It all started with me cooking a whole turkey.. because who wouldn’t take advantage of the ‘after Thanksgiving sale’ to store one for later?.. and I actually love turkey.. there’s just endless meals you can make, all while utilizing the meat and bones. I made homemade turkey broth to freeze for later and homemade noodles for soup that night (Turkey noodle soup and Amish Noodles post). So now, I have a big bag full of delicious meat and it was time to get creative and try some new recipes..
It was an ‘in the moment’ craving for raviolis. My initial plan was to make the filling using turkey, baby bell mushrooms, and Parmesan cheese. All ingredients I had on hand, which I’m big on the ‘using what you have handy’ concept; saving an unnecessary trip to the store where I always end up buying more than I came for. However, if I’m being honest, most of my family doesn’t like mushrooms and half of my kids don’t like cheese.. there was just no way I was sneaking these in. So, let me pivot…
I decided to make a spin on a ravioli/pierogi. I used the ravioli dough, but the filling was more of a classic pierogi filled with potatoes. I boiled and mashed the potatoes and added the same ingredients you would for traditional mashed potatoes (milk, butter, salt, pepper). I sauteed some shallots and fresh garlic; mixed in, and then added finely chopped cooked turkey meat. It all came together nicely, and honestly, this would have been a great ‘one pan dish’ using Thanksgiving leftovers..
Assembling the raviolis were a bit intimidating, but not very hard to handle. When you make your dough correctly, its pliable and will not break apart. Even if you layer the top sheet of dough inconsistent to the bottom sheet, you can still stretch the dough to cover perfectly. Note: make sure you brush water over every row before placing the top layer to ensure both layers stick together; you can use egg, but water works just fine. The first time you make these, don’t expect perfection. The key is rolling out both sheets to get them as thin as possible without tearing, and trying to make both sheets the same thickness; and honestly that’s the hardest step of the entire recipe.
Have fun and be creative with this recipe. Once you get comfortable with managing the dough, the next steps are trying a different variety of fillings and sauces to pair with it. I made a basic browned butter and garlic sauce for this recipe, but you can make marinara sauce, pesto, alfredo, butter and herbs.. there is no limit. You can even coat these and fry them as an appetizer! Make these as big or as little as you’d like; just adjust the filling size. Note: Do you ever make ‘refrigerator soup’ at the end of the week where you pull out all of the veggies that you need to use up? Well, these raviolis have the same concept.. you really can fill them with whatever! (recipe on ‘recipe’ page)
Enjoy!
