My friend and her friends in another city love to host food competitions among themselves and every time they have one of these I always do what I can to help her out. Their next competition is supposed to be a pasta throw down and after chatting with her I came up with the idea of her making lobster ravioli. What better way to compete than to make your own pasta and use one of the best ingredients right?!
Well, after going to my local grocery store I couldn't procure the lobster fresh or frozen so I had to go to plan B. As I'm looking in the seafood aisle I come across lump crab meat. I'm thinking this will probably work and right now I'm way to lazy to even buy fresh crab, cook it and separate the meat myself. I was even trying to find frozen pasta sheets or wonton skins as a shortcut and I failed at finding those as well.
The next step was to decide on what the rest of the filling would consist of, so I headed back to the produce and pick up some cremini mushrooms. I strolled to the cheese section and debated on whether I should go with ricotta or marscapone, I obviously opted for the later. My reasoning was mainly texture, I preferred the smooth marscapone over the gritty ricotta.
To bring this dish altogether I decided on making creamed corn for the pasta sauce and chose baby carrots and green beans for the sides. I had no intention of creating a rustic dish but it kind of just ended that way.
Ingredients:
Filling
1 lbs lump crab meat
1 cup diced crimini mushrooms
3 cloves garlic (diced)
1 large shallot (diced)
2 tablespoon stick unsalted butter
8-9 oz marscapone cheese
Kosher salt and pepper to taste
Sauce
2 ears corn
1/2 stick unsalted butter
1 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Pasta
1/2 cup semolina flour
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 large egg
2 egg yolks
2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
Sides
1 bushel baby carrots
1 lbs green beans
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
Kosher salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
Filling
Saute the mushrooms, garlic, and shallots in the butter on medium high heat for about 5 minutes. Let this cool and mix in the crab meat and the marscapone cheese. Set aside in the refrigerator until the pasta is ready.
Pasta
Mix both flours together and create a well in the middle. Add the egg and egg yolks to the middle and scramble the mixture. Drizzle the oil and slowly incorporate the flour mixture into the eggs. Kneed the dough until it's consistent throughout. Wrap in plastic and let it chill in the fridge for an hour. After an hour cut the dough into 4 even pieces and roll it piece into a thin sheet.
Use a small melon baller and scoop the filling onto the pasta sheet leaving about 1 - 2 inches of gap between the fillings. Brush egg wash around the mixture and place another sheet on top of the mixture and begin to seal. Use a cutter to cut desired shape and use a fork to seal the ends.
Sauce
Shave the corn off the cob and place in a saute pan (add the cob as well and discard later). Add the butter and cook for 5 minutes. Add the cream and simmer for 25 minutes and continue stirring every 5 minutes. Discard the cob and puree the mixture.
Sides
Add oil, salt, and pepper to the veggies and mix well. Saute each vegetable separately 3-5 minutes on high heat for the green beans and 7-8 minutes for the carrots.
Everyone has their way of plating food so make it your own. You can serve as a family style meal or individual plates. Either way, enjoy it!
