Boil & hold chocolate pasta help needed

[gfron1]

File this in the 'waited til the last minute' box. Today is our town's annual chocolate fest. I've done a chocolate ravioli filled with white truffle infused ganache. Tastes great, looks cool, and i've figured my boil time at 8 minutes. But, here are my questions:

First, until you bite into the creamy center the flavor is kinda bland. I didn't salt the water. I did try a sugar boil which was a bit better. Any suggestions to improve the outer taste which will be the first impression?

Second, I have to do 240 of these so I feel like I need to pre-boil then do a last second revive. I've never had to do this in a mass production setting. What's the best technique to keep it from getting soggy and bringing it back quickly?

thanks

[emilyr]

I don't know about holding, but could you do a quick butter (or brown butter) saute just prior to service? I like the way that little bit of browning heightens the taste of pasta. That might even solve some of the holding problem, since you're already considering boiling and reviving.

[jvalentino]

Could you cook half way, quick chill and finish at the event?

Are you set on your dough formulation? That's the easiest place to get rid of the blandness.

Try 50/50 salt sugar boil.

Jeff

[gfron1]

great suggestions. I'm one hour from the event so I'm going give both ideas a quick trial run.

[gfron1]

midway through the event, and with a small lull in the crowd, these ideas really helped. One issue I didn't anticipate is that my water is so brown and the steam so intense that I can't see my raviolis to find them when their cooking time is up. I've learned to count the in and out.

[gfron1]

Here's the end result - thanks for your help everyone. 240 of these suckers were sent out!

[jvalentino]

Here's the end result - thanks for your help everyone.  240 of these suckers were sent out!

←

Very nice. How were they?

Jeff

[gfron1]

If you count out the ones that burst during boiling, then they turned out really well. I would have liked a slightly more refined pasta (you can see how crude/rough it is), but otherwise, when you bit into the center and it oozed truffle ganache, and with the slight acidity of the orange...nice combo.

[jvalentino]

Great to hear. I think I may be stealing this idea for Valentines Day!

Jeff

[gfron1]

Pasta

150g Wheat Flour

50g Semolina

2g Salt

3 Eggs

40g Powdered Sugar

50g Cocoa Powder, Natural

1C. Sugar

Whisk the flour, semolina and salt together. In separate bowl combine eggs, powdered sugar and cocoa. Pour egg mixture into dry ingredients and combine with a wood spoon and then fingers and work until thoroughly combined. Form into a ball, wrap in saran wrap and let it sit for a couple of hours or overnight.

Ganache:

150g Heavy cream

300g Chopped 70%+ Chocolate

15g White truffle oil (add more if you want it more intense)

Pour cream in a measuring cup and microwave until just starting to bubble. Immediately pour the chocolate in the cream and let rest for one minute. Using a small silicone spatula combine until shiny. As soon as you have a good sheen, add the oil and continue whisking/folding until thoroughly incorporated. Let rest until firm (one hour in the fridge or 3 hours on the counter).

Then fill your ravioli and boil in sugar water. Full details are at my blog HERE

Edited February 8, 2009 by gfron1 (log)

[Tri2Cook]

Interesting! Looks and sounds tasty. I'm going to have to try this sweet version. I've done a chocolate pasta dough before but it didn't contain sugar. I made noodles with it and served them with salmon and pink grapefruit consomme.

[gfron1]

I just froze my boiling liquid in my ice cream maker - wow! Basically 8 gallons or so of water that had chocolate leach into it for six hours, boiling down to 4 cups of liquid. It was very thick and while it was warm a threw in a few sheets of gelatin for good measure. It was so intensely rich with just a hint of the white truffle. Very good. And no waste - see how environmentally friendly I am