As those of you who have been following this little blog of mine
may know, we began a Christmas tradition a few years back when my parents came
to visit. We made homemade raviolis and so far every year we have continued
with this tradition. Each year I try to come up with a different filling and a
different sauce. This year, I got the bright idea to make a steak dinner inside
my raviolis. Since there was going to be so much going on inside, I didn’t want
a sauce that would over power so I made a simple Pomodoro sauce. Oh my word…pure
heaven! I hope you all enjoy. I will say this as well…grant it the mess is a
killer, you end up with flour glue over every inch of your kitchen, but if you
ever get the chance to make homemade raviolis, do it! There is nothing like
them!
Standard pasta dough:
2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
To make the pasta
dough: In an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook, combine the flour and
salt. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, and continue to mix. Drizzle in 1 tablespoons
of the olive oil and continue to incorporate all the flour until it forms a
ball. Sprinkle some flour on work surface, knead and fold the dough until
elastic and smooth, this should take about 10 minutes. Brush the surface with
the remaining olive oil and wrap the dough in plastic wrap; let rest for about
30 minutes .
Pomodoro Sauce:
2 pkg crimini mushrooms, sliced
10 shallots, diced
3 elephant garlic bulbs, diced (you can use regular garlic,
and I would estimate about 8 cloves)
25 Tomatoes, smashed, skin and seeds removed
1 cup sun-dried tomatoes (not in olive oil)
3 tbsp thyme
3 tbsp oregano
3 tbsp basil
3 tbsp sage
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp pepper
1 tbsp crushed red pepper
1 cup red wine
2 cups chicken stock (I didn’t have beef stock)
2 small cans, tomato paste
You can of course use canned tomatoes, but my hubby bought
me a birthday present that I wanted to try out. He knows I am into canning and
to make it easier on me, he bought me a
Weston
Roma Deluxe Electric Tomato Strainer, which is so going to help me when
I start canning next year. We went through approximately 25 tomatoes in about
10 minutes. Last year, trying to blanch, peel and seed 25 tomatoes, would have
taken me about 45 minutes.
Slice and dice all of your veggies.
In a dutch oven, heat up about 2 tbsp extra virgin olive
oil. Add the shallots and sauté till translucent. Add the garlic and continue sautéing.
Add all spices and mix thoroughly. Add the mushrooms and sauté for about 5 – 7 minutes.
Deglaze with the red wine. Add the chicken stock and the juice from your tomatoes.
Stir in your tomato paste and the
sun-dried tomatoes. Bring up to a boil, and then turn down to a simmer. Let
cook for about 6 – 8 hours. The sauce went from being watery to a thick rich
beautiful sauce.
Filling for the Ravioli
1 chuck roast, marinaded
Standard Steak Marinade (click
here for
marinade)
2 ½ large onions, sliced
2 cups spinach, blanched
2 4oz containers of blue cheese
Marinade the chuck roast for about 2 hours prior to
grilling. Grill on medium heat until the meat is medium well. You don’t want
bloody meat for your raviolis. Bring in and let the meat rest so the juices
will redistribute. While the meat is resting, in a cast iron skillet, heat up
about 2 – 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil. Add all of your sliced onions. Let sauté
for about 45 minutes on medium heat, until they become a nice golden brown.
This is known as caramelizing.
While the onions are sautéing, bring a pot of
water to a boil. Add your spinach and let cook for about 2 – 3 minutes. Remove
immediately and drain. When the onions have caramelized, in a food processor,
add your onions and spinach and pulse until chopped finely. Pour out mixture
into a large mixing bowl. Slice up your meat, add that to the food processor
and pulse until well chopped as well. Add that to the onion, spinach mixture
and mix until well blended. Fold in your two containers of blue cheese and mix until
well blended.
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| Looks a little gross, but I can tell you the taste was out of this world! |
Now you can begin putting your raviolis together. Take some of
your pasta dough and roll out until you get it to your desired thickness, and
with a pizza cutter, make two pieces. We started out putting egg wash on both
sides, but found it wasn't sticking well, so we ended up only egg washing one
side. On the other side, with a small spoon add your mixture. Take the egg
washed sided and cover your filling and with either a biscuit cutter or
whatever other device you are using, cut your beautiful little raviolis! Enjoy
everyone!!
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| My weapon of choice...biscuit cutters, you can choose whatever size you want. |
