Heart Shaped Beet & Goat Cheese Ravioli

As I mentioned on Facebook yesterday, much of Ontario had a snow day yesterday, including Waterloo region, where we got an estimated 30cm (1 foot) of snow.  Not nearly as bad as what areas like Connecticut are currently facing, but still one of the biggest snowfalls we’ve seen here in a while!  I was happy to stay home and make myself a warm lunch and decided to use the time I saved not going into school to put a little time and effort into something extra special – these heart shaped ravioli!

I had wanted to make heart shaped ravioli for Valentine’s Day anyway but I knew I would want it to have beets in the filling for their gorgeous colour, and since my boyfriend isn’t particularly fond of beets, I decided to just go ahead and make them for myself.  We don’t give each other Valentine’s gifts anyway, so I thought it was perfectly acceptable to give myself an early gift!

Now I won’t lie and say that these are super easy and you should all make them for Valentine’s Day dinner because they’ll take no time at all.  Maybe that would be the case if you’re an expert ravioli maker, but this was only my second time making ravioli and it was definitely frustrating at times and took more time to prepare than an average dinner.  But I will honestly say that in the end it was totally worth it!

I did make a few mistakes that you can learn from so you won’t run into as many issues as me:

1)      Keep your pasta sheets damp so they don’t dry up and harden – that will make it very difficult to form the ravioli!

2)      Figure out how much filling you can comfortably fit in a ravioli by doing a practice one before you go and spoon all the filling out only to realize you used too much and have to go back and redo it.

3)      Make sure you completely seal the edges of the ravioli so that the filling doesn’t seep out while boiling!

I used storebought fresh pasta sheets to save time, but if you are really ambitious you could make your own pasta - Reclaiming Provincial even makes a beet pasta dough, which makes the end product so gorgeous! 

The filling is a simple mixture of roasted beets and herbed goat cheese with a splash of lemon juice, and while it takes some time to wait for the beets to roast, the filling is super easy to make and is delicious even on its own!  So if you don’t feel like making ravioli but love beets and goat cheese (two of my favourite ingredients!), you could just make the filling and use it as a sandwich or pizza spread, on crostini, or even as a dip!

If you do go ahead and make the ravioli, I highly recommend serving it with a side salad.  I kept the ravioli ‘sauce’ very simple (just olive oil and parmesan cheese) to let the filling shine, but without a lot of sauce, I find that ravioli on its own can be a bit boring, especially when you get the edge parts without the filling.  I still loved the ravioli, but when I ate it overtop a salad it was so much better – the vinegar in the dressing really brightened things up and the salad added flavour and texture so you don’t get bored eating the parts that are just plain pasta!

And of course, these don’t have to be for just Valentine’s Day (this goes to those of you who don’t care much for the “holiday”) – they are a great way to show your appreciation to someone (or yourself) on any special occasion, snow days included!

Oh and if any of you pros out there have other tips for making the ravioli process easier, feel free to share them! 

Heart Shaped Beet & Goat Cheese Ravioli

Adapted from Annie’s Eats and Reclaiming Provincial

Makes 20-25 ravioli

Ingredients:

1/2 lb red beets (1-2 medium beets)

2 oz herbed goat cheese

1/2 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Salt and pepper

8 fresh lasagne sheets (9x6”) or equivalent homemade pasta sheets

For serving:

Olive oil

Parmesan cheese

Field greens

Red wine vinegar

Salt & pepper

Directions:

First prepare the ravioli filling.  Preheat oven to 400°F.  Scrub beets and pierce all over with the tines of a fork.  Wrap in aluminum foil and roast in preheated oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until tender.  Let cool slightly, peel and roughly chop, then add to a food processor.  Add the goat cheese and lemon juice and process mixture until smooth. Season with salt and pepper to taste. 

Next prepare the pasta.  I used fresh lasagne sheets from an Italian market, which saved me lots of time, but if you want to make your own pasta, follow either the recipe from Annie’s Eats for plain pasta or Reclaiming Provincial for a beet pasta dough.  While you’re working with the pasta, it’s important to keep the sheets you’re not using covered with a damp cloth so they don’t dry out and harden.  I let that happen with some of mine and it cracked when I tried to work with it later.  Use a heart shaped cookie cutter (mine was about 3” wide) to cut out heart shapes from pasta dough.

Spoon a small amount of filling into the center of half the hearts.  The amount you need will depend on the size of your cookie cutter.  I started with about 2 teaspoons (pictured) but realized that was too much when I started to try to form the ravioli, so I removed some (after the picture) and was left with about 1 teaspoon of filling for each heart.  I highly recommend only filling one to start and proceeding with the next step of shaping the ravioli to get an idea of how much filling is needed before you fill the rest.

