Beggar's Purse

I love to make fresh Raviolis. There is something about hiding the filling in pasta and presenting it like a gift. My favorite shape to make is the Beggar's Purse.

For the Chamber of Commerce Dinner, I did a Regular Pasta with a Pumpkin Filling.
For the Cowboy Artist Museum Dinner, I did a Regular Pasta with a Ricotta-Mushroom Filling.
And for the Oceaneering Dinner, I did a side-by-side of Regular Pasta with the Pumpkin Filling and a Spinach Pasta with the Ricotta-Mushroom Filling.


All of them were served with a Brown Butter Sage Sauce, which is a traditional pasta sauce & a perfect Fall sauce.

First I made two Fresh Pasta Doughs: Regular & Spinach.

I then took a bunch of chives and blanched them in boiling salted water for about 30 seconds and then shocked them in ice water.


I then made the 2 fillings.

For the pumpkin filling, I used:
1 1/2 Cup Heavy Cream
1 1/2 15oz Cans Pumpkin Puree
1T Minced Fresh Sage
1 to 1 1/2 Cup Parmesan Cheese
2 Eggs
Salt

I took a saucepan and heated up the heavy cream until it started to simmer. I turned off the heat & added in the pumpkin puree and the sage and mixed it around.


Next, I added the Parmesan cheese till I liked the thickness. I tasted it, adjusted the salt & then added the eggs.


I put it in the fridge and let it cool.

For the Mushroom-Ricotta Filling, I used:
Generic Plain Mushrooms, about 2 pounds
Vegetable Oil
1 1/2 Containers 15oz Ricotta Cheese
1 1/2 Cups Parmesan Cheese
1/2 Cup Heavy Cream
Salt
2 Eggs

I diced up the mushrooms & put them in a bowl.


I got a sauté pan very hot and added the vegetable oil. I then sauted up the mushrooms.


I put the mushrooms into another bowl and let it cool slightly.


Next, I added the ricotta cheese, the heavy cream, & the parmesan cheese.



I then stirred it all around, tasted it, and adjusted the salt. I then added the two eggs, stirred it, and then put it in the refrigerator to cool.

To finish making the pasta, I used a kitchenaid pasta roller.

I divided the pasta into 4 equal portions.


If you are new at making pasta, you may want to first start out with smaller pieces till you get used to working with them. I kept the other pieces covered so they wouldn't dry out.

I got my bench nice and dusted with flour.


I then took my small piece of pasta, flattened it out, dusted it with flour and started running it through the pasta roller on the widest setting.


I like to fold over the pasta, dust it with flour, and continue to run it through the roller until I like the strength & feel of the dough.


Then I started rolling it out thinner and thinner, by adjusting the setting after each run through.




I rolled it all the way to the second to last setting on the pasta roller. On my machine, it goes to 8, so I rolled it to 7. I then laid the thin pasta on the dusted bench and started cutting it into somewhat equal squares.



Next, I put the filling on the pasta squares.




And then I hand brushed a little water on the outside of the pasta.



Then, I fold over the pasta and sealed it, careful to not have any air pockets.




Then, very carefully, I pulled both of the sides upward to form the bag shape.




From there the beggar's purses are tied with the blanched chives with a simple double knot.



The beggar's purses are placed on a sheet pan that has parchment paper and has been heavily floured. I refrigerated them until I was ready to cook them.


I make the brown butter sage sauce about 30 minutes before I am ready to serve. Butter has three parts: Milk Solids, Butter Fat, & Water. If you melt the butter, you can see it separate into these three parts. The solids tend to rise to the surface, and the water tend to go to the bottom.

At a certain point, while heating butter, the milk solids will start to cook and they will turn brown, and if cooked too long, burn. This is why many chefs will clarify butter if they are going to fry with it, so that they can cook at a much higher temperature without worrying about the milk solids burning.

Brown butter has a nutty flavor that goes great with pastas and fish.

So to make the sauce, I melted the butter and cooked it until the solids started to brown.


I turned the heat off completely and add some fresh sage that I chiffonaded.


And then whisked it around.


To make the pasta, I got a large pot of water boiling. I salted it very well. I can't really express how important it is to salt the water. The water should taste like the sea. The pasta should taste flavorful, on its own, even without sauce. If the water has no salt in, the pasta will be bland and will rely on the filling and sauce for its flavor.

I cut off the heat and gently placed them in the water, probably 12 at a time.


I cooked them for maybe a minute & a half and then carefully took them out of the water & onto the plates.


And then finished by spooning the sauce on top.

Fresh Pasta

Whenever I cook for a dinner party, I love doing a fresh pasta for the first course. In Italy, dry pasta is not considered inferior to fresh pasta. It is just considered different. However, here, we mostly eat dry pasta & we rarely get to eat the fresh stuff. So, serving fresh has quite a bit more value.

The past 3 dinner parties I made a simple regular pasta.

In a mixing bowl, I put in:
3 Cups of A.P. Flour
3 Eggs
1T Salt
1/2 Cup Water



And I started to mix it around:





At this point, I determined my dough was still too wet, and added another half a cup of flour.


It is easy to work more flour into a dough that is too soft, too wet. It is much harder to work water into a dough that is too dry. So, I generally like to start my doughs out a little wetter than a recipe calls for & gradually add in more flour.

After the dough had come together, I put it out on a bench, dusted it with more flour, and started to knead it.



I kneaded it for about 15-20 minutes, slowly working more flour in until I liked the feel. I work the flour in just until it loses its stickiness & then knead it to form the gluten. Then I cover it with a towel & let it sit for 5 minutes.


Then I kneaded it for a couple more minutes till it was nice and smooth.


I then wrapped it in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge.


The dough needs to rest for at least 30 minutes. I generally like to do the dough the day before and let it sit overnight in the refrigerator.


I also made a fresh spinach pasta.

Spinach pasta has a very neutral flavor. It tastes exactly like regular pasta, but the spinach is used for color alone.

I started by getting a sauce pan of salted water boiling. You want the water to taste like the sea whenever you blanch vegetables in it.


I then added a handful of baby spinach leaves for about 30 - 40 seconds.


And then removed the leaves from the water and shocked them in an ice bath.


After the spinach was completely cooled, I drained it & squeezed out most of the water in it.


I put the spinach in a food processor with 3 eggs, 1T salt, and 1/2C water.


And then I blended it until it was nice and smooth.


I put 3 1/2 Cups of flour in a mixing bowl and added the spinach liquid to it.


And I started to mix it & work it just as I did with the regular pasta dough.