Artichoke Ravioli with Roasted Tomatoes

Since my recent food processor acquisition, I've been itching for excuses to try it out, and a ravioli filling seemed like a good idea at the time.  That's right, ravioli - the wonton of the Italian world.  For some reason I had been avoiding making ravioli for years, figuring it would take too long.  But I found a good sounding recipe, bought all my ingredients, and many hours later I had produced something moderately resembling ravioli.  Granted, it looked absolutely nothing like the pictures I saw online, but with a second pass I believe it can be tweaked significantly to improve the presentation.

The recipe was stolen and adapted from Gourmet magazine, but I have changed it per reviewer guidance after having made it, to include more filling, different flour, and adjustments to the cooking process.  If you want, you can use my earlier recipe for semi-semolina pasta, or you can just use this slightly different recipe, which worked just fine and had the right ratio of dough to filling.  See the end of the recipe for an interesting substitution.

Hey!  I make you the Ravioli!

Artichoke Ravioli with Roasted Tomatoes

Adapted heavily from Gourmet magazine

For the pasta:

• 1 1/2 cups semolina flour
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons water
• All-purpose flour, for dusting

For the filling:

• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 1 small onion, chopped (3/4 cup)
• 14 oz frozen artichoke hearts, thawed and patted dry
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped fine
• 1.5 ounce finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano (3/4 cup)
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 1 extra large egg yolk, or 2 medium
• 3/4 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
• ½ tsp red pepper flakes
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 teaspoon black pepper
• 3/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 1 large egg white, lightly beaten with 2 teaspoons water (for egg wash)

For the assembly:

• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 4 medium plum tomatoes, trimmed and cut into 1/4-inch dice (1 cup)
• 1/3 cup heavy cream
• 1 ounce finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano (1/2 cup)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Tools for the job:

• Pasta roller (essential)
• Basting/pastry brush (essential)
• Food processor (recommended for dough, essential for filling)
• Ravioli crimper (optional)

Blend flour, eggs, salt, and water in a food processor until mixture just begins to form a ball, adding more water, drop by drop, if dough is too dry (dough should be firm and not sticky).  Process the dough for 15 seconds more to knead it.  Transfer to a floured surface and let stand, covered with an inverted bowl, 30 minutes to 1 hour to let the gluten relax and make rolling easier.

Getting the dough ready.  Of course I forgot to take a picture of the final dough, but I assure you it's quite boring to look at.

Heat butter in a 12-inch heavy skillet over moderately high heat until foam subsides, then sauté onion, stirring occasionally, until golden, about 6 minutes.  Add artichoke hearts and sauté, stirring occasionally, until tender, 6 to 8 minutes.  Add garlic cloves and saute with mixture for final 2 minutes.  Remove from heat and cool slightly.

Saute the artichokes with the onion and garlic, to go into the filling

Transfer all but 3/4 cup artichoke mixture to cleaned bowl of processor (reserve remaining artichoke mixture in skillet), then add cheese, parsley, red pepper flakes, yolk, lemon juice, salt, pepper, and nutmeg and pulse until mixture is coarsely chopped.

Cut pasta dough into 4 pieces, then flatten each piece into a rough rectangle and cover rectangles with an inverted large bowl.  Make sheets for ravioli following pasta roller instructions (setting #5 on Kitchenaid rollers).  What?  You don't have a pasta roller?  Well, why are you making this?!  When done, the dough will be a smooth sheet, approximately 24-30 inches long (that's 60-75 cm, for you crazy metric people).

The ravioli sheets, ready for my further pleasure

Put a sheet of dough on a floured work surface and drop 1 1/2-teaspoon (I'm done converting) mounds of filling 1 1/2 inches apart in a row down center of one half of sheet.  I'm not going to tell you how to make your ravioli - you can make them into circles, or squares, and make them small or large.  I made 8 per sheet, 4 by 2, cutting each sheet in half first so I could drape it over afterwards.  What I should have done was trim the edges down a little, because they were still so huge that each one took up most of my plate, with not enough filling out at the edges.  So I guess I might try circles next time, as the original recipe suggested.

Lay out the filling in a way that seems appropriate.  I went for 8 ravioli per sheet - you could do 6 circles, there's no magic here.

Brush egg wash around each mound, then fold other half of sheet over filling.  Press down firmly around each mound, forcing out air (air pockets increase the chance that ravioli will break during cooking.)  Cut pasta (between mounds) with cutter into 3-inch rounds, or squares, or whatever you want to do.  Line a large shallow baking pan with a clean kitchen towel (not terry cloth) and dust towel with flour, then arrange ravioli in 1 layer in it.  I'll tell you what you shouldn't do - don't use a WET paper towel and let the ravioli sit too long.  Make more ravioli with remaining pasta dough, 1 sheet at a time, and remaining filling, transferring ravioli to lined pan.

Apply the egg white wash around the filling.  This will act as a glue for the layers

Drape the other half of each sheet over the top, press out the air, and crimp with a ravioli crimper (or a fork).

And now, some prep work: put an oven rack in middle position of the oven and preheat to 400 °F.  Lightly butter a large baking dish.  Bring a 6- to 8-quart pot of salted water to a boil. 
Roast the tomatoes on a sheet pan until softened, about 10 minutes.  Reduce temperature to 350 °F.

While tomatoes are roasting, add ravioli to boiling water.  Stir carefully to separate, and, adjusting heat to keep water at a gentle boil, cook until pasta is just tender, about 6 minutes.  Transfer with a slotted spoon to a colander.  Amazingly, while this dough will cook as fettuccine in about 2 minutes, it takes much longer when assembled in ravioli form, even when rolled just as thin.  So don't skimp on the cooking time, but don't overdo it either.

Boil your ravioli for 6 minutes.  Note the presence of wine to help this process along.  It IS Italian cooking, after all.

Transfer half of the ravioli to large baking dish and top with half of artichoke mixture, half of tomatoes, half of cream, and half of cheese.  Repeat with remaining ravioli, artichoke mixture, cream, and cheese.  Sprinkle with salt, and black pepper.

Layer your ravioli with the toppings and bake for 15 minutes.  You'll have to deconstruct this before plating - I might do single layers next time, and will update the recipe accordingly.

Bake, uncovered, until ravioli is heated through and cream is bubbling, about 15 minutes.  Serve by separating ravioli from each other and plating with artichoke and tomato mixture.  Garnish with black pepper and more fresh Parmesan cheese.

Tip: if you want to make your life REALLY easy, give up on making dough and just buy some wonton wrappers from an Asian grocery store.  They're almost exactly the same, and will buy you back an hour of your life.  Will anyone know the difference?  Probably not, unless they're fresh off the boat Italian, and they're not going to let you cook for them anyway.  Just take them to the Olive Garden where, if I understand the ad industry correctly, all Italian immigrants love to be taken.