Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Corn Ravioli

It's been a while since I was able to sit down and come up with a recipe on my own, so I was happy when I came across some frozen corn and thought, randomly, of corn ravioli. I've never heard of it, I've never seen it...and while I'm sure someone's done it in the past, I'd still like to consider it pretty innovative. It came out great, and I'll probably try it again both this way and with different fillings and sauces.

This was my first time making homemade ravioli, and I'm very happy with the outcome. I can foresee myself doing it again, when I have a lot of time to spare and make all the individual ravioli.

Recipe:

Pasta -
3 c. all-purpose flour
2 large eggs
3 T. water
1 t. olive oil
1/2 t. salt

I ended up using a stand mixer for this one - it was just wasn't coming together when I tried to do it by hand. Just add all of the ingredients together, and using a hook attachment, knead the dough until it forms a non-sticky ball. Mine ended up being pretty dry, so I took a spray bottle filled with water and added water spritz-wise while the hook was kneading until the dough came together. Allow the dough to rest 10 minutes, then cut in half and roll as thin as possible on a cutting board. I say to cut in half only because my cutting board could take half the dough at a time. With half the dough, I got about a 18"x12" rectangle. Don't worry about going thin on the dough, it's pretty hearty and shouldn't tear. Using a 2.25" diameter circular cookie cutter, cut the dough and twist at the end to make sure you've cut all the way through. You should get a LOT of circular pieces. With the leftover dough, you can re-roll and repeat.

Filling -
1/4 of a medium white onion
1 c. corn
2 cloves, garlic
1/2 c. mozarella

Throw all the ingredients together in a food processor and grind until it's a nice mix. Simple as that!

Now take each of your pasta circles and spoon on 1/2 t. of filling into each. It sounds like a small amount, but the raviolis end up being smaller than you expect, and it's just the right amount of filling. I tried more at first, but to dire ends. Take this circle and fold it over.

At this point, take a fork and use the tines to crimp the edge. On the first crimp, I make 4 indentations, but for the following crimps, I make only 3 - use the fourth tine to line up with the last mark that you made, that way the edge is even. Once done with the batch, boil in water until all the ravioli are floating.

Sauce -
3/4 c. cream
1 1/2 c. white sharp cheddar
generous pinch of pepper
pinch of salt
1 t. mustard powder

Heat the cream over medium heat. Once it begins to froth lightly, add shredded cheddar 1/8 c. at a time. Whisk in slowly and make sure the cheese is fully incorporated before adding another 1/8 c. Once all the cheese is added, throw in your pepper, salt, and mustard. Mix together and pour over the pasta.

This is a very cheddar-strong sauce, so feel free to use whatever other type of sauce you wish! I would however suggest remaining with a white sauce, maybe wine-based, because of the light flavor of the corn.

5 comments:

Sharon said...

What a great idea! I'm definitely going to try this out on a meat free night.

I love coming up with recipes, but can rarely post them b/c I have a hard time keeping track of all the ingredients that I throw in there. You did a great job!

enza said...

oh jsut an italian mother may achieve the same results!
you are worring me!
:D

ivytrac said...

i remember when you made me ravioli and meatballs. yum.

The John said...

This sounds awesome! I have some fresh corn ready to be picked so I think I will try to make this over the weekend! Creating your own recipes is awesome!

The John said...

Well we made it over the weekend and it was excelent. Our corn mixture was a little watery so I had to strain it over a bowl. We also used a oesto cream sauce in place of the cheddar sauce. Turned out great! I put the cream pesto recipe on my blog.