Peg was willing to go a B. I called it a C.
At least it was a decent experiment…
I tried for whole wheat pasta, but whole wheat has a lower gluten proportion than semolina – somethimg I neglected to take into account. So there wasn\’t enough water in the eggs, so the whole wheat pasta just didn\’t hold up. I switched back to semolina in time to make dinner. That pasta was OK but I rolled it too thin and it was difficult for the ravioli to hold up.
Ravioli filling was
- finely diced chicken breast
- finely diced sun-dried tomatoes (packed in oil)
- Italian seasoning (a mix of dried herbs)
- a finely diced shallot
- some diced garlic
- some olive oil
I really need to get a ravioli press – making them by hand is a real pain in the ass. A lot of them broke, spilling chicken and tomato bits into the boil. It was ugly. And frustrating to see the raviolis break open like that after putting in the time to make the filling, pasta, and assemble them!
The sauce was pretty good:
- 3 T butter
- 3 T flour
- 2 C milk
- 3/4 C tomato puree
- 1 T dried onions
- 1 T Italian seasoning
- salt
- pepper
Make a roux with the butter and flour, cooking it until bubbling, but not enough to brown it. Whisk the milk in gradually, avoiding lumps (!). Stir in salt and pepper to taste, along with the Italian seasoning and onion.
Let the mixture thicken up nicely, then whisk in the tomato puree. Adjust salt and pepper.
Cook the ravioli in rapidly boiling water, drain. Serve with sauce and grated Romano or Parmesan cheese.
The filling would have been better with ground chicken and sundried tomato pesto. As it was the chicken and the tomatoes were both kind of tough and rubbery, and Peg and I think that could have been avoided with ground chicken. Since the tomatoes were rubbery, I thought pesto would be a better approach.
