Making Ravioli Without Making Dough

[rotuts]

excellent point. I have this:

http://www.amazon.com/Chefn-102-020-011-PalmBrush-Arugula/dp/B001QXDRK0/ref=sr_1_1/182-9233996-9948622?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1386779298&sr=1-1&keywords=chef+%27n+brush

but mine's red !

[Unpopular Poet]

Ok, I am set to go on these -- I opted for semolina, but I assume that will be fine - and for this first round I am going to with Franci's recipe above -- just to run the test run. Bury them tonight, eat them on Friday. I will report back then....Thanks! -Dan

[Unpopular Poet]

So this morning, in prep for my dinner tonight decided to investigate the progress on the pasta -- my ultimate question is something I should have asked originally -- what is the consistency of the gnudi when you pull them from the flour? I assume that it is slightly more firm that when it went in, but not hard or crumbly...I am forming a back-up plan in the event they all disintegrate in the water....Thanks! BTW -- my pasta forming technique was pretty questionable...the sizes were, let's say slightly uniform..

[Franci]

Dan, don't worry, you'll see: they are quite firm when you pull them from the flour, I have not tried to squash one, you don't need to be very cautious when handling but be a little gentle when you brush off the flour.

Have a nice dinner!

[Unpopular Poet]

Ok, sounds good. I pulled one from the flour to check this morning (after about 36 hours in there) and it was pretty delicate. I am wondering if I didn't squeeze enough water out of the spinach. I think so, but we shall only know at 7 tonight...I am wondering if pulling them early from the flour and chilling them on a baking sheet would do any good. Only time will tell! Thanks again. Dan

[Franci]

Just cook one!

[rotuts]

im very interested in the filling people find work well with this technique.

and are tasty too !

[Unpopular Poet]

So, despite the doubts I had initially, these turned out absolutely amazing. They were not so uniform, or very pretty, but the end result was fantastic. These are not the greatest pics in the world, but I can say that the end result was a tender and flavorful skin which just so delicately held the filling at bay. Next time I will probably chop the spinach finer but besides that I don't think I would have any changes. Thanks again to everyone for their assist on this one. --Dan

Edited December 14, 2013 by Unpopular Poet (log)

[rotuts]

thank you for the pics above.

as soon as I find the flour this is going to be an ongoing project, which is surprising as i detect no Sous Vide technique at all !

ps the tomato sauce looks terrific also !

pps: im wondering is this technique would work for traditional American croquette stuffing:

turkey/stuffing ham/cheese thus avoiding the frying step? a thick white sauce as a binder? then the sleep in the flour?

[Franci]

Dan, so glad it worked! If you like the spinach finer, I pulsed the chopped spinach with the grated cheese in the mixer, few times, very nice and uniform green cheese.

Rotuts, I think anything that is creamy enough and not crumbly should work.

Edited December 14, 2013 by Franci (log)

[gfweb]

Why is durum necessary?

[Tri2Cook]

It isn't. I've done it with semolina.

[Unpopular Poet]

Well, I made the Gnudi for Xmas Eve dinner but changed the filling to be potato, pumpkin and cheese (Parm and ricotta) and a touch of Nocello-- then we made a tomato and butter sauce to go with them and garnished them with T Keller's Parsley Chips -- The only time I had a chance for a pic was when they went into the bowl. They were pretty incredible, and played nicely with our themed Italian/Scandinavian Xmas Eve. Swedish Meatballs, Gnudi, Potato Sausage with cabbage, fresh made apple sauce. Strange, but it definitely worked -- We accomplished what we set out to do -- make a pasta that could sit next to Swedish food and still have a semblance of Italian in it. I would say that the gnudi were significantly more filling than the spinach and ricotta, but the tomato butter sauce really helped keep them from being too rich. We also used the butter from the Swedish meatballs and deglazed the pan with some pino grigio to add to the tomatoes before the sauce hit the vitamix. Worked really well.