Goat Cheese and Porcini Ravioli
By: Melissa Peterman
Published: Friday, December 10, 2010 - 1:02am

Ingredients




3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil plus  more for drizzling
1/2 pound fresh porcini mushrooms finely chopped
Salt to taste
Freshly-ground black pepper to taste
5 1/2 ounces goat cheese (chevre) at room temperature
1 packet square wonton wrappers - (12 oz)

Preparation

1 For filling, heat skillet over medium heat and add 1 tablespoon olive oil. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook porcini slowly, stirring occasionally, for 20 to 30 minutes, or until 1/3 cup very soft mushrooms remain. Season with salt and pepper. Remove from heat and place in bowl. 2 Working over mushroom bowl, crumble goat cheese onto mushrooms and mix to form paste. 3 Spread clean towel on flat work surface to create shaped ravioli. Have a damp cloth nearby to cover unused wonton wrappers, to keep them damp and pliable. Place 2 wonton wrappers on flat surface. Place 1 teaspoon filling in center of 1 skin. Brush edges with water, making a wide border, and place another skin on top, matching edge to edge. To press out air, press fingertips on top wrapper, shaping around filling and moving toward edges, tamping out any air pockets. Press edges to seal. If cutting ravioli with biscuit cutter, avoid cutting off "glued" edges. 4 To cook, heat 8 quarts water over high heat, adding pinch salt when boiling. Add ravioli one at a time. When ravioli float to surface and are translucent, scoop out with some pasta water and place in bowl. Continue until all are cooked. Drizzle drained ravioli with olive oil or melted butter and serve immediately.

About


This recipe yields 3 to 4 servings. Wine Suggestions: Porcini mushrooms have a very distinctive flavor, so the accompanying wine should highlight it. Choose one with forward fruit and not too much oak. Try Robert Sinskey Vineyards Aries California Pinot Noir. 
Comments: Making ravioli with purchased wonton wrappers is a cross-cultural miracle and saves the effort of hand-making whole sheets of fresh pasta dough. Using a biscuit cutter, cut the ravioli into decorative scalloped rounds, or leave them in their original square shape. Alternatively, you may use one wonton wrapper per ravioli and fold edges over the wrapper, making trianglesuthough you will have leftover wrappers. If you cannot find fresh porcini mushrooms, substitute its cremini cousins. Serve ravioli with a garden-fresh green salad.

Comments:
Expat Steve

Great recipe.
Since fresh porcini mushrooms are not easy to come by, and expensive when they are, here is a nice alternative.  Rehydrate an ounce of top quality dried porcinis in a cup or so of boiling water, and let them steep for an hour.
Meanwhile, shred a pound of fresh cremini mushrooms in the food processor on the coarse grating disc, then by the handful and wrapped in a clean dishtowel, squeeze out as much liquid as possible.  
Using a fine mesh strainer lined with a paper towel, filter the porcini stock and set aside.  Rinse the porcinis several times to remove all the grit, then chop them and add them to the reserved stock.
Chop finely a small onion and sauté it in 4 Tbls of butter until lightly golden, then add the porcini stock and pieces and reduce this liquid by about 80 percent.  Add the shredded creminis and salt and pepper to taste, cover, reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for 30 minutes.  Uncover and boil away any remaining liquid.  Check to make sure it does not dry out during cooking, if so, stop there.  But keep the heat low enough to avoid that, as you want a long simmer to infuse the creminis with the porcini flavors.
This is a less expensive and more available alternative to fresh porcinis, and the flavor is unmistakable porcini.
In fact, to this I add chopped parsley, and use it in lieu of Bolognese sauce in classic lasagna for the fall months.  That recipe will follow…
Expat Steve

Great recipe.
Since fresh porcini mushrooms are not easy to come by, and expensive when they are, here is a nice alternative.  Rehydrate an ounce of top quality dried porcinis in a cup or so of boiling water, and let them steep for an hour.
Meanwhile, shred a pound of fresh cremini mushrooms in the food processor on the coarse grating disc, then by the handful and wrapped in a clean dishtowel, squeeze out as much liquid as possible.  
Using a fine mesh strainer lined with a paper towel, filter the porcini stock and set aside.  Rinse the porcinis several times to remove all the grit, then chop them and add them to the reserved stock.
Chop finely a small onion and sauté it in 4 Tbls of butter until lightly golden, then add the porcini stock and pieces and reduce this liquid by about 80 percent.  Add the shredded creminis and salt and pepper to taste, cover, reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for 30 minutes.  Uncover and boil away any remaining liquid.  Check to make sure it does not dry out during cooking, if so, stop there.  But keep the heat low enough to avoid that, as you want a long simmer to infuse the creminis with the porcini flavors.
This is a less expensive and more available alternative to fresh porcinis, and the flavor is unmistakable porcini.
In fact, to this I add chopped parsley, and use it in lieu of Bolognese sauce in classic lasagna for the fall months.  That recipe will follow…