Use a pastry brush or your finger to wet the edges of each heart and place a plain heart on top of the filling.  Press the edges together with your fingers to seal, then go over the edges pressing with the tines of a fork, on both sides of the ravioli, to ensure the filling is really sealed in there.  You don’t want it to leak out when you’re boiling them!  This happened to a few of mine that weren’t properly sealed.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.  Cook the ravioli in the boiling water until al dente, about 3-5 minutes.  I did this in batches of about 5 ravioli as I filled them so they didn’t sit out too long.

To serve, toss desired amount of field greens with a bit of red wine vinegar, olive oil, and salt and pepper.  Toss desired amount of ravioli (4-5 per person should be a good amount) with a drizzle of olive oil.  Serve ravioli overtop of salad and sprinkle with parmesan cheese.

Butternut Squash Lasagna with Smoky Marinara Sauce

I know I haven't been posting as often lately, but I've developed a seemingly never-ending cold that has resulted in my attempting to eat garlic and ginger for every meal to try to get rid of it (so far, no luck). I haven't felt like cooking nice meals that I won't even be able to taste, or baking treats for others that will probably just spread my germs to them.

Fortunately I still have a few recipes that I haven't shared with you guys yet, and this delicious lasagna is one of them. I actually made it back when I was testing recipes for my Canadian Thanksgiving Week because I thought a lasagna would make a great vegetarian Thanksgiving main dish. While I absolutely loved this dish, I ended up posting a roasted vegetable galette instead because I thought it was just slightly more appropriate for a Thanksgiving dish.

I've been waiting for a chance to post the lasagna recipe though, and now with American Thanksgiving coming up this week, along with lots of other opportunities for family gatherings in the coming months, I think now's the time to share this dish that is very worthy of taking center stage at your next family feast.

I've actually tried three different versions of butternut squash or pumpkin lasagna before, usually with some sort of white sauce, cheese, and sage, but they always seem to disappoint me because they end up being very one-dimensional in flavour. I was intrigued when I saw this recipe for butternut squash lasagna from Cooking Light, because it looked completely different from the other recipes I'd tried by combining squash with a smoky marinara sauce instead the more common white sauces I'd seen.

I'm so glad I gave this version a try because I now finally have a squash lasagna recipe with FLAVOUR! The smoky marinara sauce (which you must be sure to buy the fire-roasted tomatoes for) has such an interesting flavour that made it the star of the dish, while still complementing the squash nicely. The provolone cheese added to the smokiness of the dish, and the addition of three other cheeses (ricotta, goat cheese, and parmesan) created a wonderful combination of flavours that was so much more interesting than the more traditional but bland combination of mozzarella and ricotta. I used fresh lasagna noodles so the end product had a wonderful texture, but dried noodles would work just fine as well.

The only downside to this recipe is that it's a fair amount of work and contains a lot of ingredients, but I just poured myself a glass of wine and put on some good music to listen to, and I thought the whole process was really enjoyable! Your guests (both vegetarians and meat eaters) will love this impressive and delicious dish, and since it makes a ton, you'll hopefully be able to enjoy the leftovers all week!

Butternut Squash Lasagna with Smoky Marinara Sauce

Adapted from Cooking Light

Serves 12

Ingredients:

For the smoky marinara:

1 tablespoon olive oil

3 garlic cloves, minced

1/4 cup chopped fresh basil

2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

2 tablespoons chopped fresh or 2 teaspoons dried oregano

2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon pepper

1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes, undrained

3 (14-ounce) cans diced fire-roasted tomatoes, undrained

For the lasagna:

1 tablespoon olive oil

3 cups chopped onion

3 cloves garlic, minced

10 cups fresh spinach

1 cup shredded sharp provolone cheese

1/2 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 large eggs, whisked

1 and a half 15-oz cartons (22.5 oz total) reduced-fat ricotta cheese

1 (113g) log of goat cheese
1 large butternut squash

Smoky marinara sauce (from above)

6 eight-inch square sheets of fresh lasagna, or 12 oven-ready boxed lasagna noodles

1 cup (4 ounces) grated fresh Parmesan cheese

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400°F. Peel butternut squash, scoop out the seeds, and slice into thin pieces, about ¼ to ½-inch thick. Spread on a large baking sheet and toss with olive oil, salt, and pepper until evenly coated. Roast in the oven for 30-40 minutes, until soft, but not mushy. Remove from oven and set aside.

Meanwhile, prepare the smoky marinara sauce. Heat olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add garlic, basil, parsley, and oregano, and sauté 1 minute, stirring frequently. Stir in vinegar, salt, pepper, and the cans of tomatoes. Reduce heat and simmer for 10-20 minutes. Remove from heat.

Reduce oven temperature to 375°F. Spray a 9x13 glass baking dish with cooking spray.

