Semi-Homemade Italian Sausage and Cheese Ravioli Then Manicotti

I had been wanting to make some ravioli from wonton wrappers for a while and finally decided to take the plunge for supper with Eliza and her parents.  I looked around the web and found the recipe for Homemade Italian Sausage and Cheese Ravioli on the Ashlee Marie blog.  Since I wanted to ensure plenty of filling, I increased the filling ingredients by 50% otherwise, I followed the filling recipe.  Since I'd never done this before, I bought both wonton and egg roll wrappers to experiment with.  I made a few then Wende made the bulk of them.

Homemade Italian Sausage and Cheese Ravioli – Adapted from Ashlee Marie

Ingredients:

Filling

1½ lbs Italian sausage

2¼ cups onion diced

1½ Tbsp garlic optional crushed

23 oz ricotta

3/8 cup parmesan

3/8 cub chopped fresh parsley

¾ tsp Italian seasoning

3/8 tsp sage

1/8 tsp nutmeg

3/4 tsp salt

3/8 tsp pepper

1 pkg wonton wrappers

1 pkg egg roll wrappers

Instructions:

In a skillet fry the Italian sausage, onion and if desired garlic

Once cooked pour the sausage mixture into the food processor and puree (it didn’t actually puree for me but got pretty fine).

In a bowl mix the ricotta, Parmesan, parsley, spices and the sausage mixture.

Let wrappers come to room temperature.

For the wonton wrappers, we made some with a top and bottom sheet and some by folding over one sheet and sealing the edges with warm water.

For the egg roll wrappers, we used our 3” dumpling/empanada maker by adding a tbsp of filling, sealing with water, forming then cutting off the excess dough.  At first, we cut the dough circles to fit the maker but found it worked better to trim after forming.

I cooked a few for practice and found them to be too delicate for much handing and I ended up cooking them in two-serving batches in our pasta pan.  After cooking, I removed the insert from the water and set on the pan top at an angle to drain for a minute or so, then slowly poured them into our bowls.

Then, I topped them with a ladle of Rao’s Marinara and fresh grated parmesan.

The Verdict:

We all thought they were very good and ate every one but I like thicker pasta for my ravioli.  And since Bev likes to make pasta anyway, our next ones will be made using our pasta machine – the day before the cleaning lady comes as it makes a pretty big mess.

We had a cup and a half of leftover ravioli filling so I mixed it with some cheese manicotti filling, using the recipe below, and made manicottis using seven homemade crepes.

Cheese Manicotti Filling

1 cup ricotta

1 cup Italian cheese blend

¼ cup parmesan

1 tbsp parsley

1 tsp Italian seasoning

¼ tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

Then I made crepes using our go-to recipe (https://bigdudesramblings.blogspot.com/2018/02/spinach-and-ham-manicotti.html)  from the "Plain Chicken" blog.

I made a dish of manicotti, covered them with Rao's and baked for 30 minutes then added mozzarella and baked for 15 more minutes. I plated and topped with more sauce, if needed, for a delicious meal.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them and the blue words are links. 

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

6/9 & 10/24 meal date