Swiss Chard Ravioli Recipes

SWISS CHARD RAVIOLI

Steps:

• Separate stems of chard from leaves. Dice stems, and set aside. Coarsely chop leaves; there should be about 3 cups of packed leaves.
• Melt butter in a medium skillet over medium heat. Add shallot, and cook, stirring, until translucent, about 30 seconds. Add chard leaves, 3/4 teaspoon thyme leaves, salt, and pepper to taste. Cook, stirring, until leaves are completely wilted, about 2 minutes. Transfer to a medium bowl, and refrigerate until cool, about 5 minutes. Stir in ricotta, Parmesan, and salt and pepper to taste.
• Combine stock, 1 sprig thyme, and chard stems in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil. Lower heat to a simmer, and cook for 3 minutes. Remove from heat. Allow to sit until the liquid is dark pink, 5 to 10 minutes. Strain through a sieve, season with salt and pepper, and reserve.
• Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Meanwhile, lay 12 wonton wrappers on a clean work surface. Place a slightly heaping tablespoon of filling in center of each wrapper. Brush edges with beaten egg. Top each square with a second wrapper. Press edges together to seal.
• Add salt to boiling water. Add ravioli to boiling water, and cook until translucent and floating, 1 to 2 minutes. (Work in batches if necessary.) Remove from water with a slotted spoon. Ladle about 1/4 cup broth into each of four shallow bowls. Place three ravioli in each bowl. Garnish with remaining thyme leaves.

SWISS CHARD RAVIOLI

Steps:

• Bring 1/4 cup water to boil in large pot. Add chard leaves. Cover; cook until tender but still bright green, stirring occasionally, about 3 minutes. Drain. Cool slightly. Squeeze dry. Chop chard finely. Transfer to large bowl. Mix in ricotta, 1/3 cup Parmesan cheese, egg, garlic, thyme, salt, rosemary and pepper.
• Line baking sheet with foil or plastic wrap; sprinkle with flour. Place 1 gyoza wrapper on work surface. Brush surface of wrapper with some egg white. Spoon generous 1 teaspoon chard mixture into center of wrapper. Top with another wrapper. Press edges together to seal. Transfer to baking sheet. Repeat with remaining wrappers, egg white and chard mixture to make 32 ravioli total. (Can be made 8 hours ahead. Cover and chill.)
• Melt butter in heavy small skillet over medium heat. Add sage; stir 1 minute. Season with salt and pepper. Remove from heat.
• Working in batches, cook ravioli in large pot of boiling salted water until just tender, stirring occasionally, about 4 minutes per batch. Transfer ravioli to large shallow bowl.
• Pour sage butter over ravioli and toss. Serve, passing additional Parmesan cheese alongside, if desired.

SWISS CHARD MASCARPONE RAVIOLI, PAN-SEARED AND DRIZZLED WITH TRUFFLED CREME

Steps:

• To make the sauce: Heat a saucepan over medium heat. Add the unsalted butter and sprig of thyme. Melt until it turns brown, about 5 minutes. The second the butter starts becoming a medium brown, take the pan off the heat. Add the white truffle oil and mix. Reserve 2 tablespoons of this butter sauce to pan fry the ravioli. To the saucepan add: the heavy cream, and sea salt and coarsely cracked pepper, to taste. Whisk until the mixture is emulsified.
• To make the ravioli: Heat the extra-virgin olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Add the garlic and hot chile flakes to the pan and saute until the garlic becomes golden, about 2 minutes. Throw in the portabella mushrooms, minced shallots, sea salt, and freshly ground pepper, and saute for 8 minutes. Add the Swiss chard to the pan along with a touch more sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Saute a few minutes until the chard has wilted. Take the pan off the heat and let it cool.
• In a big bowl, mix the softened mascarpone cheese, ricotta cheese, 1/4-cup grated Parmesan cheese, sea salt, and freshly ground black pepper. Add the sauteed Swiss chard mixture. Delicately mix together.
• Using a ravioli cutter, cut the pasta into 2-inch shapes: circles, or squares. Lightly wet the edges of the pasta with water using your finger. Place 1/2 teaspoon of the Swiss chard-cheese filling in the center of the pasta. Wet the edges of another piece of pasta, and place it on top. Use a fork, or your fingers to seal the pasta together. Make sure you seal it tight. Repeat until no filling remains.
• Boil the ravioli in salted water for 6 minutes. Strain.
• Pour the 2 tablespoons of brown butter sauce into a frying pan. Add a teaspoon of olive oil and turn up the heat to medium-high. Place the ravioli into the pan and sear them for a minute on each side, until golden bits appear.
• Line the ravioli up on a plate, drizzle them with 2 to 3 tablespoons of sauce and sprinkle with Parmesan shavings.

SWISS CHARD RAVIOLI WITH QUICK TOMATO SAUCE

Steps:

• Finely chop Swiss chard (you should have about 6 packed cups). In a large non-stick skillet sauté onions, garlic, and pine nuts in oil over moderately high heat until onion is softened and pine nuts are a few shades darker. Stir in olives, raisins, and half of Swiss chard and cook, stirring, until chard is slightly wilted. Stir in remaining chard and season with salt and pepper. Cook filling, covered, over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until chard is tender, about 5 minutes and cool. Chill filling, uncovered, at least 1 hour or, covered, up to 1 day.
• Set smooth rollers of pasta machine on widest setting. Cut dough into 4 pieces and wrap 3 of them separately in plastic wrap. Flatten unwrapped piece of dough into rectangle and feed through rollers. Fold rectangle in half and feed through rollers 8 or 9 more times, folding in half each time and dusting in half as necessary to prevent sticking.
• Turn dial down to next (smaller) setting and feed dough through rollers without folding. Continue to feed dough through, without folding, making space between rollers narrower each time, until narrowest setting is reached and pasta is about 3 1/2 inches wide.
• Put pasta sheet on work surface with long side facing you and put packed teaspoon of filling 2 inches apart lengthwise along half of the pasta sheet (you should have 10 to 12 mounds). Around each mound of filling brush dough very lightly with water. Fold dough lengthwise in half over mounds of filling, gently pressing around mounds to force out any air, and seal edges well. With a fluted pastry wheel trim edges and cut between mounds of filling to separate ravioli.
• Line a large tray with a dry kitchen towel and arrange ravioli in one layer. Make more ravioli with remaining 3 pieces of dough and remaining filling in same manner, transferring to kitchen-towel-lined tray and arranging in one layer. Ravioli may be made 8 hours ahead and chilled on towel-lined tray, covered loosely with plastic wrap.
• In an 8-quart kettle bring 7 quarts of salted water to a boil. Cool ravioli until tender, 3 to 4 minutes, and drain in a colander. In a heated large bowl immediately toss ravioli with sauce.
• Serve ravioli with Parmesan.