How Hard Could it Be…The Road to Lobster Ravioli

Y’all know me, I’m a huge Food Network junkie. Couple that with a husband who loves all things lobster and you have the makings for another addition of “How Hard Could It Be?”

We were watching Diners, Drive In’s and Dives and Guy Fieri was highlighting a diner in Boston called Rino’s. Click here to watch the clip of the lobster ravioli, but beware it will make your mouth water. It was an awesome place and if we ever get to the Boston area then you can bet the hubs will insist we make a pit stop if possible. As we were watching this authentic Italian chef whip up a delicious batch of home made lobster ravioli that would make your head spin off it looked so good, the hubs turns to me and ask ‘Well hon, ya think you could manage that?”

I began to think….how hard could it be?

Well in an effort to be a good steward I decide that it would be a good idea to have a trial run with some normal ricotta cheese ravioli first to lessen the financial impact should the meal end in total disaster.I also did a bit of lightening up on the recipe as well. The original recipe called for whole milk ricotta and I used part skim milk cheese as well as skim milk and the Smart Start Butter Blend. It was still a bit on the not so good for you as far as fat grams go but sometimes ya just can’t cut out all the fat. Fat does equal flavor, hate that but it is so very true.

I pulled an assortment of pasta dough recipes as well as a few Lobster Ravioli recipes off the internet. I did find a sort of simple recipe here but I did a bit of modifications to the recipe.

One dough recipe called for only three tablespoons of water and four eggs, however I only used two eggs, the hubs has cholesterol issues. The three tablespoons of water turned into almost a cup before the dough formed a nice firm ball and began to act like pasta dough. I opted for a recipe that was made in the mixer rather than the counter top method of making a well in the flour. Maybe when I get all the kinks out of the recipe I will attempt to make an authentic batch made fully by hand but not today!

Sifting out the lumps, why create problem if you can avoid them.

The dough needed to rest in the frig for about 30 minutes which gave me time to pull this out of the dark recesses of my kitchen cabinets. I don't think I have used this thing for over 15 or more years, probably longer. It took a few minutes of wiping down but it still worked. It doesn't have any whistles or bells and if does the job just fine.

I had gone to Sam’s and bought a massive chunk of parmesan, I wacked it in half and stored one half in the freezer and have the other half in the frig. I am wondering why the really good cheese has to be so expensive, maybe the 10 months of aging…

   

Anyway I took about 3/4 cup of part skim ricotta, about a half teaspoon of salt, some fresh ground pepper, minced parsley and about 1/4 cup of grated parm and one egg. The DD always want to do the stirring!

I cut the pasta dough in half and after it was all said and done it was plenty for one meal.

It really helps if you have an extra set of hands.

I guess you could do it all by yourself but the DD did come in handy when I was cranking out the rather lengthy pieces of pasta.

It’s ready for the filling…

I used my very small ice cream scoop…

a little egg wash to hold things together…the DD enjoyed pressing the raviol together.

it was a little labor intensive and really a bit messy….

I transferred the finished product to a parchment lined cookie sheet and then put them in the frig until it was time for dinner.

Note to self: next time dust the paper with a bit of flour, the ravioli stuck a bit to the parchment paper.

I bought some half & half at the store and they had this sun dried tomato pesto on sale at the grocery store.

I minced up two or three cloves of garlic.

I melted off two tablespoons of Smart Start 50/50 Butter Blend and a drizzle of olive oil. I sautéed the minced garlic, added a generous squeeze of tomato pesto, probably about 1/8 cup, about 1/4 cup of skim milk and then about 1/4 cup or less of half and half and whisked until smooth.

At this point I tasted it and it was good but not as thick as I would have like it to be so I opened up a can of tomato paste and added a big heaping tablespoon. That did the trick. It was thick, creamy and just waiting for the ravioli. It needed a bit of salt and pepper and it was ready!

The raviol was out of the frig and ready for the boiling salted water.

When the ravioli floats to the top of the water it is done, probably took about 8 to 10 minutes.

I drained off the ravioli and tossed it in the sauce.

Note to self: Use a bigger pan next time. I had a hard time tossing the ravioli in the sauce in my small sauté pan.

It wasn’t a very good job of plating up the ravioli in the serving bowl but it was very good.

It was just enough for the tree of us to have for dinner and then there was enough left over the the DD to have for lunch the next day after church.

My advice, if you are going to go to this much trouble I would make a double batch and put half of the finished ravioli in the freezer for later.

It was a lot of work for only one meal.

So…how hard could it be?

On a scale of 1 to 10 I’d give it a firm 7 just because of all the steps, ingredients and mess factor.

Was it worth the effort, well it was really good. So now that I have gotten the plain old ravioli under my belt the next step will be lobster ravioli.

Needless to say I have booked marked the video clip and plan to review it several more times before I attempt the final product. Lobster is about as expensive as a good steak if you get it on sale at the H Mart. Getting it out of the shell, well I may leave that task up to the hubs, that will be the true test to see just how badly he wants a plate of Lobster Ravioli!

Blessings

R