Three Cheese Lemon Ravioli with Pea Shoot Pesto

Several weeks ago I picked up some pea shoots at the farmer's market and scoured the internet for a way to prepare them.  All I could find was sauteing them with bacon much like you would spinach.  I didn't want to just eat them like that and decided I would try them in a pesto as you can use any green that isn't to heavy.  Of course I needed something to have the pesto with and decided I would make cheese ravioli.  I wasn't sure what the pesto would taste like as I had never had pea shoots.  I tasted the leaves and the stems raw and decided I needed to pick the leaves off and discard the stems as they tasted really green.  More green than I wanted to eat.  The leaves were nice and soft tasting with a little sweetness.  DH is always a doubter when it comes to trying something new but he had to admit that the ravioli and pesto was the best part of the entire meal.

Three Cheese Lemon Ravioli with Pea Shoot Pesto

(Serves 2)

printable recipe

Ingredients:

1.    8 wonton wrappers

2.   15 oz ricotta cheese

3.   Zest of 1 lemon

2.   1 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese

3.   1 cup grated mozzarella cheese

4.   2 large eggs

5.   1 teaspoon dried crushed rosemary leaves

6.   2 cups pea shoot leaves

7.   1 cup parsley

8.   2 cloves garlic

9.   Light olive oil

10. salt and pepper

Directions:

1.  Place the pea shoot leaves, parsley, garlic, pine nuts and salt and pepper in the food processor and pulse until minced finely.

2.  Drizzle the olive oil in while the food processor is running until the pesto is the proper consistency.  Set aside.

3.  In a medium sized bowl mix the cheese, lemon zest, eggs and crushed rosemary until combined.

4.  Lay out a sheet of wax paper and place the wonton wrappers on it.

5.  Place about 1 teaspoon of the cheese mixture in the center of the wrapper.

6.  Wet all two opposite sides of the wrapper and bring all four corners to the center to meet pinching the edges to seal.

7.  Heat a pot of heavily salted water to a rapid boil.

8.  Meantime place the pesto in a small saucepan and heat thoroughly.

9.  Cook the ravioli about 4 minutes once the water has come to a rolling boil.  Drain and serve with heated pesto.

Farmer's Market Noodles

I am reorganizing my office at work and so I had to work this weekend.  After the Farmer's Market and then breakfast I spent about 4 hours at the office and was ready for lunch when I got home about 2:00pm.  Since my DH and I were going to eat with friends for dinner at 6:00, I didn't want to eat a big lunch, just something to knock down the hunger pangs.  I'm trying to use up all the produce I've gotten from the farmer's market in the last couple of weeks and decided I would do something similar to a lomein.  I didn't have any of the right noodles but I did have a container of ramen noodles.  I julienned carrots, broccoli rabe and diced up some green garlic.  I sauteed all that and added the ramen noodles and some chicken broth.  I still had some ham steak from the market and diced up some of that.  I let all that simmer until the sauce had thickened a little and the noodles were fully cooked.  It tasted pretty good and the hunger was sated until dinner.

Farmer's Market Noodles

(Serves 1)

printable recipe

Ingredients:

1. A package Ramen Noodles (or other type) sauce pack discarded

2. 1/2 cup julienned carrots

3. 1 cup julienned broccoli rabe

4. 1/2 cup diced green garlic

5. 1 cup diced ham

6. 1 cup chicken broth

7. salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Saute the vegetables until soft.

2. Add in the diced ham until cooked through.

3. Add in the noodles from the ramen noodle package.

4. Add 1 cup chicken broth.

5. Let simmer until the sauce is thick and the noodles are soft.

Farmer's Market Week Three

I didn't make it to BW's until 7:05am.  Luckily she was ready and we didn't need to stop for cash so we got to the market in time to pick up some asparagus from our CSA.  Since I didn't do much cooking this week, I still have quite a bit of produce left.  I didn't want to get alot of items and decided just to pick up from our CSA.  As we were walking through the market BW and I saw some leeks.  I've never cooked with these and decided they would be my "new" item from the market.  After having breakfast we decided to shop at Petty's Fine Foods and I found celeriac.  I have wanted to try this and have never been able to find it.  So I snagged one very quickly.

This week I picked up the following (items I've never tried are indicated):

1. Asparagus
2. Spinach
3. Leeks (new)
4. Green Garlic
5. Celeriac (Celery Root) (new)

And now a rant.

After we shop at the market we always go for breakfast and chose to try the Wild Fork as they just started serving breakfast.  It was really hard to decide what to order as everything sounded so good and the portions described were huge!!  They don't serve a children's menu, nor do they serve 1/2 portions.  If you want an omelet plan on eating three eggs and all the other ingredients included.  The meal was delicious but we could only eat about 1/3 of them.  Since I had to go to work afterwards I decided not to take the remainder of my meal home and knew that it would go to waste.  At the end of the meal we were pretty shocked that we were charged for the to go boxes (BW's and the order she'd gotten to take to her DH).  The price wasn't very much and the boxes were very "green" as they were biodegradable.  Since the Wild Fork is considered an upper class restaurant we never expected to pay for such incidentals especially without this being disclosed at some point during the meal or when the boxes were requested.  My meal (one omelet, one lg orange juice and a soda) was $21 before the tip!!  When we received our credit card receipts there was a little brochure included with the receipt that stated that they were trying to reduce their carbon footprint and to thank us for paying for them to do that.  REALLY!?!  Each portion is enough for three so they know that the majority will be wasted and they want to charge us (more) to decrease their carbon footprint?!?  Aren't they going about this the wrong way?!?  It really soured my meal to find this undisclosed charge on our receipts.  I will probably never eat at this restaurant again just because of a .35 charge per to go box.  I know that is me being unreasonable but after spending $21 per person for an omelet, grits and toast with drinks I don't feel it is necessary to pay to reduce their carbon footprint.  Especially when they've gone to such excess already on my dime.  I plan on calling the manager on Monday to talk about this as I feel that there has to be other people who feel the same way I do.  Maybe not.