Spinach Ravioli

I intended to start the post with something clever – like some little-known fact about ravioli, compliments of wikipedia.  Alas, I looked there and briefly on google and came up with nothing terribly exciting. So, I might as well give a shout out to a family favorite children’s book, related to making pasta:  Strega Nona by Tomie de Paola.  For those of you not lucky enough to have a librarian as a mother and not introduced to this delightful little classic, Strega Nona has a magic pasta pot, but shh!!!  It’s a secret.  Here’s a link to a Clevering Family beloved author and illustrator: Tomi de Paola

But, back to the raviolis.  Let’s get this straight from the beginning, I do not intend to make these again and again.  While delicious, it was quite the project in the end. Where’s Strega Nona’s pasta pot when you need it, eh?

Initially I bought the pre-made wonton wraps at the beginning of the year thinking that I could use leftover spinach filling made from some previous project.  It was a brief, snap decision while trolling Fred Meyer.  At home, I discovered that the spinach filling was more than questionable at the back of the refrigerator.  I stowed the wonton wraps in a drawer thinking “ah, another day.”  A quick check of the calendar, however, reminded me of Lent — which I strangely observe, though not technically Catholic, by going vegan.  As a result, all sorts of baking seems to happen in the weeks preceding Ash Wednesday in an effort to rid the fridge of the temptation.  The wonton wraps are made with eggs, so they too must go.

I recalled a recipe with spinach raviolis, using the wonton wraps and did a few google searches of recipes to come up with something I wanted to make.  Here we go:

Ingredients:

1 package of wonton wraps (approximately 48)

1 16 oz package of frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed dry

1 small onion, diced

4-5 cloves of garlic, minced or pressed

3/4 c. of cottage cheese

1/2 to 3/4 c. of shredded mozzarella cheese

2-3 TB of pesto

1 egg white, beaten

To make the filling, saute the onion and garlic with a little olive oil and salt until barely translucent.

Hhm... how many times can I take a picture of sautéed onions?

Combine the onion mixture with the thawed spinach, cottage cheese, and mozzarella cheese in a food processor and pulse to combine.  Once thoroughly combined, add pesto and combine again.

My food processor - the best Lexis Nexis Points ever spent.

Gather your equipment for your ravioli station:

filling, egg whites, & wraps

Drop approximately 1 TB of filling at the bottom third of one flat wrap.  Gently moisten the edge with the beaten egg whites and fold over and press to seal.  Doing this one by one became very tedious, so I ultimately created an assembly line of sorts by doing 8 at a time.

one, two, three

only a portion of the 48

To cook, drop in boiling water for 4 to 5 minutes.  When the raviolis rise to the top of the pot, they are fully cooked.

bubble, bubble, toil and trouble

Drain and serve with a drizzle of olive oil or marinara sauce.

Where's the marinara?

I would have taken a picture of the complete meal, the piece de resistance shot, but I cooked it all together, on a whim at my friend Jamie’s after the long assembly. The meal was just an accompaniment to the slabs of beef cooked on the Traeger by her brothers.  The boys next door piled over too, so I felt a little foolish “food styling” my ravioli with six hungry guys waiting to devour the steak.

Another option is to saute these little raviolis.  I discovered this a couple days later when I pulled out some leftover, but uncooked, raviolis.  They were getting close to spoiling and were a little stuck together.  I heated a little oil in a skillet and sauted briefly with garlic till light brown.  My, they were tasty!  A little less healthy, but tasty.