Roasted Beet Ravioli
Based on Bon Appetit, May 2005
Serves 8 first courses, 4 main courses

The intense color bleeds through the pasta in a very attractive
manner.  The roasted Beets have a rich but sweet taste.  "Roasting"
too long in the microwave concentrates the flavor but you lose mass.
The Poppy Seed Butter is a dramatic contrasting black and adds a
pleasant crunch.  An artichoke filling we made didn't present enough
color contrast.  I suspect that roasted butternut squash or eggplant
slow roasted over a smoky barbecue would be an interesting
alternative.

2	large	Beets (about 14 ounces)
1/2	cup	Ricotta cheese, fresh whole milk
2	tbs	Dried Breadcrumbs

1 1/4	pound	Egg Pasta, freshly made

1/2	cup	Butter (one stick)
1	tbs	Poppy Seeds
		Parmesan Cheese, freshly grated, for garnishing

Roast Beets, wrapped individually in foil on baking sheet, in oven at
400F until tender, about an hour; or about 25 minutes in a 1600W
microwave oven in a covered dish, which works plenty well.  Roast
until tender when pierced with a knife.  Cool, peel beets.

Grate finely into medium bowl.
Add Ricotta Cheese and season to taste with Salt and Pepper.
Stir in Breadcrumbs.
It needs to hold it's shape when you dollop it, so it should be
almost as thick as cookie dough.

Roll fresh Egg Pasta dough thin enough so you can see your hand
through it, the thinnest setting on our manual Atlas machine. 
Place one sheet on floured counter,
mark out where your cutter will cut pieces,
dollop about 1 tsp filling in each space (we used a #70 disher scoop).
Fold over top of pasta, seal, cut with cutter; doublecheck seals.
Lay out on floured linen, dust with flour, cover with linen.
Let dry a bit until somewhat leathery.

While water is heating (below), melt Butter with Poppy Seeds, keep warm.

Bring salted water to boil in a wide pan to prevent crowding and make
retrieval easy; using two pans speeds the process.
Gently boil ravioli until pasta is tender (bite off a corner to test).
Retrieve with a spider, drain briefly on kitchen towels.
Plate onto heated plates.
Drizzle with Poppy Butter.
Garnish with Parmesan Cheese.
Serve.

$Id: ravioli-roasted-beets.txt,v 1.2 2005/04/26 02:42:47 chris Exp $