Looks Delic
These little pillows of turkey and cranberry goodness coated in a creamy shallot gravy are the perfect way to put a new twist on Thanksgiving dinner.
At Thanksgiving time I eat turkey more often than I care to admit. My husband and I are those people that celebrate Thanksgiving with different groups of friends and family for weeks leading up to the actual holiday. By the time we get to Thanksgiving we are sometimes a little sick of eating turkey. So now I’ve been testing out some new ways to get all of the Thanksgiving feels from recipes that are a little less traditional but still packed with the same ingredients we know and love for Thanksgiving.
The Recipe
This recipe from Food Network chef Giada De Laurentiis is for a homemade ravioli stuffed with ground turkey, cranberry sauce, parmesan cheese and parsley. And like all traditional turkey recipes, it’s served coated in a rich shallot gravy.
Both the ravioli filling and the gravy are incredibly easy to make and take only a few minutes to come together. The ravioli themselves can be a different story though.
Giada’s recipe suggests using store bought wanton wrappers as the ravioli dough. I’ve given this a try and they do come out pretty good. The wonton wrappers are without a doubt, a huge time saver. The wrappers tend to be a little thinner and more delicate than pasta dough which compliments the stuffing really nicely too. The wonton wrappers are easy to work with and make ravioli stuffing process a breeze. The one downside I encountered was that during boiling, some of the raviolis stuck together and then tore apart when trying to gently separate them. It’s a small problem to have when you’re piling a big ‘ole helping on the plate anyway?
How to Make Turkey Cranberry Ravioli
As a result of the ravioli sticking together when testing the recipe with wanton wrappers, I decided to try my hand at making pasta dough.
When I tell people I make homemade pasta they immediately think “I could never do that.” They are so wrong. Making homemade pasta is easy as long as you have the tools and time to do it. The most important tool you’ll need is a pasta roller. I used this attachment for my KitchenAid stand mixer. This little miracle worker screws into the front of the stand mixer with one screw and no other set up. Once you have that, the process is simple.
I use Tyler Florence’s ravioli dough recipe. The recipe is detailed and easy for a first time pasta maker to follow (which I appreciate so much!) Because the process (making the dough, resting the dough, assembling the ravioli) takes some time, about 2 in hours from start to finish, I break my active cooking time into manageable segments.
This morning I made the pasta dough around 9am. I let it rest on the counter until I had time to roll it out, around 1pm. Then I rolled the sheets and assembled my ravioli. I dusted them in flour and placed them on a parchment lined baking sheet and popped the try in the refrigerator until I was ready to boil the ravioli at dinner time. Breaking it up this way made the process less cumbersome. I mean let’s be honest, there aren’t many days where I have 2 consecutive hours to dedicate to cooking.
Another nice preparation trick is to assemble the ravioli a day or two in advance. Simply dust them in flour and stack them in a sealed Tupperware container with sheets of parchment paper between layers. The ravioli will keep for 2 days in the refrigerator. This not only takes some of the busy work out of your day but gives you time to clean up the mess.
Despite the little bit of mess and the extra effort the homemade pasta dough is, it is completely worth making your own dough. These turkey and cranberry ravioli are a delicious show stopper of a dish and once you get the hang of making the pasta dough you’ll be hunting for more stuffing recipes.
I served my ravioli with a side of sausage bread and a green salad. If you try Giada’s recipe let me know in the comments below. Did you make pasta dough or use wanton wrappers? Have question about making the dough? Ask me! I would love to hear all about what you think. Enjoy!
