What's For Dinner: Homemade(ish) Ravioli

After scoring a gigantic log (yeah . . . not the tastiest of terms) of goat cheese at Costco yesterday I decided I needed to start to put it to use immediately. For dinner tonight, I opted to make ravioli with a variety of fillings. The base filling was a mixture of goat cheese, ricotta cheese, two cloves of pressed garlic, and a pinch of salt and pepper. From this base I made three different fillings. (All-told, the filling is enough to make about 16 large ravioli; three make a nice individual serving.)

Goat Cheese and Ricotta Base Filling

3 oz goat cheese

1/3 C part-skim ricotta cheese

pinch fine sea salt

pinch ground pepper

2 garlic cloves, pressed

1. Mix together all the ingredients with a spoon. (I used my handy-dandy kitchen scale to measure out 3 oz of goat cheese.)

Base Filling + Sun-dried Tomatoes

6 sun-dried tomatoes, chopped

1. Take 1/3 of the base filling and place it in a bowl. Add half of the chopped sun-dried tomatoes and stir to mix.

Base Filling + Spinach and Sun-dried Tomatoes

remaining portion of sun-dried tomatoes

2 handfuls of fresh baby spinach

olive oil

1. Heat 1 T of olive oil in a skillet over high heat. Add in two handfuls of fresh spinach and saute until slightly wilted.

2. Remove the spinach from the heat and chop into small pieces.

3. In another bowl, place another 1/3 of the filling into it. Add the remaining portion of chopped sun-dried tomatoes and the chopped spinach; stir to combine.

Base Filling + Rosemary and Nutmeg

1 t rosemary, finely chopped

ground nutmeg

1. To the remaining portion of the base filling, add in 1 t of finely chopped rosemary and several pinches of nutmeg. Stir to combine.

Now, if I were feeling really ambitious, I would make authentic ravioli dough from scratch. However, since this is the first time I've made ravioli myself, I thought I'd take the easy route the first time around. Baby steps, right? To make my ravioli in record time, I opted to use wonton skins.

To make the ravioli, I placed a tablespoon of filling into the center of each wonton square. Then, I dipped my finger in a little bowl of water and moistened all the edges of the square. Finally, I folder a corner over to make a triangle, and made sure that the edges were completely sealed and there were no air pockets. Easy-peasy!

To cook the ravioli, I added them one at a time into a boiling pot of water, about three per batch. I boiled the ravioli for five minutes, then removed each from the water with a slotted spoon and placed each on a paper-towel lined cooling rack to drain off the excess liquid.

I served the ravioli with an artichoke pesto pasta sauce. Delish!

Finally, since I had a little bit of leftover filling, I decided to use it as topping for some crostini. Can't let the goat cheese go to waste!