This summer...

has been a home-cooking adventure. Aside from Barbeques in the East Village, Greenmarket Dinners, Coffee Cupcakes, Hand-pulled Margherita Pizza, Fresh Hand-cut Pasta, and a July 4th loaded with Bacon-wrapped Hot Dogs and Potato Salad, CC and I have been testing out fun things in the kitchen.

Working in an Italian restaurant, my brain is naturally wired to tinker with Italian food at home. Still, I'm shocked that I haven't gotten sick of the food yet. At Maialino, we have a dish called Raviolo con Uovo which is a single, saucer size raviolo stuffed with potato-spinach ricotta and a whole egg yolk in the center. It's cooked in a brown butter sauce and topped with sage. What happens when you break into the raviolo? A golden yolk oozes out onto the plate. It's perfect with the rest of the raviolo.

A full egg yolk in each of my ravioli at home is a bit much, so CC and I tried a portobello-ricotta-parmesan combo finished in a sage brown butter. We used fresh sheets of lasagna dough found and Whole Foods and sauteed chopped mushrooms with some scallions and sea salt. Here's how it turned out...









Mushroom Ravioli

12 oz portobella, chopped
1/4 cup scallions, chopped
s+p
extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup ricotta
1/2 cup parmesan
1 package of fresh lasagna sheets
4 oz unsalted butter
5 sage leaves

Sautee chopped mushrooms with scallions in olive oil over high heat until liquid starts coming out of the mushrooms. Season the mushroom and continue to cook until liquid has evaporated. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature. Mix ricotta, parmesan and cooled mushroom mixture. Taste and season with salt and pepper if necessary. Lay one sheet of lasagna on a clean surface. Fill a tablespoon with ravioli mixture and drop onto center of half of the pasta sheet. Repeat on the other half of the pasta sheet. Carefully circle the filling with oil to hold the pasta sheets together. (Note: oil can be replaced with beaten egg). Take a new pasta sheet and gently lay over the filling. Press around the filling until the two sheets of pasta a firmly attached. Use a ring mold (larger than the filling) to cut out ravioli. Store in refrigerator or cook immediately.

Cook ravioli in boiling water for about two minutes until the pasta is a bit translucent. Remove the pasta with a slotted spoon into a clean bowl. Over medium heat, melt butter and cook sage leaves till crispy. Let butter brown over low heat. Place cooked ravioli in brown butter and quickly coat them. Remove ravioli and sage brown butter into a clean bowl. Buon apetito!





Mushroom Ravioli with Sage Brown Butter!