Venison and Morel Ravioli

Venison and Morel Ravioli

  • Duration

    1 hour

  • Serves

    6 to 8
Chef’s notes

I love mushroom-filled ravioli, so I thought to add a few covetous morel mushrooms into ravioli this spring. With the addition of ground venison, you’ll get a meaty, satisfying meal.

I use one of my favorite cooking shortcuts here: Instead of making homemade pasta, which is time-consuming and labor-intensive, I use gyoza/pot sticker wrappers. My favorite brand is Dynasty, which seems to hold up well in the process. Of course, if you’d rather make your own homemade pasta, more power to you.

I enjoy a simple sauce of brown butter and sage, but you can use whatever sauce you like. A cream-based sauce would taste amazing, while a red sauce might overwhelm the flavor of the morels. Note that these makeshift ravioli are delicate—not the kind you can toss around in a sauce. So, make the sauce for drizzling, not tossing.

Ingredients

  • 1 package gyoza/pot sticker wrappers
  • 1 stick salted butter
  • Bunch of sage, leaves only
  • Finishing salt
  • Grated Parmesan cheese, to taste
  • Freshly cracked pepper

Filling

  • ½ lb. ground venison
  • 2.5 oz. fresh morel mushrooms, chopped
  • ¼ cup minced shallot
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 tbsp. olive oil
  • ½ tsp. dried oregano
  • ½ tsp. dried thyme
  • ⅓ cup whole milk ricotta
  • 1 egg
  • 2 tbsp. panko breadcrumbs
  • ½ tsp. kosher salt
  • Freshly cracked pepper, to taste

Also works with

Any ground meat

Preparation

  1. Over medium-high heat, heat oil in a skillet. Add ground venison and chopped morels and cook until browned. Turn heat down to medium. Next, add shallot, oregano, and thyme and cook for 1 to 2 minutes or until shallot turns translucent and soft. Add garlic and stir for 30 seconds. Allow mixture to cool.
  2. Transfer cooled venison-morel mixture to a food processor. Add ricotta, egg, panko, salt and pepper, and pulse until smooth. Transfer mixture into a gallon-size zip-top bag.
  3. To assemble ravioli, lay several gyoza wrappers onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Snip one bottom corner of the zip-top bag with the filling, and pipe some mixture in the middle of each wrapper. Use water to wet the edge of wrappers with your index finger, then lay a new wrapper on top. Gently press down the edges to seal, pushing out air bubbles. Be careful not to overfill ravioli. Keep ravioli covered with a tea towel to keep them from drying out.
  4. To make brown butter: In a saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. When milk solids at the edges start to turn golden—you might need to swirl the saucepan or use a spoon to see past the foam—drop sage leaves into the butter. Cook for about 30 seconds or until sage leaves become crispy, stirring occasionally. Then, immediately move saucepan to a cool place to prevent the butter from burning and transfer sage leaves to a paper towel.
  5. While butter is melting, bring about 2 inches of water to a simmer in a sauté pan, or other wide, deep pan. Cook ravioli in small batches: When water is hot and nicely simmering, drop ravioli into the water one by one. Do not allow water to boil to prevent ravioli from breaking up. Cook until edges of wonton wrappers become translucent and the middle starts to wrinkle.
  6. Fish out ravioli with a slotted spoon and place on warmed plates. Drizzle with brown butter, and sprinkle with generous amounts of Parmesan cheese, freshly cracked pepper and finishing salt to taste. Garnish with sage leaves and serve immediately.

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Venison and Morel Ravioli

Recipe by: Jenny Nguyen-Wheatley
Venison and Morel Ravioli
  • Duration

    1 hour

  • Serves

    6 to 8
Chef’s notes

I love mushroom-filled ravioli, so I thought to add a few covetous morel mushrooms into ravioli this spring. With the addition of ground venison, you’ll get a meaty, satisfying meal.

I use one of my favorite cooking shortcuts here: Instead of making homemade pasta, which is time-consuming and labor-intensive, I use gyoza/pot sticker wrappers. My favorite brand is Dynasty, which seems to hold up well in the process. Of course, if you’d rather make your own homemade pasta, more power to you.

I enjoy a simple sauce of brown butter and sage, but you can use whatever sauce you like. A cream-based sauce would taste amazing, while a red sauce might overwhelm the flavor of the morels. Note that these makeshift ravioli are delicate—not the kind you can toss around in a sauce. So, make the sauce for drizzling, not tossing.

Ingredients

  • 1 package gyoza/pot sticker wrappers
  • 1 stick salted butter
  • Bunch of sage, leaves only
  • Finishing salt
  • Grated Parmesan cheese, to taste
  • Freshly cracked pepper

Filling

  • ½ lb. ground venison
  • 2.5 oz. fresh morel mushrooms, chopped
  • ¼ cup minced shallot
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 tbsp. olive oil
  • ½ tsp. dried oregano
  • ½ tsp. dried thyme
  • ⅓ cup whole milk ricotta
  • 1 egg
  • 2 tbsp. panko breadcrumbs
  • ½ tsp. kosher salt
  • Freshly cracked pepper, to taste

Also works with

Any ground meat

Preparation

  1. Over medium-high heat, heat oil in a skillet. Add ground venison and chopped morels and cook until browned. Turn heat down to medium. Next, add shallot, oregano, and thyme and cook for 1 to 2 minutes or until shallot turns translucent and soft. Add garlic and stir for 30 seconds. Allow mixture to cool.
  2. Transfer cooled venison-morel mixture to a food processor. Add ricotta, egg, panko, salt and pepper, and pulse until smooth. Transfer mixture into a gallon-size zip-top bag.
  3. To assemble ravioli, lay several gyoza wrappers onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Snip one bottom corner of the zip-top bag with the filling, and pipe some mixture in the middle of each wrapper. Use water to wet the edge of wrappers with your index finger, then lay a new wrapper on top. Gently press down the edges to seal, pushing out air bubbles. Be careful not to overfill ravioli. Keep ravioli covered with a tea towel to keep them from drying out.
  4. To make brown butter: In a saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. When milk solids at the edges start to turn golden—you might need to swirl the saucepan or use a spoon to see past the foam—drop sage leaves into the butter. Cook for about 30 seconds or until sage leaves become crispy, stirring occasionally. Then, immediately move saucepan to a cool place to prevent the butter from burning and transfer sage leaves to a paper towel.
  5. While butter is melting, bring about 2 inches of water to a simmer in a sauté pan, or other wide, deep pan. Cook ravioli in small batches: When water is hot and nicely simmering, drop ravioli into the water one by one. Do not allow water to boil to prevent ravioli from breaking up. Cook until edges of wonton wrappers become translucent and the middle starts to wrinkle.
  6. Fish out ravioli with a slotted spoon and place on warmed plates. Drizzle with brown butter, and sprinkle with generous amounts of Parmesan cheese, freshly cracked pepper and finishing salt to taste. Garnish with sage leaves and serve immediately.