Oyster Mushrooms and Italian Sausage Ravioli

Copyright 2013 LtDan'sKitchen blogs

I used to make ravioli when I still lived in the US. For one, Italian sausage is easy to find in the grocery stores be it in casings or just in bulk. Here where I live, they are only found in major supermarkets or gourmet shops so that they become too expensive to use in regular cooking. Thus, I decided to make my own version with the help of Emeril Lagasse's recipe. Now, I'm not a big fan of the BAM! guy but he does have some really good recipes every now and then and this is one of them. I made a ton of this mild Italian sausage only to drop my bowl so I basically used only about a pound of what should have been 6 pounds of homemade Italian sausage. My dog had a feast that very same day though!

I used a new recipe I found online for the dough since I did not want to use my pasta machine. Overall, it was a simple recipe which tasted great. The dough when cooked was soft and light and most importantly, held its shape. For the filling, I combined the Italian sausage I made with fresh mushrooms and for a final touch, bathed them in my homemade tomato ragu. In a word, delish!

Oyster Mushrooms and Italian - Adapted*

Filling:
1 lb of mild Italian sausage
2 cups fresh oyster mushroom, diced
1 small onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper

1. In a small pan, heat the olive oil over medium high heat. Saute the onions 
    and garlic until softened. Season with salt and pepper. 

2. Add the sausage and cook until it loses its pink color. Turn off the heat and
    let it cool. 

3. Add the fresh mushrooms and mix well. Set aside. 

To prepare the ravioli:

1. Prepare the tomato ragu (spaghetti sauce) as directed. Keep at a simmer 
    when you are ready to cook the ravioli.

2. Prepare the ravioli dough as per instructions on the link provided. Use a 
    teaspoon of the filling above for each ravioli. Store the extra filling in the 
    freezer for later use. You cam make about 25-30 ravioli pieces for one 
    batch of dough.

3. Boil a pot of water and season with a tablespoon of salt. Once boiling, drop
    4-5 ravioli pieces and allow them to cook in the boiling water. They will 
    float when they are cooked. Fish them out and transfer them into the 
    simmering tomato ragu. Cook the rest of the ravioli.

4. To serve, plate out about 6 ravioli pieces per person and garnish with 
    chopped parsley leaves and a good sprinkling of parmesan cheese.