Mixed greens ravioli with green garlic pesto

**This is not a gluten-free recipe and was posted before I eliminated gluten from my diet.**

I recently conquered my bread baking fears, so I needed a new challenge. I had never made pasta, and it was time to remedy this problem. I wasn't going to let the fact that I don't own a pasta machine get in my way.

But now what kind of pasta should I make? Well, I had a bunch of mixed greens (kale, chard, collards, and the ones off of my turnips) from my CSA share this week that I thought would go nicely with whole wheat pasta. I could have sauteed these and added them to fettuccine, but I decided to step it up a notch and make ravioli with a mixed greens filling. And to top it off, I added a green garlic pesto because, again, I had a ton of green garlic from my CSA and what would be better?

Mixed greens ravioli (adapted from Mark Bittman's "How to Cook Everything")

Filling:

approx. 5 oz mixed greens (use whatever you have), stems removed

1 Tbsp olive oil

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 egg

1/2 cup freshly shredded parmesan

1/4 tsp nutmeg

salt and pepper to taste

Cook greens in boiling water until they wilt (1-2 min), and then drain them and let cool. Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a medium skillet. Add garlic and cook for a minute. Chop greens and add them to garlic, then remove this mixture from the heat and let cool. Stir in egg, parmesan, and seasonings. Set aside while you prepare the pasta.

Pasta:

2 cups whole white wheat flour

1 tsp salt

3 eggs

Add flour and salt to the bowl of a food processor and pulse several times. Then add eggs and let the processor run until the dough forms a ball (30-60 sec). If your ball of dough is very dry, add water by the tablespoon and blend briefly. If the dough sticks to the sides of the processor, which is not likely, add a tablespoon of flour. Lightly flour your counter, and knead the dough on the counter for several minutes, until dough is smooth (you can still make adjustments if needed). Cut the dough into 6 pieces and put 5 under plastic wrap. Roll out the remaining piece of dough with a rolling pin as thin as possible into a rectangle (or use a pasta machine). Put small heaps of filling (about 1/2 Tbsp) along one of the long sides of the rectangle. Wet the dough around the filling with a pastry brush or paper towel, and fold the other long side onto the filling side. Press down firmly around filling, and cut ravioli apart with a sharp knife. Repeat with the other 5 pieces of dough. Cook ravioli in salted boiling water until they completely float to the top (about 5 min). Top with green garlic pesto or your favorite sauce (or simply butter). Makes about 28 ravioli (they're extremely filling, so this made about 5 meals for me).

Green garlic pesto (adapted from Laura Rebecca's Kitchen)

10 shoots green garlic, cut into 2" pieces

1/3 cup walnuts

1/2 cup shredded fresh parmesan

salt and pepper to taste

1/2 cup warm water

6 Tbsp olive oil

Add green garlic, walnuts, parmesan, and salt and pepper to the bowl of a food processor. Process until everything is minced. Stir together water and oil, and slowly pour this into the processor chute while the machine is on. Stop when it's at your preferred consistency (I like mine on the thick and chunky side, so I only added about 2/3 of the mixture). Store in the refrigerator or freezer with a layer of oil on top. Makes about 2 cups.

This is exactly why I love the summer. I can take whatever I get from my CSA or the farmers' market and let my creative side take control. When you start with quality ingredients, it almost always works. The pasta was delicious, and I will definitely be making it again. I didn't get it extremely thin, but it was still amazing. I also really enjoyed the greens filling. The pesto was good, too, although I used this sparingly because I wanted to be able to taste the pasta and the filling. I can't wait to try some on a sandwich this week. I'm submitting this to Weekend Herb Blogging, a blogging event organized by Haalo from Cook (almost) Anything At Least Once and hosted by Astrid from Paulchen's Foodblog this week.