A three-course menu (Part II). Spinach and home-made ricotta ravioli with curry carrot sauce

Published on 19/06/2011 | In Italy | By Monica |

- Prep Time
- 40 Minutes
- Cook Time
- 60 Minutes
- Yield
- 8
- Difficulty Level

I know it’s taken a while to write the second dish… and dessert is still about to come!!! The thing is, I just came two weeks ago from a few months in Berlin, so the time I’ve spend in searching for a place to live in and a nice restaurant job (hopefully soon) doesn’t leave me with many internet hours to post. But this is about to change soon… so expect some new german recipes with sausages, beer, Kartoffeln Salat (potato salad), my usual peruvian food from any part of the world (I brought a suitcase with all my ingredients of course), breads, and my guess would be new spicy food. Berlin has many Turkish markets and restaurants so new spices and plates I will be trying for sure. And I loveee Turkish food, and Indian, and well, yes, all kinds.

Anyway… back to the Menu and that special lunch with friends that started with the traditional peruvian Causa LimeÃ±a. So, now that I’ve told you how to make home-made ricotta cheese it’s time for a recipe with it right? This is what I prepared: spinach and ricotta ravioli with pine nuts and raisins with a curry-carrot sauce. Absolutely delicious. Let’s get to it, goes dedicated to all the Dad’s today on Father’s Day. Specially to mine, that is the best Dad in the whole world.

This sauce can also be served as a curry carrot soup, the only thing you have to change is to add some cream and maybe more water, some croutons for serving and set. Very light and delicious starter.

Ravioles de Espinaca. Spinach Raviolis.

Ingredients

Let's start with the Carrot Sauce:
2 white onions
1 tablespoon of roasted garlic paste
1/2 kg of carrots
3 green peppers
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon of powdered curry
olive oil
salt, cumin and freshly ground pepper
the Ravioli:
1 package of wonton paste (any chinese supermarket has it) of 50 units
Mold for "empanadas" (see 4th photograph on the right)
1 cegg white to seal the pasta
1 cup of home-made ricotta
1/2 white onion finely chopped
150 gr spinach
50 gr pine nuts
50 gr raisins
parmesan cheese
salt, pepper and nutmeg

Instructions

Let's start with the Carrot Sauce:
Cut all the ingredients into medium pieces.
Sweat the onions with the roasted garlic paste in olive oil.
Add the peppers and carrots.
Let them cook at medium heat until they lose all their juices and soft.
Add the bay, salt and pepper, cumin and curry. Mix well.
Add about 1 cup of water, it should not cover it since this is a sauce not a cream/soup.
Take to a boil and cover the pot.
Cook for about 45 minutes-1 hour at low heat.
Blend everything, taste the salt and then pass through a sieve so that no small particles remain.
Bring to a boil again and leave it covered until serving time.
While the sauce is cooking itself, you can start preparing the the Ravioli:
Put 4 liters of water with salt to a boil in a big pot.
Sweat the onions with olive oil and when soft add the spinachs.
Cook for about 1 minute mixing well.
Add the raisins, pine nuts, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Mix well and let sit for about 1 more minute. Turn off the heat and let it cool.
Mix in a bowl the ricotta cheese with the previous preparation.
Take aproximately 1 teaspoon of the filling and place it in the middle of the wonton paste. Be careful no to put so much filling because later, when cooking it will come out by the sides.
Seal the borders with the egg white and cloe horizontally with the mold or manually. Repeat until you make all the ravioli you want (always make some more).
Once the water is boiling add the ravioli. They cook in about 2-3 minutes once they float.
Have a glass pyrex with some butter and olive oil next to you to place the cook ones there. Trick: Taste the first one to see if it's ok for salt. If not, add some salt to the water.
From time to time move sideways the glass pyrex so that the ravioli get oil all over them, preventing they stick to one another.
Now... serving time!! I'm getting hungry again!!!
Place a soup spoon of carrot sauce at the base of the plate. Then place 5 ravioli on top. Grate some parmesan and some freshly ground pepper and to the table!! Enjoy with a good italian wine Chianti for example. Thank you Sandra again for the lovely pictures!!