Homemade Ravioli: Chicken, Mushroom, Spinach, and Cheese

This is part two of my previous post. I made two different raviolis and sauces and thought it best to break them into two different posts and recipe links. So if you did not read the last post on butternut squash you may want to since I am not retyping out the recipe and steps to making the pasta sheets. Maybe this is lazy, maybe it's just a ruse to get you to read more of my posts and become addicted to my food! Muahaha! Whatever the reasons, go back a post or look in the recipe link for Butternut Squash Ravioli and then come back for the rest of the steps.

Chicken, Mushroom, Spinach, and Cheese Ravioli:
1/2 recipe for butternut squash dough or regular pasta dough
3-4 chicken tenders, can be leftovers previously cooked
1/2c chopped mushrooms
3/4c frozen spinach, thawed
1/2c mozzarella cheese, shredded
4 cloves garlic, minced
salt and pepper
olive oil

If chicken is not already cooked, season with salt, pepper, and garlic powder and cook until golden brown and done. Cool slightly. Dice cooked chicken and set aside. In a large skillet heat a couple tablespoons of olive oil and add garlic and mushrooms. Cook for 2 minutes until mushrooms are soft. Add back the chicken and the thawed spinach. Heat through and turn off heat. Place mixture in a bowl and combine with cheese. Set aside until ready to fill ravioli.

Go through the steps of rolling out your dough through a pasta machine. Once you get all of your sheets rolled and cut in half begin filling the sheets. Using your fingers here works best. Smush together a small ball of chicken mixture and carefully place onto sheet. These will be slightly taller and thicker than the squash ravioli. So make sure your top sheet of pasta will fit over and seal onto the bottom sheet of dough.

Then seal the edges between ravioli and cut the ravioli into individual pieces. And again using your fingers or a fork seal the edges and place on a floured baking sheet until ready to cook.

I believe we had a few scraps of pasta dough remaining and some more filling so somebody made an enormous almost calzone like ravioli filled with the remainder of the filling. I do not recommend doing them all like that, but it could be fun for the man of the house to eat!

Once all of your pasta is ready, get a large pot of water boiling on the stove and start your sauce.

Garlic Cream Sauce:
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1c heavy whipping cream
salt and pepper to taste

Heat 1t olive oil in a large skillet on medium. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add the cream and whisk to keep garlic from sticking to the bottom of the skillet. Reduce heat to low and bring to a simmer. Cook for about 5 minutes or until the sauce thickens. If the sauce is thickened and you are not done cooking pasta turn the heat off and keep on stove to keep warm. Stir to keep a film from developing on the top of sauce.

Meanwhile cook pasta for 2-3 minutes or until the pasta is cooked through. As with the squash pasta you will need to play around and see how long that is for you. I found it easier to cook pasta and scoop out with a skimmer or slotted spoon and place in a large pasta bowl. Then spoon over some cream sauce to keep from sticking until all the pasta was cooked.

I cooked the calzone-like ravioli last in case it exploded. However we were all pleasantly suprised to find it did not.

Serve at the table with freshly grated parmesan.

This one was just as delicious as the butternut squash ravioli. They are completely different though. But everyone agreed it was a fun time learning to make and then eat our homemade pasta.

One thing I want to tell yall before finishing this post is that I didnt' stop with the ravioli. The two ladies who came over for dinner have been on me for years to make them cannoli. And for some reason I have yet to do it. It is a pain in the butt to make and I only do it about once a year. And I realized this might be my last chance to make them before we moved to Florida. So after dinner we rolled out the dough and fried the shells and filled them with the ricotta filling I had made earlier in the day. And we had homemade cannoli. But since this recipe is from my husbands grandmother and while it's probably no secret.....what's like without a little mystery and intrigue. So it is something I am not willing to share with the general public just yet. But for teasing purposes I will show you a picture of our grand masterpiece. And if you are ever near me, perhaps you can convince me to make a batch of them for you!