We saved the best for last!!!

Cheese Ravioli and Herb Pesto

We are certainly sad to say goodbye, but all good things must come to an end.  This week we presented our final lab, a cheese ravioli with herb pesto. This dish was fun to make and to eat and it came out exactly as planned!  Our pesto was the vibrant green color and smooth texture we had anticipated, our cheese filling was nice and creamy, and our pasta was cooked to perfection.  More specifically, we did a great job toasting the pine nuts to a perfect nutty flavor that blended well with the freshness of the basil, parsley and mint. Our filling was a combination of one soft cheese and two firm cheeses which made it creamy but not too runny, so it held together well when cooked with the ravioli.  Lastly, we were successful in making sure our pasta dough was thin enough to cook all the way, but firm enough to hold together and keep our filling nicely tucked away. Here’s how we did it:

Ingredients:

Pesto –

Ravioli –

Materials:

• Food Processor
• Medium bowl
• Small bowl
• Spoonula
• Fork
• Pasta Roller (a rolling pin can do the job if needed)
• Spoon
• Large pot
• Measuring cup
• Slotted spoon
• Ravioli mold

Instructions:

• To toast the pine nuts, arrange in a single layer on a baking sheet. Bake in a preheated 350 degrees F oven for 6 to 8 minutes until lightly toasted. Cool completely before using.
• In a food processor, combine the basil, parsley, mint, Parmesan, pine nuts, anchovy paste, pepper and garlic. Pulse until chunky. With the machine running, gradually add the olive oil until the pesto is smooth. Set aside for later. 

Our pesto includes lots of vibrant greens such as basil, parsley and mint.  The green coloring comes from the chlorophyll in the cells. Because chlorophyll molecules contain more than 5 conjugated double bonds, it is a colorful molecule and in this case it is a colorful green. Our pesto turned out a bright happy green color just like our leaves. There was no acid or heat added to the pesto so we didn’t have to worry about a loss of magnesium turning it into a poop green color or the loss of any other vitamins! 

We also used extra-virgin olive oil in our pesto.  Extra-virgin olive oil is a liquid form of fat which means that it is primarily composed of unsaturated fats.  Unsaturated fats have multiple either cis or trans double bonds that create oddly shaped molecules that don’t stack closely or form strong intermolecular attractions which lead to a liquid form of fat.  We used the extra-virgin olive oil to hold the pesto ingredients together and give it a smooth consistency.

• In a medium bowl, mix together the ricotta, mozzarella, Parmesan, breadcrumbs, nutmeg, 3/4 teaspoon salt and the pepper.
• In a medium bowl combine the flour and salt; combine with a fork. Make a well in the center and add the extra-large eggs to the well. Using a fork at first, draw the flour into the eggs.

• When almost all of the flour has been incorporated into the eggs, begin kneading the dough by hand on a floured counter top. Begin to knead the dough with the palms and heels of your hands. If the dough is dry, add a touch of water; if it is moist, add a touch of flour. Alternately, place the flour in a bowl, mix it with the salt, and stir in the eggs, then turn the resulting dough out onto the counter and knead it as above.

Check out my kneading skills helping out some gluten formation!

• Knead the dough until it is smooth and supple with your hands; it will take about 5 to 10 minutes. The dough will change from ragged and rough to smooth and elastic as you work it.
• Divide your dough into 4 pieces and flatten each into a narrow rectangle (no wider than mouth of machine); pass through rollers. Fold your dough as needed to fit and roll again. Repeat this process without folding, adjusting machine to thinner settings after every pass, until pasta is 1/16″ thick (setting 8 on most machines). If you don’t have a machine, you can roll out sheets lengthwise with a rolling pin until 1/16″ thick. To know you’ve got your dough thin enough, use the window pane test.

For the pasta dough, we allowed for limited gluten formation between our kneading and rolling techniques.  The eggs were our source of water combined with all purpose flour which has a moderate protein content because while we weren’t going for the elasticity of bread dough, we also didn’t want our dough to flake apart like a pastry.  We did not allow for the dough to rise or form air pockets like we did with the ciabatta bread, but we did knead it for a considerable amount of time in order to allow the gluten to form. We also didn’t have any sort of leavening agent such as yeast or baking powder.

• Lay the dough over the ravioli mold and spoon 1 level tablespoon of the filling into the center of each ravioli square. Place another sheet of dough over top and press down using a rolling pin to cut out each square.

• Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat. Add the remaining salt to the water. In batches, add the ravioli to the water and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender but still firm to the bite, about 3 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, carefully remove the ravioli and drain in a colander.
• Transfer the ravioli to shallow soup bowls. Spoon the pesto over the ravioli and serve!

Chemical Explanations in Green

Check out our final reflection video here!