Ravioli

When I was a child my ravioli came from one person, a chef name Boyardee. It was simple to make and came in a can, so storage was never an issue. It was simply one of my favorite can goods and maybe one of my favorite foods. Its' delicious mystery meat (I mean what is really inside?) and red sauce that always seemed to end up on my clothes somehow always made my day. I have since realized that maybe my favorite chef isn't really that great after all...

Towards the end of my basics class in culinary school we had pasta day. Making pasta from scratch blew my mind at that moment, I mean pasta came from a box. I could not even imagine making ravioli, and I was trying to figure out in my head what could be in Chef Boyardee's recipe so I could replicate it. Luckily our assignment was to make fettucine and leave the ravioli making to our instructor. Pasta day came around and Chef Foote made an amazing lobster ravioli. It was savory, gooey and most of all delicious. In one small second my favorite chef had been booted from the top. I knew that never again would the mystery meat and sloppy red sauce satisfy me. It was a joyous moment for my taste buds and a miserable one for my heart.

Since that day my ravioli have been filled with anything but mystery meat.

I made mushroom ravioli with a friend. We had to roll and cut the pasta by hand and it was a pain. I can't believe we spent that time to do it. I am still impressed with us today and even more impressed that my dear friend still makes that ravioli today by hand. I made an simple Parmesan cream sauce to have with it and it was sure tasty.

My family could be classified as carnivores at times, so when making ravioli for them it could only have one thing in it, MEAT. I made a ground beef, Italian sausage, Parmesan cheese, and spinach (only a little though because it's green and we all know about green veggies...). While similar to my once favorite ravioli...it was different because I could identify everything in this ravioli. This was a much simpler ravioli to make than the first because I have acquired a pasta roller and ravioli press. I have made this ravioli a few times now and it is a favorite with the meat lovin' crowd.

Within a month of working at the restaurant my Chef had me make potato-leek raviolo (aka huge ravioli). It came with a egg yolk sitting in the top of the filling, something I was not keen on, especially when it was still runny when you cut into it. Bravely I tried it though and it was so good. It make that divine lobster ravioli seem just ok. My taste buds were once again on cloud nine.

This past week, we decided to make raviolos again. We didn't have any leeks so we decided asparagus sounded good. This raviolo was made with asparagus, potatoes, parmesan cheese and our house-made ricotta. It also had an raw egg yolk on top again, something that I was much fonder of after tasting the leek-potato one. Our sous chef ha the great idea to top it with french fried onions (made from scratch of course) and then to add some color we decided to add some fried rosemary. It was also finished in brown butter, which I add is the best way to have butter.

We all quickly grabbed forks deciding to test one. We were like lions ravishing our prey. The raviolo was quickly destroyed. It was beyond delicious. If there is a cloud ten my taste buds and heart were on it (as well as everyone else's. We sold out of them in just a short 90 minutes). I couldn't believe that anything could taste this good. It was hot, gooey, very green and a little bit of heaven in my mouth.

I have had dreams about these raviolo for days now. I have made about a 100 at work and ate more than one. Thoughts of green goo and french fried onions have consumed far too many moments in my life the last four days. My taste buds are craving a new exciting recipe and Chef Boyardee has been forgotten.