Ravioli Filling Options

Gorgonzola Butternut Squash

• 3# butternut squash
• 1 T. Olive oil
• Salt and Pepper
• 1/2 T butter
• 1 egg
• 8 oz. Gorgonzola cheese, crumbled
• 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded and packed
• 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, shredded and packed

Sauce:

• 1 stick butter
• 8 sage leaves, chopped
• 1/2 t. Nutmeg

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Peel the squash and cut and place them on a baking sheet. Coat them with olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast the squash at 400 degrees for 45 minutes until tender. Allow to cool for 15 minutes or so. Transfer squash to a food processor add the egg, Gorgonzola cheese, mozzarella cheese and Parmesan cheese. Purée until smooth. Taste and season with salt and pepper.

For the sauce, melt the butter in a sauce pan. Add sage leaves and nutmeg. Cook on medium-low for 2-3 minutes, just until the butter starts to brown. Remove from the heat and set aside.

Four-Cheese Filling

• 7 oz. sheep's milk ricotta or well drained fresh whole cow's milk ricotta (3/4 cup)
• 3 oz. Fontina cheese, shredded (2/3 cup)
• 3 oz. fresh mozzarella, cut into 1/4 inch dice (1/2 cup)
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
• Salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten

Served with marinara sauce

Menu - Ravioli Making

The pasta making experiment continues, this time with ravioli.  Penny Kuckkahn has offered to teach me how to make ravioli. YEAH!!!

I am making the pasta dough,

Penny is bringing two fillings.   This link will take you to the recipes.

http://bethstable.blogspot.com/2016/03/ravioli-filling-options.html

• 4 cheese filling
• Butternut squash and gorgonzola filling with Sage butter sauce

I made my spaghetti sauce for the cheese raviolis

Penny is making a sage brown butter sauce for the butternut squash ravioli

Of course there will be wine.

• A sweet red wine from Hungart for my sweet wine loving friend:
  Donausonne, 2014 Hajos-Baja
• An Italian  Langhe nebbiolo Estate bottled by Poderi Ella, 2013
  NOTE: Langhe nebbiolo, a wine from the same general area as Barolo and Barbaresco, but one that is usually softer and more accessible.
• One our favorite Zins from Biale in Napa.  This one is a 2014 Falleri Vineyard in Calistoga.

Appetizers:
Jan is bringing artichoke, olive and roasted pepper antipasto

Dessert:
something simple and refreshing.

My first ravioli.

We rolled sheets of pasta to number 5. This may have been too thick.

I did learn that you need to either cook or freeze the raviolis. This is what they look like when you let them sit for while, not good.

Penny made two fantastic fillings and supervised.

The results were delicious.

French Dressing from Arla

Recipe from Arla Thompson, Feb 2016

Ingredients:

• 1 can tomatoe soup
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup catsup
• 1/2 cup vinegar
• 1 cup oil
• 1/4 t. Salt
• 1/4 t. Pepper
• 1/2 t. Dry mustard
• 1 T. Worcestershire sauce
• 1 t. Paprika
• 1 Sam onion - finely chopped

Mix and refrigerate

Exploring Cookbooks with Wine and Appetizers

The next fun wine tasting event with friends.  This idea emerged during the pasta making party.

Description

Bring one or more of your favorite cookbooks.  We will peruse while sampling

appetizers and sipping wine.  Bringing a cookbook is not a requirement. Neither is bringing an appetizer but if you want, feel free.  If you list to appetizer below, I will provide a wine pairing.

The planning document

We will also be toasting Beth Kost's mom with her favorite wine, Zinfandel.

This is the appetizer and wine pairing menu that emerged.

Name	Appetizer	Wine Pairing
Beth	Shrimp Cocktail	Bubbles, 2012 728 Bubbles from Fiddlehead Cellars
Dianne	Lox	Pinot Noir, 2012 Fiddlehead Cellars Seven Twenty Eight, Fiddlestix
Jan	bacon wrapped pecans dates and pineapple.	Zinfandel, 2014 Robert Biale Vineyards Rockpile
Beth	Truffle popcorn
Beth	Lemon Meringue pie	Last Harvest wine, 2012 Sweet Madeline Riesling from Prager Winery & Port Works or more bubbles

My thoughts on the pairings.  Bubbles is a perfect pairing with shrimp cocktail. It matches the overpowering taste of the cocktail sauce.

The Pinot Noir went very well with the Lox and cream cheese on crostini. Dianne made the lox and is sending me the recipe.  She topped some with slivers of cranberry and the others with thin slices of scallion. Super delicious. Claire also suggested a Syrah which would have been good as well, earthy.

The bacon wrapped dates stuffed with pecans may be my new favorite, look our blue cheese. The Zin was a perfect pairing.

Last but not least was the lemon meringue pie. Yes, it was perfect with the late harvest Riesling.  I loved the tartness of the lemon with the sweetness of the Riesling. 

And yes we did raise a glass to Beth Kost's mom, Joyce Holt. Blessings to you!

I so want to do this again.  We had so much fun sharing recipes and talking about food.  Yes new recipes were exchanged and many stories were told.