Spinach, Goat & Feta Cheese Ravioli with Mushrooms

Goat Cheese, Feta & Spinach Ravioli with Portobello Mushrooms

Prep time: 1 hour
Cooking time: 5 minutes/batch of ravioli
Baking time: 5-10 minutes

Serves 4

Ingredients:
Pasta:
3 cups all purpose flour (Editorial update: it's been pointed out that this is probably way too much flour, but it's now 2010 and I don't remember my source, so start with 1.5 cups of flour and work your way up to 2 or 3 cups for a good dough consistency).
3 eggs
Pinch of salt

Filling (done without measurements, so I’m not exactly sure, it was our usual chaos and working with no net – meaning no recipe):
Cheese – main thing to remember is a half-half split with goat & feta cheeses
¾ cup crumbly goat cheese
¾ cup feta, crumbled
1 tbsp fresh rosemary, chopped
3 sundried tomatoes (in oil), chopped
1 egg
2-3 cups baby spinach, steamed, drained & chopped (or 1 pkg frozen, thawed and drained well)

Mushroom “Sauce”
3-4 large Portobello mushrooms, gills (the black underside of the cap) and stem removed, coarsely chopped
2 large cloves garlic, minced
Extra virgin olive oil to sauté
½ cup white wine would be lovely (we didn’t have any though and it was still awesome)

Grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:
1. In a large bowl or on the clean counter, make a well of the flour and break the eggs, one at a time, in the center. Incorporate the eggs into the flour, mixing with your hands (at least, that’s what we did, but a fork would work too) until it sticks together.

2. Knead for about 5 minutes, separate into 3 balls, cover with a damp cloth or loosely cover with plastic wrap and let it rest for 30 minutes or so. (That’s what the books say, but we just started rolling as soon as we were done kneading.)

3. Flatten the first ball and pass it through the pasta maker as directed. (We stopped at 7, but probably should have gone to 8). Let the sheets dry for …. Honestly, we didn’t wait. We just laid them on a lightly floured table and when we were done preparing the pasta sheets, we started to assemble the ravioli starting with the ones we prepared first.

4. In the meantime, in a large bowl, combine the filling ingredients and stir until the filling is well blended.

5. In a large non-stick skillet, sauté the mushrooms with garlic in the oil (about 5 minutes) and set aside. It looks very dry and the white wine would have been great. I added about ½ cup of pasta water to them at the end.

6. Preparing the ravioli:

- On one flat sheet of pasta about the length from your elbow to your fingertip (no time to really measure), place small teaspoonful dollops of filling leaving about ¼” from the edge and ½” between dollops;

- Moisten around each dollop (there must be another word for the teaspoonfuls) with egg whites or water – we used water;

- Gently lay another sheet of pasta over the top. In order to keep air out as much as possible and have the top sheet stick to and around the filling, we started at one end and used the side of our hand to gently press the top sheet in place around each spoonful of filling;


- Cut between each ravioli, making sure there is at least ¼” of pasta to pasta around the filling. Any less and the filling will ooze out during the boiling. Pinch each ravioli all around the edges to secure the seal. We were proud of ourselves, we only lost one.

7. Bring a large pot of well-salted water to a boil. Add the ravioli in batches (we did 6-8 – they were huge - you don’t want them to stick together) and cook until al dente (5 minutes or so).

8. Drain and place the first batch in an oven-proof baking dish greased with extra virgin olive oil. Spread a little of the mushrooms and some grated cheese between batches and leave in a warm oven. Once all the batches are done, it’s time to serve.

Serve with a simple green salad.

Related links: Presto Pasta Night Food and Drink food blogging eventRecipes Pasta