So, as a gift, I received a pasta maker for Father’s day and I have long thought that I could use it to make an interesting dessert. I have to say, after a bit of trial and error, I think I have figured it out.
The Sauce
The first thing I figured out how to do was to make a vanilla cream sauce. It’s actually kind of a custard and the recipe for it is here:
https://www.thespruceeats.com/vanilla-custard-sauce-3056247
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar or light brown sugar (packed)
- 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
- Pinch ground nutmeg or cinnamon
- 1 large egg
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 1/2 cups milk or half-and-half
- Dash salt
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Steps to Make It
- Gather the ingredients.
- In a medium saucepan, combine the brown sugar, flour, nutmeg or cinnamon, the egg, melted butter, milk, and salt. Whisk until well blended and then place the pan over medium heat.
- Cook, whisking constantly until the mixture has thickened and coats the back of a spoon. To test, dip a spoon in the thickened mixture and turn it over. Run a finger down the back of a spoon. If the mixture does not run into the path your finger made, the sauce is done.
- Place a mesh sieve over a bowl and strain the sauce through it. Stir the vanilla into the sauce and refrigerate until serving time.
- Serve and enjoy!
Dough
That part was pretty easy. The next part was the dough. It turns out that what works best is pretty much a straight pasta recipe for homemade ravioli. I used this one from the NYT Cooking site as a start (details below):
https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/9355-pasta-dough-for-ravioli
INGREDIENTS (I added the sugar)
- 2 cups all-purpose flour, or more as needed
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons of sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 2 large egg yolks
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
PREPARATION
- Combine flour and salt in a large bowl, making a well in the middle. In a small bowl, beat together the eggs, egg yolks and olive oil, then pour into the well in the flour. Mix with the fork until the flour begins to clump together. When the mixture becomes too hard to stir with a fork, use your hands. Knead dough in the bowl or on a lightly floured board until it is quite stiff and no longer sticky. Sprinkle with a little flour. Cover with plastic or a cloth, and let it rest for about 30 minutes.
- Lightly sprinkle a wooden board with flour. Cut off one-third of the dough; keep the rest covered while you work. Roll the dough lightly in flour, then flatten it into a rectangle about the width of your hand. Roll a rolling pin over the dough up and down, left and right. Flip the dough over about every two dozen rolls. If the dough sticks, dust with more flour. Repeat until the pasta is roughly 24 inches in length and 8 inches wide. Dust with flour and set aside; repeat with remaining dough.
- To form jackets for ravioli, cut each sheet of dough into rectangles about 24 inches long and 4 inches wide, trimming edges neatly.
Filling
For the filling, I tried to make a ricotta and raspberry blend, but it didn’t work. They cooked up just fine, but the flavor was too mild and it didn’t stand up to the ravioli crust.
What worked, was using two whole raspberries and two whole blueberries. They gave it a good shape and had just enough tartness to work with the vanilla cream sauce and the crunchy shells.
Cooking
I used peanut oil at 325-350 degrees and the shells cooked really fast. Then dust with powdered sugar and you are there.
It took a little trial and error, but I think it made for a fun dessert. Of course next time, I can skip the steps that didn’t work as well.