Pot au Feu Ravioli
Sunday’s Pot au Feu was pretty disappointing but having all those leftovers started the gears turning in the old noggin. As a matter of fact, I was downright excited about taking those boring remains and trying to make something delicious with it.
I started mulling over what to do with it immediately after dinner, going over permutations with M and finally decided on homemade ravioli using the meats for filling and a sauce with the broth. With that known, I strained the foods & herbs from the broth, removed the meat from the bones and packaged up 4 containers of liquid, bones, meat & veggies and put them in the fridge.
The next morning I roasted the bones in the oven, then threw those into the defatted stock along with fresh carrots, celery, the uncooked leek greens from the day before, a new handful of fresh parsley, 2 bay leaves & several sprigs of thyme and set it all on simmer with the lid off for the rest of the day, filling the house with its wonderful aroma.
While the stock was busy becoming a pseudo-demi-glace, I thought about what to do for the filling.
I got out the Cuisinart and added a about 1.5 c of the meat (oxtail, veal shank & short ribs) , a handful of walnuts and about 2 tbsp of grated Parmesan with salt and pepper to taste and did a coarse chop. Added some of the cooked carrots and celeriac to smooth out the texture and add some sweetness to the filling. This combination was DELICIOUS. We wanted to keep eating it straight out of the Cuisinart with a spoon.
That evening I quickly made some pasta dough, one of my favorite cooking tasks, then cranked it out into sheets. D helped form the ravioli, meticulously brushing the pasta sheets with eggwhites (remains from the pot de creme recipe), scooping the meat with a melon baller and pressing them firmly closed with his fingers and slicing them into individual ravioli with the dough scraper.
Once the pasta was ready, I put a huge pot of water on to boil. In a saucepan I melted butter and added the marrow from the veal shank. When this started to sizzle, I added some fresh, cut up shitake mushrooms and let that cook for a few minutes. Then I added a few ladles of our concentrated stock, a splash of red wine and dinner was ready.
The sauce was decadent, with a depth of flavor I don’t think I’ve acheived in a sauce before. The assorted bones and veggies from the pot au feu made a superior stock! Unfortunately, while the filling was tasty, it didn’t really work well with the dish texture-wise.
It was just too dry and really needed more moisture in the form of roasted veggies or gooey cheese or maybe just more cooked carrots & celeriac. Everything from the meat to nuts to cheese choices inflicted a dry papery texture to the silky pasta and luscious sauce that didn’t work. It wasn’t something we noticed eating it on it’s own so I think we’ll use the rest of the filling as a spread for bread.
So if and when you decide to make this, either eat the filling separately as a spread or add more smoothness and moisture before filling the ravioli. It’s a promising dish but definitely needs tweakage.
Filling:
2 c. pafl (pot au feu leftover) meats, bones removed
1/2 pafl carrot
1/2 pafl celeriac
handful walnuts
2 tbsp parmesano romano
2 eggwhites
salt & pepper to taste
How to Make Homemade Pasta Dough
