Carrot and Potato Ravioli

Carrot and Potato Ravioli keep my Polish husband very happy.  He calls it a large pierogi.  LOL  I am happy because I get my Pasta fix.  This filling is not typical of Southern Italian cooking, but as a new generation we like to experiment.  Italians wether North or South prepared ravioli on special occasions.  The first yucca and amaretti ravioli appeared in in the 16th century in Modena. In the South we tend to use meat and cheese filling. This goes back to my theory that we all lived off the land.  Whatever the land produced, we used. 

My carrot and potato ravioli stemmed from trying to make pierogi for my husband who is Polish.  We were both happy with the result.  That is the other reason I used brown butter on this vs tomato sauce.  It was a nice change and of course, pierogi have butter not pasta sauce.

If you are looking for our traditional recipe https://recipesatmytable.com/spinach-ravioli-in-carrot-and-red-sauce/

Ingredients

Pasta Dough

• 2 cups zero/zero flour
• 2 large eggs

Filling Ingredients

• 2 carrots (diced)
• 2 large potatoes (diced)
• 1/2 cup parmesan cheese
• 1 tsp Italian seasoning
• 2 tbsp fresh parsley
• freshly grated nutmeg (optional)

Brown Butter

• 1/2 cup of butter

Garnish

• 1/4 cup of fresh parmesan cheese 
• lots of black pepper 
• minced parsley

Process

Pasta Dough

I like to make my pasta dough in the food processor when I am in a hurry.  I put the flour and eggs in and whisk it up until it comes together.  Then I put it on the counter and knead it to work that gluten. I do this for about ten minutes. 

Then I cover my dough with a tea towel or plastic wrap and let it rest for 30 minutes.

Filling

I wash, peel and cut the carrots and potatoes into small chunks and put them in a pot and on the stove to boil.  It takes about 20 minutes. 

Drain and puree them and set aside to cool. Once cooled I add my parmesan cheese, Italian spices and fresh parsley and mash all together. A little bit of fresh nutmeg also goes nicely at this point

Putting it together

I divide the pasta dough in half. It would be easy to use the pasta machine, but today I want to feel the pasta dough and work it. My special walnut rolling pin made by my husband is wonderful. Roll your dough out as thinly as possible and the place 1 tsp of potato/carrot mixture down one side leaving an edge. Then I rolled the dough over the little pockets and used my hands to press in between each pocket.

I cut with a sharp knife creating squares and then pinched them together with a fork.

Then I made the brown butter by placing butter in a pot and heating it until the milk solids toast leaving tiny bits of brown for a nutty flavour.

All that is left to do is boil the water and add the ravioli. They are done when they float to the top. Fresh pasta does not take long to cook. Then onto the plate they go with the butter, freshly ground pepper, parsley and slivers of parmesan cheese.

Up close on the plate and then I cut into them.