Fun with Italian Parsley

Did you know that Italian flat-leaf parsley will survive a winter?  I happened to be in the backyard, when I noticed a lot of dark vibrant green leaves in my small herb/tomato garden. When I got closer, I discovered it was the parsley that I had planted last spring. I had no idea it would survive freezing temperatures. Now what will I do with all this parsley?

Sunset magazine had the solution for me. Parsley Ravioli! I read over the ingredients and the steps, seems doable and I definitely had the parsley. This will be an interesting project for dinner. I need one cup of finely chopped parsley and a half cup of parsley leaves. I head out to the garden to clip some parsley. I wonder how much to cut. I figure I’d better get quite a bit. There really aren’t so many leaves on a stem. So I clip some from this side. I clip some from that side. Maybe a little more. I bring it in to wash it off.

Washing the parsley

Do you think I have enough? Now it is all wet which makes it stick to everything. I pull leaves off and put them into the spinner to remove the water before I begin the chopping process.

Spinning the parsley

I grab the hand chopper hoping it will chop this herb finely and I won’t have to use a knife. I set the chopper over the small pile of dried leaves. Bang! Bang! Bang! I push on the top. I lift it off the leaves, not a one is chopped?! What’s that all about? Then I realize I forgot to remove the cap from the bottom. Whoops! Bang! Bang! Bang! Lift it again, much better! This process continues for quite a while until I have one cup of finely chopped parsley. I pull off a half cup of leaves too. I still have a sink full of parsley. Maybe I didn’t need to cut so much.

This tool does the trick, but you do have to take the cap off the bottom.

Parsley is combined with ricotta cheese, egg, and parmesan. Wonton wrappers are the “pasta” part of the ravioli. They are sealed with water, then I used a biscuit cutter to make them round.

A tablespoon is all you need for each.

This is more labor intensive than I thought as I work my way through the wrappers. Slowly all the filling disappears and there are no leftover wrappers.

Finally they are assembled.

The ravioli are ready for the boiling water. You can only cook 4-5 at a time. They are to cook in boiling water for 3 minutes. Once they are finished boiling, I am to put them on a greased cookie sheet covered with foil in a warm oven. This process takes forever! In-out of water, in-out of the oven. What have I started?

Cooking in boiling water, some broke open.

Once all the ravioli are cooked and staying warm, I need to make the butter sauce. Fortunately, I had prepared salads and bread before beginning the ravioli cooking. Once the sauce was completed, we were ready to eat. Finally!

They were good, but not to die for. I can’t see doing this again, so I will have to use my parsley in other ways.

Compare this to the magazine page

Whose idea was this anyway?