In "The Babbo Cookbook," Mario explains that his asparagus and ricotta ravioli are the first taste of spring. So on a trip to the new Whole Foods in Paramus, with asparagus aplenty, these ravioli would be the next dish. I got some wonderfully fresh, creamy (and local) ricotta that you can eat straight from the container.
I picked up some organic asparagus.
After blanching the asparagus, I put them in an ice bath to stop them from cooking. Chopped, the asparagus are mixed with DaVero extra virgin olive oil, Parmaggiano-Reggiano, and ricotta. I put this mixture in the fridge. I've learned that it's easier to make ravioli if the stuffing is cold--it's firmer and easier to work with.
Then I set out to make the fresh pasta. I've made fresh pasta before using the recipe from Mario's "Molto Italiano." It's basically one cup of flour and one egg per portion. For a richer pasta, use two to four egg yolks per cup of flour. "The Babbo Cookbook" follows the same formula. But rather than using all purpose flour, I used "00" flour from Antimo Caputo, which I had left over from my vera napolitana pizza experiments. I found that I needed to add some ice water to get the consistency right, even though it's not called for in the recipe.
To roll out the pasta, I would typically use the the pasta attachment for the KitchenAid mixer, but I decided to buy a manual pasta machine (Italian nonna-style) on my way home. Not only would it be more fun, but I thought my son could help too.
We rolled out the pasta and made the ravioli. The manual pasta machine made making pasta so much more gratifying, and, I'm not sure if it was the machine or the "00" flour, but the dough had a wonderfully soft, silky texture.
Here they are just before cooking.
The ravioli cooks for about 5 minutes, then they're tossed with some butter and more sliced asparagus.
And here's the dish:
We loved this. Fresh, creamy ricotta with the "undisputed king of cheeses" and asparagus was a perfect cobiination, and so simple. We pureed some left over filling, thinning it out with some water, and little Sofia loved it too!
I've never used '00' flour for pasta. I'm going to have to locate some and give it a go. The asparagus filling sounds divine!
Congratulations! This is a lovely blog, and I think you have picked a super book to cook your way through. I'm going to add you to my "Reader."
As soon as the asparagus come up in the country, I am going to try this recipe!
How is the new Whole Foods in Paramus? I usually stop at the uptown Fairway as I head out of town on weekends, but sometimes I drive across the Bridge to take the Thruway so I can get to the Route 17 store easily.
Thanks for reading, Victoria. It will be quite an adventure.
The new Whole Foods is beautiful. I would definitely check it out. If you drive up about 2 miles north on Route 17, they just opened a Fairway behind the Citibank. Whole Foods and Fairway opened within a week of each other, so it's like food-Disneyland for me. If you try this dish, let me know what you think!
David
this looks amazing - i'm such a sucker for ravioli with browned butter (not sure if this is browned, but close enough!) also i love how seriously sebastian appears to be taking his pastamaking duties.
nice read, Ill be back
You just got your blog a place in my bookmarks