IMBB #14: Cheetos!
Just kidding.
With all that’s been going on around here, it’s a wonder we had time for anything at all other than cheetos, and truthfully, we didn’t have the time. It’s just that I had such a loony notion of what I wanted to do for the Orange themed Is My Blog Burning, I insisted we make the time come hell or high water.
Trouble is, my notion really was loony. As in (and I’m quoting Chopper Dave here) “This is a harebrained scheme and it’s not going to work.”
But trouble with that is, I’m the Peter Quincy Taggart of harebrained schemes. You know, never give up, never surrender? That’s me.
And this time (wonder of wonders), it paid off.
It all began with a pasta roller. That, and my fond memory of the year I turned Christmas into my own personal craft bazaar by decorating every object I could get my hands on with Fimo polymer clay. My favorite trick? Making checkered Fimo by running two colors through the pasta maker and weaving my Fimo fettuccine like a basket.
And then it hit me: Why not do the same thing with two colors of pasta dough and make checkered ravioli! Better yet, why not do two shades of orange for IMBB #14!
So, I pitched this harebrained scheme to the mister, and (shockingly) he agreed to try it. So off I went to the store for our best bet in the creation of orange pasta dough: Achiote paste. Meanwhile, Chopper Dave scoured the pantry for filling ideas and discovered a package of smoked salmon. Off to the market again for goat cheese and we’re halfway there.
Well, except for that whole basket weaving thing.
See, with Fimo, it doesn’t matter if you end up with little holes between the checks of your checkerboard design. You just push the clay together as best you can and call it done. But, holes in ravioli? Bad idea.
And that’s how the first attempt went horribly wrong. Holes, holes, everywhere.
We figured it had something to do with the lack of water, or rather, the fact that I didn’t reapply water to the pasta as often as I should while weaving it, but by this point it was mid-afternoon and Chopper Dave was due at the restaurant in half an hour. Our excitement over the possibility of checkered ravioli vanished. We were deep into impossible harebrained scheme territory.
Until I hit on the solution. Simply this: If one is making a lace dress and one doesn’t want it to be see-through, one gives it a lining.
After all, no one’s going to notice that the inside of the ravioli isn’t checkered.
So, I grabbed some more fettuccini, created another weave (this time with plenty of water), then rolled some of the leftover dough out into a thin sheet and placed it on top. I then trimmed all the edges and fed the whole kit and caboodle into the pasta roller.
And — voila! — checkered ravioli!
Of course by this point, the chef (AKA, the only one around here who knows how to make a good sauce) was off at work, so alas, my presentation is sans sauce. No matter. It still tasted quite yummy, and why would I want to cover up all that labor-intensive basketweaving with a sauce?
Checkered Ravioli
For the pasta dough
Chopper Dave used Pasta Dough No. 2 on page 40 of The Pasta Bible
The rest of the recipe calls for:
- 1 cup finely ground semolina flour
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
The filling, another bit of improvisation today, included:
Our salmon was on the wet side, so Chopper thickened the filling with semolina four.
It may be a while before I try this trick again, considering I spent 45 minutes making five ravs. Perhaps I’ll take it on next Halloween. Only that time, I’ll tint half the pasta dough with squid ink.
Side note: And with this post, we’re off for a few days, attending Chopper Dave’s formal graduation from culinary school. As soon as we’re able to get back to the computer, we’ll take on a few more harebrained schemes, we’ll visit the local pub, and we’ll ask the question, if it stings your hands, why the hell would you want to eat it?
Hi Belly Timber
Just discovered you when catching up on the Food Blog S’cool Administration
Wow! Such effort and amazing results.
And I like the cheetos joke at the start. beautiful blog. Welcome to the community.
Miz D,
You are deeply disturbed and Chopper is clearly codependent and enabler. You two need help.
Kevin
The pasta is beautiful! I really love your picture of the cheetos…very artful. I played with the idea of an orange colored napoleon made out of Doritos and cheese in a can, but alas I never got around to it.
That is the best photo of Cheetos I have ever seen. And the checkered pasta is just over the top.
OK, I better come back here in October to see black & white raviolis.
Because, you know, I’m not going to make them, but that’s one heck of an idea, and I think it would be delicious made with (what else) pumpkin filling!
