Salmon Stuffed Ravioli

Salmon Stuffed Ravioli

I had a lot of left over ingredients in the refrigerators at the beginning of this past week from a wedding we catered last Saturday. A couple of things that had to be used were six pounds of ricotta cheese and a large bowl of canned salmon. It was time to make ravioli. The first thing I did was to make three portions of pasta dough (see my post about pasta dough). I let the three balls of dough rest for a couple of hours and then I rolled out long sheets of dough using the pasta roller attachment for my KitchenAid stand mixer.

Salmon Stuffing for Ravioli (Enough for 70 ravioli):

4  14.5 oz. of canned salmon
3  1/2 cups of ricotta cheese
1  tablespoon mirin
1  tablespoon fish sauce
salt and pepper to taste

Place all the above ingredients in a food processor and puree until smooth. The consistency should be thick but silky smooth, a little thicker than the ricotta cheese.

Often, when I make ravioli, I lay out a 36 inch long rolled pasta dough on a granite counter top, divide the sheet in half, and brush half the sheet with water, creating “windows” into which I pipe the filling. I then seal the ravioli by laying the other half of the pasta dough on top, gently press the dough around the mounds of stuffing and cut the individual ravioli with a fluted pastry cutting wheel. I like the finished product because the ravioli look artisanal and hand-made.

However, for my salmon stuffed ravioli, Rosaria persuaded me to use on the several ravioli forms that we have. The process is basically the same. I roll out one sheet of pasta dough at a time, then cut it in half and drape one half on the metal form with jagged cutting edges. I gently press down into the dough to form a small pouch, or well, in each individual square of the form.  Then I take my pastry bag filled with the salmon stuffing and pipe it out into each well. With a food brush I then “paint” water around the edges of the dough sheet and around each individual pouch, then place the other half of the pasta dough sheet on top. Using a rolling pin I then roll across the form several time until I see the jagged metal edges of the form come through the dough. Finally I turn the form upside down on a piece of wax paper sprinkled with corn flour, and I push all the ravioli out of the form onto the wax paper. They are still connected to one another and they could be separated then. But it’s much easier to freeze the ravioli overnight and separate them from each other once they’re frozen. The frozen ravioli will keep in the freezer for several months.

I had eight people over dinner Saturday night and I served the salmon ravioli as my entrée with a fish béchamel sauce. It was incredible. I thought for sure there would be left over ravioli … Wrong again!

RMA

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