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Shrimp Ravioli with Green Pepper Curry and Coconut Broth
This recipe is based almost entirely on a really good Tom Ka Gai soup.Sometimes I get tired of the same old thing and raviolis can fall into that category. Tomato sauce and cheese filled raviolis are a staple of school lunch lines and cheap eats everywhere. But, there is no reason they have to be so boring. In a fit of boredom I construed this recipe based almost entirely on a really good Tom Ka Gai soup with shrimp dumplings from my favorite Thai place in San Francisco.
For raviolis to feel right and not be like a soup the sauce needs to be fairly thick. In this case I just reduced the sauce for a couple of minutes. It's still fairly thin but I like it. I don't see why a corn starch thickener wouldn't work nicely or even a blonde roux. I haven't tried that yet but I will the next time I make this. If it rocks I'll pass on the hint.
Ingredients
Conversions to European measurements can be found here!
Pasta and Stuffing
Coconut Broth
Garnish
Serves 4
Procedure
Stuffing
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Begin by roasting the heads of garlic. Cut the tips off the garlic heads and coat them with olive oil. Wrap them up individualy in tin foil and leave the tops slightly open to allow some steam to vent. The opening should be slightly smaller than your pinky finger. Leave the garlic to roast in the oven for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes remove the garlic heads, leave them in the tin foil on a counter somewhere, and allow them to cool slowly for an additional 30 minutes. They will continue cooking during this time.
While your garlic is roasting peel the potatoes and drop them into boiling salted water. Allow the potatoes to cook for 10 to 15 minutes depending upon the size of the potatoes. You'll know they are done when you can slide a fork into them and it pulls out without any resistance. When they are done, drain the potatoes and return them to the pot.
Remove the roasted garlic from the garic skins. It's pretty easy to get the roasted garlic out of the skins by breaking off the individual cloves and squeezing the clove out through the cut end. Drop the roasted garlic straight into the pot with the cooked potatoes.
Add a pinch of salt and pepper and the heavy cream and mash the entire mixture until its very smooth.
Sauce
Add all the sauce ingredients (sun dried tomatoes, basil, pine nuts, etc) to a kitchen blender/cuisinart. Blend until smooth.
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 potato/ garlic 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 return them to the pot. Mix in the sun dried tomato pesto and toss gently to coat. Remove the seasoned raviolis to a serving dish and sprinkle with the garnish
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.
If the only sun dried tomatoes you can find are packed in oil they'll work fine. Just don't add any additional oil. Just use the oil the tomatoes are packed in instead.