Garden Vegetable Ravioli in Tomato "Brodo"

Sometimes concepts SOUND better than they appear. And sometimes they LOOK better than they taste. In the case of this dinner, both controversies were in play.

Here is my inspiration recipe for this meal: Pasta with Corn, Burrata, Pancetta, and Chiles

I wish that that had ultimately been my dinner.

Instead, Derek went off exploring and found that recipe on another blog site which then lead him to the final recipe that we ended up making: Garden Vegetable Ravioli in Tomato "Brodo" - as you can see, on the original site HERE, it looks like a delictable dish - fresh, healthy(ish), capturing the flavors of the season.

Our ending result wasn't exactly that and I will attribute that to two main factors:

1) our bowls were simply horrible for the display and feasibility of this dish.
2) the past that we used was too thick and unforgiving that we had to cut larger than life ravioli (and with a pizza cutter at that)

I will not take responsibility for screwing this dish up because individually, the elements were really tasty. The filling for the ravioli was awesome and fresh, the soup/broth was so flavorful and light...if I had put the vegetables in the soup, and spread the goat cheese on a crostini rather than mixing with the vegetables, it would have been a perfect and well constructed meal. It was just that PASTA that got in the way of it all!

Here's what we did:

Ravioli Stuffing:
2 ears of corn, kernels cut off the cobs
3 baby summer squash, chopped
2 green onions, dark green parts removed, chopped
3 carrots, chopped
Small handful of fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
4 oz. (or so) package of Laura Chenel’s Chabis goat cheese
Sea salt, fresh ground black pepper

Chop each ingredient relatively small. If the pieces are too big they will poke a hole through the dough. Heat up a large saute pan and add two swirls of olive oil. Add the spring onion and cook for two minutes. Add the corn, carrots, squash, broccoli, sea salt and black pepper. Cook on medium-low for about 15-20 minutes, until the vegetables are soft. Stir every few minutes so they don’t brown. Add chopped parsley, stir and turn off heat. Let cool for about 5 minutes. Empty veggies into a large glass bowl and gently mix in goat cheese until combined. Taste for salt and set aside.

Tomato Brodo:

FYI - Brodo is Italish for broth, so I've read...

2 ripe, organic tomatoes
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed
Extra-Virgin olive oil
Sea salt, fresh ground pepper
3/4 cup leftover homemade heriloom tomato sauce (just keeps making an appearance!!)

Set a large pot of water to boil. Using a sharp knife, make an “X” on the bottom of each tomato, just cutting through the skin. Add the tomatoes to the boiling water and cook for about 2 minutes, until the skins start to peel back. Transfer tomatoes to a bowl and cover with a cotton towel. When cool enough to handle, remove the skins. Crush each tomato with your hands into a medium pot set on low heat. Add crushed garlic cloves, 1/2 cup of water, salt and pepper. Cook on low for about 25 minutes. (Here is where we added the leftover marinara sauce - otherwise, just up the amount of tomatoes like the original recipe calls for). Heat for another 5 minutes or so. Just before serving strain the broth into a bowl, leaving garlic and tomato seeds behind.

Ravioli: Purchased in full sheets from "The Pasta Shoppe" in Berkeley.

Directions:
Take about 1 1/2 tablespoons of the filling, and place it in heaps about 2 in apart on the sheet. Place a second pasta sheet over the base pasta and filling. Using a pizza-cutter (or ravioli-cutter if you have one), cut between the filling, creating individual ravioli.

Cook the ravioli in boiling water for about three minutes. Strain the tomato broth and ladle into a bowl with a few of the ravioli. Garnish with fresh basil (we didn't have this so that added to the ugliness of our dish).

The final ugly duckling:

Haha I laugh when I see that. The ravioli just take over the bowl. And disappointed with the result, we did not try to clean up the bowl for its photo shoot.

My take on how we could make this dish work:

IF using pasta...roll it out a little more (or try to make our own) OR purchase wonton wrappers and make the filling as directed. Since Derek and I agreed that the tomato brodo was simply overpowering for the delicate flavors of the vegetables and pasta, instead, simply use some goat cheese with lemon zest and maybe a little vegetable broth or something to slightly thin it out (though not necessary as it will melt once in contact with the hot pasta).

IF not using pasta....throw the other elements together and it would be delicious.

Good idea, not so good result.