Poached Egg Ravioli (Food Memories of 2011, No. 9)
A few months ago, I started volunteering at the Brooklyn Kitchen as an assistant for cooking classes. About once a month, I hang out during a three-hour cooking class and help the instructor. It's lightweight work, made easier by the fact that I worked in food service for years and years. I feel very comfortable in a working kitchen.
One of the first classes I assisted in was a homemade pasta class. I've made pasta at home before, many times, but I did pick up some new tricks from the instructor. In the class, we made hand-cut linguine, pasta machine-cut linguine, gnocchi, and cheese ravioli. We also made one special ravioli that had an egg yolk nested in the center. The ravioli has to be gigantic for the egg to fit, so they are comically big, which I think is makes it all the more fun on the plate. You can find the recipe for poached egg ravioli here.
I fell in love with this concept immediately, as there's nothing better in my book than a warm, runny egg yolk. A few days after the class, Boyfriend and I made poached egg raviolis at home and served them on top of a big sloppy dinner salad. Cut into the ravioli, and the yolk spills out to create a dressing over the greens.