Asparagus Ravioli with Brown Butter Sauce

This dish is one that showed up in my google reader feed from The Bitten Word blog. I emailed it off to Brit and she enthusiastically responded a little hour later that we should make it. The amazing thing about the blog entry is that it described a manner of making home-made ravioli without having to actually make the pasta. Instead, the author of the blog had read the original recipe in the April/May 2011 of Fine Cooking and decided to try and make the ravioli with wonton wrappers. Brit and I also thought the idea of using wonton wrappers would be great, but unfortunately couldn't find any at our usual supermarkets (like with the yakisoba noodles). We could only find egg roll wrappers at Whole Foods and decided to take the risk. Corey joined us for dinner and showed up just in time to help make some of the ravioli. A team of people to physically make the ravioli made it go a lot faster.

Asparagus Ravioli with Brown Butter Sauce(adapted from The Bitten Word's blog entry)

Serves 3-4

1 large bunch of asparagus, cut into 1-in pieces with spears and tips separated
6 tbsp mascarpone
1/3 cup whole milk ricotta
1/4 cup grated parmigiano-reggiano + additional cheese as a garnish
1 tsp anchovy paste (we also couldn't find anchovy paste at the store so we minced an anchovy)
1/2 tsp garlic, minced
Pinch cayenne pepper
Salt and pepper
~ 13 egg roll wrappers, cut in half
4 oz butter
1/2 cup blanched almonds, chopped well (I blanched the almonds myself)
Grated lemon zest

The almonds were blanched by boiling 2 minutes in well-salted water and then placing into ice-water. Once cool, the skin of the almond was easily peeled off and discarded.

The asparagus tips and spears were cooked separately in the same manner as the almonds. Boil for 2-3 minutes in well-salted water and then transfer to ice-water until cool. Set the tips aside, but dry the spears and finely chop 1-1/2 cups worth. If there are any remaining spears, add them to the tips.
Mix the chopped asparagus with the marscarpone, ricotta, parmigiano, anchovy paste, garlic, and cayenne. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Put about 1 tbsp of the filling in the middle of each halved wrapper. Use as many wrappers as needed to use up all of the filling. Wet a finger in a bowl of water and trace along the outside of one entire half of the wrapper. Fold the wrapper on itself, push out as much air as possible and pinch the ends together to seal the wrapper. I've made wontons and dumplings with my chinese labmates and I'm always blown away by how easy they make them and how nice they look. My wontons, dumplings, and ravioli all look quite boring, but they do the trick. By the way, if not all of the wontons are to be cooked that day, they can be placed in the fridge under a damp cloth.

Boil the ravioli in well-salted water for about 1-2 minutes or until the ravioli float. Transfer to a bowl. Meanwhile, melt the butter in a saucepan (supposed to be in a skillet) and add the almonds. Shake the pan and stir until the butter turns light brown (5-10 minutes). Immediately transfer to a small bowl.
Serve the ravioli with the brown butter sauce and garnish with lemon zest, pepper, more asparagus spears, and some parmigiano-reggiano cheese.




I still can't believe we made home-made ravioli! Wasn't the easiest thing in the world, but there are some modifications I would make to the recipe that would make it go a lot faster and easier. First of all, the ravioli were delicious, but the butter sauce was underwhelming. We'd stick to a simple red sauce next time. As for the asparagus, I'm still not sure why the tips and spears were cooked separately and why the tips were not included in the filling. I would just cook them all and chop it all up together. A food processor would have also made the chopping go a lot faster. This is my first time personally cooking with egg roll wrappers so I'm unsure if it's a property of those wrappers, or would be similar with the wontons, but the ravioli stuck together when cooled in the bowl and were nearly impossible to separate. So, directly transfer to the bowl you'll be eating from. Overall though, a fantastic dish and I still can't believe we made home-made ravioli!