The Ravioli Story

I’m always thrilled when I go into the kitchen and spontaneously create something delicious that I’ve never made before, especially if I used only what I have available in my pantry. In addition to pantry staples, I keep long-lasting fresh or semi-perishable ingredients on hand. Those are foods like aged cheeses and cured meats and vegetables such as cauliflower, green onions, cabbage and squash. It’s easy to get in the habit of making the same familiar thing over and over again so it’s refreshing and fun to create something new.

For Christmas, my neighbor, Geoff Brownell, gave me two big boxes of cheese ravioli. I put them in the freezer and proceeded to forget about them because I couldn’t think of anything interesting to do with them. Making a tomato sauce would be the easy way out but that sounded so dull and routine. So while the raviolis sat in the freezer, I pondered and waited for inspiration to come.

Then suddenly one afternoon while I was in my truck, the inspiration I had waited for suddenly arrived like a lightning bolt — a recipe that would rocket those ravioli straight out of the freezer and out of the realm of ho-hum. I sautéed a generous amount of garlic in clarified butter and strained the cloves out, boiled the raviolis and coated them in the garlic butter. Put them in individual bowls and topped the ravioli with crumbled bacon and blue cheese and added a few chopped green onions as a garnish. Simple! I invited my friend Anna over for lunch and gave it a go, and she concurred that the dish was indeed delicious.

Inspired again, I thought of another version. Go through the same process but this time top the ravioli with finely chopped smoked salmon and grated parmesan Reggianno. Touché! Then yet another combination occurred to me – lemon juice, anchovies and red pepper flakes, parmesan. Not bad.

In case you don’t know how to make clarified butter, it’s remarkably easy. You just melt butter over very low heat; I do a pound at a time. The milk solids will rise to the top and you skim them off using a small strainer or a spoon. Stir the butter and skim it a couple of times until no more milk solids rise to the top. Then pour the butter into a container and refrigerate and it will keep for a long time. Clarifying removes most of the milk solids so it’s more healthful if you are lactose intolerant.

Make sure not to overcook the ravioli because the insides might come out. Drain them thoroughly so they can dry a bit before you coat them with the butter.

Try it, you’ll like it!