used crimini and portabella.  I LOVE portabella mushrooms.  You may not, it's purely a taste thing.

- I didn't have fresh thyme or parsley, so I used dried.  I'm sure the dish would have been really enhanced by the presence of fresh herbs.

-I had already bought ricotta cheese assuming that every recipe for mushroom ravioli I found on the internet would use ricotta, but low and behold this one asked for cottage cheese.  Whatever, the ricotta tasted great!

I think that's it. 

The pasta portion of the ingredients called for "oil", I used coconut oil.

Well, that probably looks like a lot of adjustments, but in my mind they were pretty minimal. 

I don't usually feel that I should write all the ingredients and the method on my blog if I haven't changed that much in the recipe and if I get the recipe from someone else's blog.  So here are the pictures from the ravioli process that happened tonight! 



I chopped the mushrooms in the food processor.  So much faster!



I also made the pasta dough in the food processor.  This was the consistency of the dough right before I started adding water tablespoon by tablespoon.

 

Pasta dough ready to be balled up for rest.  I think I ended up adding too much water again, but this time we're talking like, maybe a teaspoon or two instead of like half a cup more than needed (as in the dumpling fiasco).





Dough rolled out and mounds of filling ready for action!



Being a newbie to the pasta world, I had a bit of trouble making sure all the air was out of the ravioli.  I also brushed the surface of the pasta with a bit of water as I've seen done on cooking shows before.  While the water made the pasta stick better, it made getting air bubbles out a pain.  Any advice here?



The finished product!  Super yum. 


I just threw some extra mushrooms and garlic in a pot with some tomato sauce and italian seasoning and it made a great simple sauce for the ravioli! 

**Just a note!  I probably won't attempt to make this on a weeknight again.  At least not until I'm more proficient at working with pasta dough.  It always looks so uncomplicated, but it also always takes three times longer than I expect.  From start to finish, I think this took me about 2 hours total.  Way too long for a Wednesday night dinner prep, in my opinion.


In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.
Dear heavenly Father,
  thank you for little mouths to feed and little hands to hold.  Please bring our little Gregory into the outside world safely and soon!  Amen.

Eggplant Rollatini

I know right?  Eggplant?  This is what happens when I set out to eat low carb.  Don't worry though, it's pretty good!  I think I can say, "it's good" honestly, even though I have a cold and can't taste most things at the moment.  If I can taste this through a cold it must be flavorful right?  Oh and if Jon gave it a 4 right off the bat that's pretty good considering it's rather experimental and way out of my cooking comfort zone!

I've been trying really hard to stick with the lower carb/high veggie type of diet and I think I've been doing reasonably well with it for the past week and a bit.  Heck, I'm even liking the fact that I get to try out new recipes involving only vegetables.  Gasp!  Only vegetables.  Who said that?  Who am I?  What is happening?  Ha ha ha!!  Okay but seriously, this is a great recipe.  I found it while searching on foodgawker for eggplant recipes after I found out that eggplant is a relatively low carb vegetable.  1cup of cooked eggplant is only 9g of carbs.  Not bad.

I have also had a generally good view of eggplant growing up.  We didn't have it often at my house, in fact we only ever had it prepared one way, but it was good!  My mom used to make torta talong (translates to eggplant fritata) and I loved it as a kid.  I've also learned to appreciate eggplant parmesan since Jon and I started dating because at the time it was (and maybe still is)his favorite dish. 

This recipe looked appealing because it seemed to be halfway between eggplant parmesan and canneloni.  But I had to tweak a few things with this woman's recipe.  To keep the carbs down I didn't double bread the eggplant before pan frying it.  I also added twice the amount of herbs she called for (just because I didn't think her recipe sounded like it had enough) and I used kale instead of spinach because we were fresh out of spinach!  I think next time I might use a bit more garlic and spinach instead of the kale I substituted, because the kale seemed to have a little too much texture to it in this dish.  Other than that, I really liked it and it totally satisfied my craving for something Italian tasting, and it wasn't crazy high carb!

I am pretty sure that this recipe is completely gluten free too for my gluten intolerant friends!

You should definitely try this one!

Eggplant Rollatini
adapted from Sprinkles of Parsley
Makes about 8 rolls

Ingredients
Eggplant
1 large eggplant sliced lenthwise into 1/4 inch slices (the longer the eggplant, the better- makes it easier to roll)
3 tbsp butter
salt and pepper to taste

Filling
2 cups chopped kale

8 ounces of Ricotta cheese
1 egg
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1/4 teaspoon dried basil
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon dried parsley
1/4 teaspoon dried rosemary
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese (I used the Trader Joe's provolone, parmesan, asiago and fontina mix instead)
1 large clove fresh garlic, minced

Topping

1 cup tomato sauce
1 clove garlic minced
2tsp italian seasoning
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese (again, I used the TJ's mix)

Procedure

1.  Heat a small amount of butter in a large frying pan (cast iron or non stick will probably work best) and fry your eggplant 2 at a time over medium heat until they get floppy and seem rollable.  They'll brown lightly and might become slightly translucent.  Don't forget to season them with a bit of salt and pepper!

2.  Mix all the ingredients for the filling together in a large bowl until it's well combined.



Filling Ingredients





All mixed together.  See?  The kale gave everything a little too much texture.  It was still good, but I think I'll stick with spinach next time.



3.  After all the eggplant is fried and cooled a bit so you can handle it easily spoon two or three tablespoons of filling onto the end of a slice of eggplant and roll it up carefully.  Place it into a square (I used 9x9) casserole dish.  Repeat until you've used up all the eggplant slices and all the filling.



4.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

5.  Combine the tomato sauce, garlic, and italian seasoning for the topping and spoon or pour some over each of the eggplant rolls.  Sprinkle with cheese. 

At this point I was thinking that they looked like mini enchiladas!

6.  Bake in the oven for about 25 minutes until your cheese is golden brown and everything is heated through.

Enjoy!

Dinner success!  Even Mikey seemed to like it!

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Dear God,

  thank you for providing for our every need.  Help us to remember that we do not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from your mouth and specifically, the word made flesh.  Amen.