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Ravioli with Leek, Mint Stuffing and Creamy Potato Sauce

The secret to success with this recipe is that mint and leeks make a magical combination.

This is a totally vegetarian recipe, although you can substitute chicken stock for the mushroom broth if you are not strictly vegetarian. The secret to success with this recipe is that mint and leeks make a magical combination. The potato sauce is super yummy but, if you wanted to you could leave the ravioli out of this recipe and combine all the other ingredients to make a potato soup.

Ingredients

Conversions to European measurements can be found here!

Pasta and Stuffing

fresh pasta dough

2 fresh large leeks thinly chopped white stalks only

2 large yellow onion minced

1 garlic clove minced

3 stalks celery diced small

1/4 cup mint minced

salt and pepper to taste

2 cups chopped fresh spinach

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

Potato, Oregeno, Cream Sauce

2 cups Telma mushroom broth (or chicken broth)

1/4 cup heavy cream

2 pounds yukon gold potatoes quartered with skin left on

NOTE: if you don't have a blender, hand blender, or cuisinart peel the potatoes before hand

2 tablespoons dried oregeno

Garnish

2 tablespoons minced fresh mint

a few green leek tops

Serves 4

Procedure

Stuffing

Melt the butter and olive oil together in a large sauce pan over medium high heat. Add the leeks, onions, celery and garlic saute for about 15 minutes or until the onions are becoming clear. Then add the spinach. Cover the pan briefly to steam the spinach and cause it to wilt. Once the spinach has wilted completely it's done. Salt and pepper to taste. Remove the onion, leek mixture from the saucepan and place it in a large bowl. Add the mint and toss. Set this aside covered on a countertop and let it cool.

Sauce

Boil the potatoes in salted water until tender; approximately 15 minutes. (The cooking time really depends upon how small you dice the potatoes.) After the potatoes are tender (potatoes are tender when you can insert a fork and it pulls out easily) drain and return them to the pot. Add the mushroom broth and oregeno and reheat the mixture. When it is simmering turn off the heat and liquify the ingredients. I use a hand blender but you can also pour it into a cuisinart in batches. If you don't have a cuisinart or hand blender just mash the potatoes throughly and use a wire wisk to incorporate the ingredients.

After the sauce is throughly mixed add the heavy cream and re-heat. If you add the cream before blending you'll end up with some kind of potato whipped cream which would not be nice at all.

Assembly

Divide the pasta dough in half. Roll out the pasta dough into two thin sheets 12 inches by 18 inches. It helps to make one sheet of pasta slightly large than the other. The larger pasta sheet will become the top. Lay the smaller sheet onto a floured flat surface. Scoop small mounds of the leek/mint mixture onto the smaller pasta sheet. Use small scoops and put them about the width of your pinky finger apart. This will be useful later when sealing the dough around the mounds with the edge of your hand.

The next part can be tricky. You need to moisten the pasta between the mounds of stuffing. The moistened pasta dough will stick togther with a bit of preasure. I use a pastry brush dipped in water to moisen the dough. If you have a small pump sprayer filled with water that will work too. Just don't spray the stuffing with water.

Once the dough is moistened place the second, larger piece of dough on top. Use the edge of your hand to press the dough together around the mounds of stuffing. Push firmly and seal the edges tightly. The last step is to cut the dough into individual ravioli squares. You can use a pizza cutter or a knife if you don't have a pasta dough cutter.

Finish

Boil 4 quarts of water in a large pot with 1 tablespoon salt. Drop in all the raviolis all at once. Boil for about 3 minutes. When they are cooked they will float to the surface.

Drain the raviolis and place them in serving bowls. Ladle the potato sauce over the raviolis and garnish with the remaining mint. Leek tops can also be used to garnish. In the picture you see long strips that are just there to make a better photo. You can serve them like that or you could cut them into little diamond shaped confetti.

Tricks

After you seal the ravioli edges allow them to dry out slightly. If the raviolis are wet on the edges when they go into the boiling water they are more likely to come apart. To dry them out, put the raviolis on wax paper and leave them in a cool dry place uncovered.

Rolling out pasta dough by hand sucks. There is just no other way to describe it. If you can afford it get a mechanical pasta roller. If not find a friend to ply with beer and take turns rolling out the dough

It helps to have a ravioli form. If you can afford it get one. I do mine by hand and I always have a few break in the boiling water. A ravioli form will pretty much guarantee the quality of your ravioli.

The mushroom broth I used is from a Japanese grocery here in San Francisco. The product is called Telma. If you can't find it where you are at and you don't want to use chicken broth you could use dehydrated Porcini mushrooms and use the broth from reconsittuting the mushrooms. I'd leave the mushrooms in when you blend the sauce.