Smoked Trout Ravioli

My new favorite use for leftover smoked trout!

In past years, when we’ve had extra smoked trout, one of the things I like to do is make trout hash.  I’ve also made mushrooms stuffed with chevre and smoked trout…and salmon cakes which could just as easily have been trout cakes, because both varieties were caught that day.  All of those are very yummy, and I’ll probably make one or two of them again soon, after the next successful trout trip.

But I wanted to do something new…and this is what I came up with.

First, you need to go catch some trout. 

Go ahead – I’ll just keep typing while you do that.

All set?  Okay, now just gut them and them cook them on a charcoal grill until they’re just cooked.  Don’t overcook them – tough, overcooked fish isn’t worth eating.

Once the fish is grilled/smoked, eat what you want and then pick the remaining flesh free of bones.

That will take a while – trout has lots of sneaky, skinny bones that sometimes look like bits of flesh, which makes them easy to miss.  So put some good music on, wear comfortable shoes, and get picking.

When THAT tedious chore (oh, it is – I won’t try to tell you otherwise) is done, and all the boneless flesh is in a bowl, make your pasta dough.

Now, when I made the first batch, it was experimental, so I only made a little dough.  I used about a cup of semolina flour, an egg, a little olive oil, a little salt, and about a quarter cup of water.

You’re supposed to let the dough rest in the fridge for about an hour, but when I was doing this first batch, I didn’t have an hour – it was already way past dinner time because of how long it took me to pick the meat off just one and a half trout.  So I put the dough in the fridge for probably twenty minutes while I went outside and snipped some chives and sage and sauteed some asparagus in butter.

I chopped up some of the chives and mixed them and a bit of salt with the trout, and got out my pasta roller thing.

I rolled out pasta dough, put it through the roller until it was thin but not toooo thin, and then put blobs (yes, it’s a technical culinary term) of the trout mixture on a sheet of the dough, covered all that with another sheet, pressed down to seal the dough around the filling, and then cut it into rustic pieces.  (I’m calling them “rustic” because it sounds better than “sloppy” or “ill-formed.”)

I set them all on the waxy side of some freezer paper and got water boiling and some butter melting in a pan.

The butter is for the sauce – browned butter with sage and chives.  Very simple, very good.

I cooked the ravioli in small batches.  They sink to the bottom first, and then float to the top as they cook. 

Once the ravioli were all cooked, I served them up with some of the browned sage/chive butter and some of the asparagus.

YUM!

And I’m delighted to report that both kids liked the ravioli as well. 

So – success!

I took pictures of the plated ravioli (like the one above), but I held off on posting because I wanted to have BETTER pictures.

And tidier ravioli.

So yesterday I poked around in my boxes of cookie cutters, found the one containing dinosaurs and sea creatures, and dug out an appropriate cutter for my trout ravioli.

I hadn’t used all of the trout, so I already had the filling.  Just needed to make some more pasta dough.

Did that, let it rest, rolled it out and started cutting.

The fun thing about having fish-shaped ravioli is that when they’re in the boiling water, they look like they’re swimming! 

Fun, huh?

While the fish were swimming, I made some more browned butter with sage and chives.  It’s pretty easy – just melt the butter and let it brown.  Don’t burn it, just let it get darker and darker.  Toss in some fresh sage leaves and fresh chopped chives, let them cook in the butter until the sage is crispy, and you’re set. 

Serve them up and enjoy.

I only cooked two – for the photo op.  I put the rest in the freezer.

I still had more trout to pick and more ravioli to make.

First, however, I had some smoked trout ravioli to eat.

I don’t really have a recipe for this. 

I just used what I had on hand.

So, if you have some smoked trout kicking around, some butter and herbs, and some pasta dough, give it a whirl.

And let me know how you like it!

Oh – and if you really don’t feel like making the pasta dough and rolling it out and all that (not that it’s hard, but it’s a little time-consuming), you can buy wonton wrappers and use them instead. 

Enjoy!

Comments

[twitter.com/josordoni]

LOL now you really should be making lovely seaweedy strands with nori & chives and arranging your little fishes ...

[RoseAnn]

My mouth is watering just reading this!

Love the fish-shaped raviolis!

[Jen - The Alien Spouse]

Want.

[yummychunklet]

This looks delicious and cute! Yum!

[Jayne]

Next time!! :)

[Gourmantine]

The combination of flavors sounds so promising. I'm a very big fan of pasta, sage and butter combination and adding some smoked trout to it sounds fabulous to say the least! Thanks for sharing!

[roo]

Oh my god those fishy raviolis are adorable!!!

And I love trout! and Ravioli! YUM!

(Can you tell I was hungry while reading this?)

[judith]

YUM... I love trout. My dad would fish for it off shore all spring and then can it once they got home. I think he'd use one of the recipes for canning fish that is in the book I sent you.

[snippets of thyme]

This looks so delicious. I love ravioli. It can be filled with anything but this trout looks good. The fish cutters are adorable and fun.

[Kat]

oh geeeeesh! that is way too cute!

[Dina]

not only do they look delicious, they are so cute!