Heat olive oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion and sauté 5 minutes, or until soft. Add garlic, and sauté for 1 minute, stirring frequently. Add the spinach and sauté for 1-2 minutes, or until spinach wilts. Transfer everything to a large bowl. Add the provolone, ricotta, goat cheese, parsley, salt, pepper, and eggs to the bowl and stir everything together until thoroughly combined.

To layer the lasagna:

1. Coat the bottom of the dish with 1/4 of the marinara sauce
2. Layer lasagna noodles on top of the sauce (2 of the fresh sheets, or 4 dry sheets)
3. Spread half of the cheese mixture on top of the noodles
4. Layer half of the roasted squash pieces over the cheese
5. Spread 1/4 of the marinara sauce over the squash
6. Layer more lasagna noodles over the marinara
7. Spread the other half of the cheese mixture over the noodles
8. Layer the other half of the squash over the cheese
9. Spread 1/4 of the marinara sauce over the squash
10. Layer the last of the noodles over the marinara
11. Spread the rest of the marinara sauce over the noodles
12. Sprinkle the parmesan cheese on top.

Cover with foil and bake at 375°F for one hour.

*Note: The original recipe called for the lasagna to be divided among two 8x8 pans. I decided to put it all together in one 9x13 pan instead, which is slightly less total volume than the two pans. This made for a very full lasagna pan, which is why I kept it covered in foil for the full baking time, so that the sauce wouldn’t spill over in the oven (although a tiny bit still did). If you’d rather split the lasagna into two pans, remove the foil halfway through cooking.

Pumpkin Goat Cheese Ravioli

Those who know me know that I’m a huge goat cheese lover, and I have a hard time resisting any recipe that has the words goat cheese in the title. So naturally, I was thrilled when I was contacted by Belle Chevre and asked to participate in their blog party for goat cheese!

Belle Chevre is a small, female-run business in Alabama that has been hand-crafting internationally acclaimed goat cheese for 20 years. They are very passionate about their products (which include flavours I’ve never even heard of, like coffee goat cheese!) but unfortunately they’re being kicked off their land in 2013, so they started the Kickstarter Project to help fund a new creamery. I’m happy to help raise awareness of their project but also to share my love of goat cheese and this delicious recipe with all of you!

I’ve been wanting to make my own ravioli for a while now, and when I saw some fresh lasagna sheets at my favourite Italian deli recently, I decided now was the perfect time! I knew I wanted to make a pumpkin-filled ravioli because I’m not nearly done with pumpkin recipes yet, but that’s all I knew at first.

Since pumpkin on its own can be pretty bland in pasta dishes, I knew I had to add something to liven it up a bit. It wasn’t long before I realized that goat cheese would be just the thing to give the ravioli an added dimension of flavour and creaminess.

To highlight the flavours of the filling, I decided a simple drizzle of olive oil and some freshly grated parmesan would be the perfect complement to top off the dish, and I was right! The ravioli came out looking and tasting so professional, but they were actually quite easy and fun to make. And it’s a good thing I loved them so much because I had enough to last for about 4 dinners in a row! I looked forward to eating them all to myself every night but they’d also be the perfect dish to make for someone you love (or want to impress)!

Pumpkin Goat Cheese Ravioli

Filling adapted from The Way the Cookie Crumbles

Makes 24 raviolis – Feeds 4-5 people

Ingredients:

15 oz pumpkin (about half a 796 mL can)

4 oz goat cheese

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1/2 tablespoon minced fresh sage

8 fresh lasagna sheets (8.5” by 6”)

Olive oil

Freshly grated parmesan

Directions:

In a large bowl, whisk together the pumpkin, goat cheese, nutmeg, salt, pepper, and sage until smooth and thoroughly combined.

Lay one lasagna sheet flat on a sheet of parchment paper (to prevent sticking). Brush surface of the lasagna sheet with water. Place rounded tablespoons of the pumpkin filling on the pasta, about 1 inch apart. If using 8.5” by 6” lasagna sheets, you should be able to fit two rows of three mounds of filling (6 mounds per sheet).

Brush the surface of a second, equally-sized lasagna sheet with water and gently lay over the filling (the water will help the pasta stick together). Press the two sheets together around the filling, starting at the center and working your way out to secure the edges.

Use a pastry cutter, pizza cutter, or sharp knife to divide into 6 ravioli. For each ravioli, brush the edges with water and use the tines of a fork to press the edges together.

If you find the above method too difficult, you could also divide the lasagna sheet in half first, then only place three mounds of filling over one half, top with the other half, press together and divide as before.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil, and add salt and a teaspoon of olive oil so the pasta won’t stick together. Gently add about 6 ravioli to the pot at a time and cook until edges are al dente, about 5-7 minutes. Make sure none of the pasta is sticking to the bottom of the pan, as this could cause the pasta to tear and release the filling. Remove with a slotted spoon to a warmed plate.

Top with a drizzle of olive oil and freshly grated parmesan. Serve warm and enjoy!