PS – big, fat congratulations to Chopper Dave!
Mrs. D -Those are far and away the most gorgeous pieces of pasta I have ever seen. I’m amazed. And hungry. =)
Love what you’ve done with the theme.
Oh my goodness! This is simply the best! I am craving it already! Amazing! I will give it a shot sometime, possibly in another life, but sometime!
Great photos of amazing looking pasta! Trying to put that together definately would have had me talking to myself.
Oh my god, I’m gonna cry. Those are the prettiest ravioli I’ve ever seen in my life. Sniff. Good job, both of you.
I also thought the remote control in the first artful photograph really added something quite powerful to the overall composition.
That is an incredibly beautiful pasta; I’ve never seen anything like it! I have to forward this to my Italian mom. Possibly the best Orange entry!
This is such a clever and beautiful idea! Lovely entry :-)
Your ravioli are amazing!! I don’t think I have what it takes to recreate those…but I sure wish I did.
Wow! this is simply amazing, I’ve never seen anything like this before. The filling sounds really delicious too. I want to taste yours (as I don’t think I can make this on my own…)
Great idea and execution. You can do striped ravioli the same way, too.
Wow! This is beautiful. You need a lot of time to plan a meal like this but it appears it is worth it.
Sam, Kevin, Jennifer, David, Fatemeh, Nic, Barbara, Chronicler, Chefdoc, Rachel, Mia, Tanvi, Alice, Keiko, Barbara F., Sylvie… (phew!)
Thank you all for your comments & compliments! What a nice surprise to see all these after being offline for three days!
Kevin: Disturbed? Heh. You’ve no idea! :-)
Jennifer: a Dorito and velveeta napoleon is a terrifying thing. More terrifying is the thought that someone may have already made one somewhere.
Fatemeh: I was thinking at first orange and black ravioli for Halloween but I like your idea better : the orange is a surprise when you stick your fork into it! Chopper Dave says thanks for the congrats! The graduation festivities were loads of fun, and I’m hoping we’ll write them up in the next few days.
Rachel: Heh. The remote control just had to be there. Perhaps if my current career fails I can apply for a food stylist at Frito-Lay! :-)
Keiko: I ran out of time to write about it, but yes, the filling was quite good. More mild than I would have thought & the dill added to it a lot. I think it would do best with some sort of mild sauce as well, but I’m not sure what kind.
excellent excellent excellent!
echoing many of the sentiments already stated:
I feel for the cheeto sucker punch, and am stunned by your weaving idea.
glad to have picked you up from s’cool :)
Thanks, McAuliflower!
And hello from a fellow Oregonian (even though I am in Washington right now…).
I’ll chime in with the rest of the fans – this looks amazing. :) I just wanted to tell you something funny – when I read this, I kept reading anchovy paste rather than achiote paste, thinking “hey, I’ve got a tube of that! I could, in theory, make this!” And when I came to the last part of the post, it finally hit me that you weren’t talking about anchovy at all. I have no idea where to get achiote, so I’ll have to pass on that, but I’m seriously thinking about making a green-and-yellow version. Thank you for the inspiration!
WOW!
Just amazing! Now I have to make fresh pasta – although I already know my weaving skills aren’t up to that part of the task…
also wanted to stop by and mention that I was eally intrigued by your mention of lavender and tarragon beer (instead of hops) – I am so going to have to try that (we have about 2 pounds of dried lavender and the plants that produced that are just keeping on growing…)
Anne. You can find achiote paste at almost any specialty market with a decent Mexican/Latin food section. If you don’t have one nearby, you can also order it (cheap) here.
Hope that helps.
Thanks, Owen. The lavender ale was the big star at our wedding. We dubbed it H.M.S. Surprise Ale (hint: it matched the theme of the wedding…)
We plan on blogging our adventures in home brewing sometime soon (as soon as I can transplant my equipment from the Portland house).
hey guys…just cruising through all the entries for DMBLGiT; you know, checkin’ out the competition *wink*
i can’t believe i see a picture of cheetos in a winie glass, to scroll down and find these incredible ravioli. you guys are amazing!
the checkered ravioli is incredible. the picture of the cheetos reminds me of my mom. very nice.