This is so good.
Mushroom Ravioli with Sage Butter Sauce – yum. I had forgotten how wonderful ravioli can be. I’m not talking Chef Boyardee from a can. I’m talking homemade ravioli where care is taken with each element of the dish – the pasta, the filling, the sauce. But then I ordered mushroom ravioli at Fenton River Grille, one of our local restaurants, and I suddenly remembered. Their ravioli haunts my sleep when there are left-overs in the fridge from the night before. Even the left-overs deserve care, a gentle re-heating. This is not a dish that you eat cold out of the take-out container. I was sad that I couldn’t try to make it at home. Because, you know, Ron is gluten-intolerant. It would be too much trouble to try to make ravioli from scratch just for just me, but I’ve ordered it every time it’s been on the menu at Fenton River.
Then we went to our friend Richard‘s for dinner. He served gluten-free pasta, and we brought a loaf of sourdough bread. Richard is gluten-intolerant as well, but he bravely tried our bread based on Ron’s assurance that the gluten is disarmed in the fermentation process. It was a memorable evening. Richard texted me the next day to let me know that he didn’t have any problems with the bread and he was wondering if I had ever thought of fermenting pasta dough. I hadn’t, because I assumed that even if I used sourdough starter, I’d be using so much additional unfermented flour that it wouldn’t do the trick. Then I started reading about it, and learned that some people, including ThePantryMama, suggest letting the dough fully ferment. Wow, wow, wow! Grazie, Richard!
Let’s start with the pasta. You can make Mushroom Ravioli with Sage Butter Sauce using store-bought pasta sheets, but if you maintain a sourdough starter, it’s much tastier to just make your own Fermented Pasta Dough. I mix up the dough the night before and let it ferment overnight. This pasta dough is unbelievably easy to work with – your Kitchen Aid mixer and the pasta roller attachment do all of the work!
I could have used any filling, really. Even lobster. But I was inspired by Fenton River, so a mushroom filling was it. I consulted the Fantastic Fungi Community Cookbook and was pleased to find a ravioli recipe, but it used chantarelles, which aren’t easily sourced here, so I just opted to start with white button mushrooms and shallots, keeping it simple. But not after getting lost in the FF Community Cookbook for quite a while. The recipes, Eugenia’s informative essays, and the amazing photography are a worthwhile distraction from whatever you’re doing. It’s so lovely being retired…
But the filling – just mushrooms and shallots. Elemental.
There’s a theme here. The sauce is elemental as well. Butter and sage. A bit of olive oil. It’s worth the time to crisp up some sage leaves for garnish. Ron’s sister, Susan, introduced me to crispy sage leaves. She’s so cheffy. Not in a trendy way, but she knows how to take something simple and make it special without much effort. The sage leaves are crisped in a bit of olive oil, then you add clarified butter (clickable link to instructions on the Serious Eats site) to the infused oil to finish the sauce.
This dish does take some planning, but no real amount of hands-on time, and most of it can be done in advance. The rolling, filling, and cutting of the ravioli is the most time-consuming step in the process. But whether you’re serving if for a simple supper or you’re serving it to guests, you can do all of that in advance. Cooking the ravioli takes less time that it takes for the water to boil. Then you simply deliver each raviolo from the water to the sauce that you made while you were waiting for the pasta water. It’s kind of amazing. And so, so good. I might have to find something else to order at Fenton River Grill next time, something I can’t whip up at home.
Mushroom Ravioli with Sage Butter Sauce
Equipment
- Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer
- Pasta Roller Attachment
Ingredients
PASTA
- 1 batch fermented pasta dough (see note)
MUSHROOM FILLING
- 1 T butter
- 12 ounces white button mushrooms
- 1 shallot
- 1 t dried thyme
SAGE BUTTER SAUCE
- 8 T clarified butter or ghee
- 2 T olive oil
- 10 fresh sage leaves
Instructions
- Make the mushroom filling – Destem and clean the mushrooms. Chop the mushroom caps into a small dice. Mince the shallot. Add the butter to a small pan and sauté the mushrooms, shallot, and thyme until the mushrooms and shallot are very soft and there is very little moisture left in the pan.
- Roll the pasta and fill the ravioli – Divide the dough into 4 pieces. Work with the first piece of dough and wrap the remaining dough in plastic wrap and stash it in the frig until you're ready to roll it out. Flatten the dough and guide it through the pasta roller, set to the widest setting. Fold the dough over and run it back through a time or two, then adjust the setting on the pasta roller to 2. Repeat this process until you've rolled the pasta through the machine on 5 or even 6. (I've read that 6 results in a beautifully thin pasta sheet, which is desirable for ravioli, but it does become more difficult to handle, so I haven't been brave enough to try it yet.) Lay the sheet on the counter and dot the pasta with 1/2 or 1 T of mushroom filling (depending on the size of your pasta sheet) about 1/2 inch from the bottom edge, spaced about 2 inches apart. Fold the top edge down over the filling to meet the bottom edge, and, using your fingers, crimp the dough around each raviolo to seal. Then, using a fluted pasta cutter wheel, cut into ravioli and set them aside. I find that they're not as likely to stick if you place them on a lightly floured kitchen towel or a cooling rack. Let them dry for at least 30 minutes.
- Crisp the sage leaves and make the butter sauce – Heat the olive oil to a large skillet. Once the olive oil is very hot, add the sage leaves in a single layer. They should sizzle when they hit the oil. Cook for one minute, then turn and cook a minute or two longer. The leaves will begin to curl. You're basically searing the moisture out of the leaves. Pull them out of the skillet and lay them on layers of paper towel to drain. Stir the butter or ghee into the infused oil to make the sauce.
- Cook the ravioli – Put a wide pan of water on to boil while you're making the sage butter sauce. Add the ravioli to the pan when it has come to a full boil. Cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring gently. The ravioli will puff up into little pillows and float when they're ready.
- Finish – Using a slotted spoon, scoop the ravioli out of their water bath and into the sage butter sauce. Stir gently to coat. Serve immediately with crispy sage leaves and roasted veg.
Notes
I don’t have a ravioli mold, but I think it would be a worthwhile purchase if I can find one while I’m thrifting…