Spinach Ravioli

Who doesn't love ravioli? Honestly...

I was walking through Metro on my way towards the pet aisle and passed the tofu/herbs/"asian" section of the store, which in my opinion, is WAY too small. There are so many cool ingredients instrumental to asian cuisine that supermarkets should carry all the time. Squid ink for dying foods black, thai chiles, eggs laid by any animal other than chickens....But it's Metro! In the ghetto! What do students know about variety? All they know how to make is chicken in the pan (if that) and macaroni out of box with shitty beer to wash it down, right?! Students as a whole are severely underestimated when it comes to food and it feels like the supermarket here is laughing at us. I find it slightly aggravating that a) Metro murders my wallet every time I go there, and b) fails to carry cool, local ingredients. Anyway...I digress.

I walked by and saw won ton wrappers, which I know are a decent substitute for homemade pasta, which I love to but don't have time to make today. I love light soft ravioli as much as I love cheese-laiden stuffed-to-the-brim beef ravioli...but it's summer, it's hot out and I'm poor. I can't afford decent meat for homemade ravioli so onto the next obvious choice: spinach.

Traditionally spinach ravioli is stuffed with a mixture of spinach, ricotta, egg, salt & pepper, and nutmeg. Now, ricotta is expensive...at least more expensive than its cousin, cottage cheese. Also, I dislike nutmeg in ravioli. To incorporate these minor adjustments into my meal, I landed on Cottage Spinach No-Nutmeg ravioli and to tie it all together, a tomato-based light sauce I invented when I was strapped for real ingredients. In doing so, I made up a rule for myself (and hopefully everyone): If you're going to bother making your own pasta...don't cover it in store-bought sauce. That's like topping a cake you took all day to make from scratch with Betty Crocker "cream cheese" icing. Just don't.

Here's the recipe...loosely. I'm a firm believer in twisting recipes around so I like them, so feel free to do the same yourself. (Baking is the exception to that suggestion, however..)

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For the ravioli

1 package of wonton wrappers
1 package of baby spinach
1 medium-sized tub of cottage cheese (or ricotta)
1 egg
salt and pepper to taste
nutmeg (if you want)

1. Boil the spinach in salted water until it has wilted. Drain the bejesus out of the spinach with a strainer and a spatula.
2. Mix spinach, cottage cheese, egg, and S&P. If you want to, as I did, you can throw this though a food processor to get a smooth texture. If not, chop your spinach up before adding it to the mix.
3. Get out your wonton wrappers. One at a time, stuff them by laying one square flat on a floured pan (to prevent sticking), drop a tsp of filling into the centre of each, brushing water onto the edges of this square, and then pressing a second square on top of the filling, pressing firmly on each side of the pocket to seal in the spinach. Nobody likes ruptured ravioli...
4. Either boil right away for 3-4 minutes (until they float) or lay flat on the pan and refrigerate. Don't stack them though...wonton wrappers stick to each other.

For the sauce

4 slices of hot salami
1 cup chopped mushrooms
1/4 cup butter
4 large tomatoes
chicken stock
parmesan cheese
chopped garlic
parsley
salt and pepper

1. In a large frying pan, fry the salami until crisp. Remove, cool, and crumble.
2. In the same hot pan, melt the butter. Add the mushrooms and cook to desired tenderness. I like mine browned and really sweated out.
3. Meanwhile, blanch the tomatoes. Cool, and chop into small pieces, omitting the caviar if you like. (NB#1. To blanch tomatoes means to core them, cut X's into their bums, and drop them into boiling water, such that when you remove them 3 minutes later, their skins are much easier to remove. NB#2. Tomato caviar is just a fancy way to say "the smushy part that contains the seeds that is generally unpleasant to include in sauces.)
4. Cook the tomatoes down with the mushrooms, adding butter, parmesan and a bit of chicken stock to thicken and flavour the sauce. Consistency should be thick around the tomatoes.
5. Season with chopped garlic, parsley, S&P.


Fry the ravioli in the sauce for 5 minutes after they've been boiled. Top with more cheese, enjoy!


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If any of you are familiar with cooking on television, or by great chefs, an original meal is usually accompanied by a description of the flavours by the person who cooked it, or is tasting it. For most people, this description is superfluous, especially since many cooking techniques and ingredients inevitably come off sounding pompous and sort of silly. Example: "Here we have a duo of beef, served on your left with a coulis of leek and chanterelles, and on your right, lightly braised with a hint of rosemary foam. The first thing I taste is the lightness of the foam, very aromatic and slightly acidic and the robustness of the beef...blah blah blah." Translation: "This piece of steak has some mushrooms, and the other one tastes like herbs. Both of 'em are pretty tasty." I'm going to skip all that and leave you with a simpler description of the stuff I cook. If one day I go to culinary school and become a chef and invent cool shit, then I'll bore you with the fancy descriptions...

This ravioli is yummy :) Rich but light sauce, cool bright green filling! Also pretty cool that it took me like 2 hours total to make and was worth every minute!

Bon appetit!

- Julie

PS. I doubt I'll post pictures of this ravioli, even though it is my intention to accompany stories about food with pictures of said food. Unfortunately, the batteries in my camera are currently dead. I have no idea where my replacement batteries are, as my apartment is currently undergoing "where the hell is everything I own??" cleaning and re-organizing. I should also find my camera cord too...might be useful.