Lobster Ravioli

by Ann

When thinking of what recipes to post I need to take a step back and ask myself if the average busy person would take the time to prepare the dish I'm writing about.  Today's post is iffy on that account.  With that said, if you want a special occasion dish, Lobster Ravioli will not disappoint.

Most people don't own pasta makers, and really don't need to unless they are like me and love to cook, and get a hefty discount on kitchen gadgets (from my part time job at Sur la Table).  Prior to helping out at a Tuscan-themed cooking class I didn't realize that won ton wrappers can be used to make raviolis. If you want them generously sized, use the whole wrapper for square raviolis, but if that seems too large, fold them in a triangle shape to make a smaller version.  At Sur la Table the only time we get the pasta makers out is for classes that are specifically geared to teach techniques involved in making homemade pasta, which was my inspiration for buying the pasta attachment for the Kitchen Aid mixer.  Since this recipe is lengthy, I will do a post in a couple of weeks specifically about making homemade pasta, and focus on the filling and sauce this time around.

My original goal was to try out my pasta maker for the first time, so I did a Google search for ravioli recipes, and found this one on the blog, Half Baked Harvest. 

The first step was to prepare the seafood.  I got one beautiful lobster tail at Costco that weighed in at just over half a pound.

Before the shell was removed

After the shell was removed

Curious to see how much the shell weighed, I checked it out after removing  it to find that the shell weighed almost nothing.  We still had a half pound of meat.

Steam the shrimp and lobster -- Remove the shrimp as soon as they are done to avoid overcooking.

The butter needs to be cooked until it is a nice dark golden brown...

Then add the seafood....

Ok -- Little photography oversight -- there are no pics of combining the cheese and other ingredients to the seafood, or of making the sauce, but both are pretty straightforward -- just follow the directions on the recipe.  Heck, you would figure out how to do both of those things without written directions!  Moving on to making the raviolis...

Place a small amount of filling and sandwich it between two sheets of pasta or two won ton wrappers.  Be sure to seal edges with an egg wash and tightly press them together to avoid losing the filling in the cooking water.

Don't try to cook too many raviolis at once.  Keep them one layer deep.  Once they float to the top they are ready to gingerly add to the pan with the sauce.

Once all of the raviolis are cooked, lightly coat them with the sauce and put four or five on each plate.  Garnish with fresh chopped parsley and grated Parmesan cheese.

Click here for printable recipe

Lobster Ravioli in Tomato Cream Sauce

Ingredients:

1 pound of fresh pasta dough, or a package of uncooked won ton wrappers
egg wash of 1 beaten egg whisked with 1 T water

8 oz lobster meat
4 oz uncooked shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 stick butter
2 large cloves of garlic, minced
¼ c fresh parsley, chopped fine
1 t lemon juice
½ - 1 t crushed red pepper flakes, dependent upon taste
8 oz whole milk ricotta cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Tomato Cream Sauce:

2 T olive oil
2 T butter
½ medium onion, finely diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 15 oz-can tomato sauce
1 15-oz can diced tomatoes
salt and pepper to taste
1 c heavy cream
¼ c fresh parsley, chopped fine
¼ c freshly grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for serving

Directions:

Place the lobster tail(s) on a cutting board and with a sharp knife, cut through the top shell lengthwise.  Gently pull shell away from the meat.  Using a steamer basket, steam the lobster tail and shrimp.  (The shrimp will cook much faster, and should be removed when done.)  After about five minutes, cut through the lobster tail(s) to see if done, and continue to cook until they are.  Place on cutting board and mince when cool.

To prepare brown butter sauce, place butter in skillet over medium heat and whisk when it bubbles, continuing to cook for 2-3 minutes until a dark golden color.  Remove from heat and add the garlic, continuing to whisk for another 30 seconds.  Add ¼ c chopped parsley, lemon juice, crushed pepper, salt, and pepper. 

Stir chopped lobster and shrimp to the butter mixture.  Add ricotta cheese and set aside.

Prepare the pasta dough, or better yet, get out the won ton wrappers! 

Prepare sauce:

Heat butter and oil over medium heat.  Add onions and sauté for about five minutes, and then add the garlic to cook for another minute. 

Add tomato sauce and diced tomatoes and cook covered for at least thirty minutes, but can simmer longer. Season to taste with salt and pepper.  Smash the tomato pieces down with the back of a wooden spoon after they have cooked a while to create a relatively smooth sauce. Do not add cream until raviolis are cooking.

Pulling it all together:

If using fresh pasta, roll sheets thin and cut into 3-4” squares.

Place about 1 tablespoon of lobster mixture in the center of each square.  Brush edges with egg wash and firmly place a second piece of pasta or won ton wrapper on top, pressing layers together to create a seal.  Transfer onto lightly floured sheet pan until done.  Do not double layer.

Get a large pot of water boiling, and add a generous amount of salt (at least 1 T).

Add cream and ¼ c grated Parmesan to the tomato sauce.

Add raviolis to the rapidly boiling water, enough so they would not be more than one layer deep.  In about two minutes they will float to the top, indicating that they are done.

Drain raviolis and gently place them in the tomato cream sauce pan on a very low simmer.  

Continue to cook additional batch of pasta until done.

Gently fold sauce over pasta.  Carefully remove four or five raviolis to each plate.

Garnish with chopped parsley and additional grated Parmesan.

Yield:  40 large raviolis – with 2 batches of tomato cream sauce.

Lunch is ready!  Sheila and Heather came over for a blog pow-wow, so I made more pasta dough and sauce to use the extra filling.  (The full recipe makes eight generous servings.)

P.S. Our regular readers know that one of my personal blogging goals is to start reviewing products on posts.  (Free stuff!  Topics to write about!)  This past Tuesday I wrote my first post based upon a product provided to me as a blogger.  If you missed it and want to check it out, click here.