Pastas

These pasta’s are delicious and makes you want to mangia!

Wonton Raviolis

January 2, 2011 in Entree's, Pastas by misterdelicious | No comments

Homemade Raviolis

Here's an easy way to make homemade Ravioli's without having to make the fresh pasta.  Instead of using fresh pasta dough, this recipe calls for Wontons, making it the perfect size and shape to make wonderful Raviolis.

 

Ingredients

 

  • 2 packages of Wonton skins(sold at your megamart)
  • Mixture to put into the Ravioli, has to be cold! -( Duxelle is really good )
  • Small bowl with water
  • Small circle cookie cutter - 2.5 inches in diameter

 

Method

 

At first you will only want to do one at a time, till you get the hang of it.   Your goal is to take two wonton wrappers and place a small filling in the middle.  You will "glue" the two Wonton skins together by a little water.  As you shape the ravioli's between your fingers squeeze out as much air as possible and make sure you keep the filling in the middle of the Ravioli.

  1. Start by making sure your filling is cold and you have a baking sheet sprinkled with flour ready for finished Ravioli's.
  2. On a clean, flat and DRY work surface place a 4 wonton wrappers in a horizontal line with 4 more directly above this line(so 8 in total).  As you get better and quicker at this, you'll be able to do more at a time.
  3. Place 2 compressed teaspoons worth of filling in the middle of each wonton of the bottom row.
  4. With the first wonton, either with your finger tip or a small brush, wet the edges of the wonton wrapper around the filling.
  5. Take the first wonton of the top row, and place over the wonton with the filling on the bottom row.
  6. At this point you need to seal the top to the bottom.  Everyone will have their own way of doing this that works for them.  I recommend you try out different ways to see what works for you.  And don't get discouraged when the first one is a disaster.   It took me a couple try's before I got my method down.  This is how I do it:
    1. Start by sealing the bottom right corner.
    2. Work each corner separately moving in a circle.  I find it easier to do this while holding the ravioli in my palm.
    3. After the corners are placed, slowly squeeze out the air from the ravioli while keeping it's shape.
    4. Place the Ravioli on a flat surface and with a circle cookie cutter make your ravioli!
  7. Place finished ravioli on the baking sheet.  Once the baking sheet is full, place in the freezer.  When frozen, either use or place in a bag for future use!

As you can see, this is a labor of love.  But it is well worth your time!

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Lasagna - Vegetarian

December 11, 2010 in Entree's, Pastas, Vegetarian by Moogie | 1 comment

smileyLasagna for the new millenium.  Fast and easy because the recipe calls for pre-made marinara sauce, no boil lasagna noodes, pre-shredded cheese, etc.

 

Pre-prep

 

Preheat oven to 350

Decide which non-reactive 9 X 13 (or there abouts) baking dish you are going to use

***What is a non-reactive baking dish *** 

Ingredients

 

  • 2 10 oz. boxes, chopped spinach
  • 1 lb. mushrooms, cremini, sliced
  • 1 onion, yellow, chopped
  • 2 Tbsp garlic, chopped (more or less)
  • 1/2 cup sherry
  • 2 cups ricotta cheese
  • 2 cups grated Italian 5 cheese blend (or more)
  • 2 eggs, lightly beaten
  • 2 tsp oregano, dry (would be better with fresh...)
  • 2 tsp basil, dry (would be better with fresh...)
  • salt & pepper to taste
  • 1- 25 oz jar good quality marinara sauce (or more if necessary)
  • 9 to 12 lasagna noodles: No boil variety (or more)
  • 1 cup water

Panic Mode:  More noodles, another part of a jar of marinara sauce, and some more cheese.... See directions below

 

Directions:

 

You need to know that I have a problem actually following recipe directions, so this is sort of what I did.

Thaw out the spinach, drain, and squeeze the liquid out.  The only way I see doing this is by clumping the spinach in your hands and squeezing until there is no more juice.

Historical Note:  Grandma Tuso said the spinach had to be chopped fine, so this would be the point where you chop the already chopped spinach to her specifications!

  1. Saute the onion, mushrooms & garlic in olive oil, add some sherry, and set aside.
  2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the ricotta cheese, 1/2 the grated cheese, egg, spinach, oregano, basil, mushroom mixture, salt & pepper.
  3. Spray the baking dish with Pam
  4. Spoon 1 cup sauce in the baking dish
  5. Put a layer of noodles down
  6. Put a layer of the cheese mixture

Repeat the layers

Panic Mode:  This is the point where I paniced because it looked too thin in the baking dish.  I made another layer of just sauce and cheese.  So maybe buy more cheese, sauce & noodles and add it to the cheese mixture so it is thicker in the baking dish.

Whatever you decide to do, the final layer is noodles with sauce and 1 cup cheese sprinkled on top.

The original recipe said to pour 1 cup of water around the edges, cover tightly with aluminum foil, and bake for 1 1/4 hours.  I left out the water, but maybe it would have been better with it,

Whatever you do, let it stand at least 15 minutes or more to set up before you serve it.

I served it with a big green salad w/balsamic dressing and grilled vegetables.

 

 

 

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