Embracing Clean Food-Eating | Bok Choy and Spinach Homemade Ravioli

Written By: Marlene Osteen | Issue: 2021/10 – October

Fallon Hovis

Poet-farmer-activist Wendell Berry wrote that, “to eat responsibly one ought to ‘deal directly with a local farmer’ and learn, in self-defense, as much as you can of the economy and technology of industrial food production.”

Fallon Hovis, the new director at Highlands Center for Life Enrichment, who formerly lived in Western Pennsylvania., agrees.  

Ten years ago, she and her husband determined to embrace “clean food eating.”  

“I believe that wholesome and nutritious food starts with fresh organic ingredients.”  For the Hovises, heeding that directive and committing to eating only healthy foods, free of preservatives and pesticides, has meant growing their own food.  

She’s known for recipes like this one for stuffed ravioli, procuring the ingredients directly from her four-season garden.   

In late summer, she stocks up on tomatoes, and in winter, she cultivates cold-loving and short-day daylight vegetables like spinach and bok choy in unheated tunnels.  

“Knowing that every ingredient excluding the flour and cheese comes from our humble piece of land gives me extra warmth.”

Bok Choy and Spinach  Homemade Ravioli
a combination that is certainly meant to be.

Ingredients

For Pasta Dough

2 cups All-Purpose Flour

2 Eggs

3 Egg Yolks

1/8 teaspoon Kosher Salt

For Filling

5 oz fresh Spinach Leaves, cleaned

5 oz fresh Bok Choy Leaves, cleaned

1 clove Garlic, finely diced

1 Tablespoon chopped fresh Parsley

1 tablespoon chopped fresh Oregano

1 cup Whole Milk Ricotta

1/4 cup Grated Asiago Cheese

1/4 cup Grated Parmesan Cheese

Coarse Sea Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions

1. Bring a large saucepan of water to a rapid boil with salt. Plunge the spinach into the boiling water for 30 seconds, remove with a large mesh strainer and cool under cold running water.  Repeat with bok choy.  Stir the cooled green together with remaining ingredients for filling.

2. Put flour and salt in a large bowl, making a well in the middle.  In a small bowl, beat together the eggs and the yolks, then pour into the well in the flour. Mix with a fork until the flour begins to clump together. When the mixture becomes too hard to stir with a fork, use your hands. Knead dough in the bowl or on a lightly floured board until it is quite stiff and no longer sticky. Sprinkle with a little flour. Cover with plastic or a cloth, and let it rest for about 30 minutes.

3. Set up a pasta roller and spread a large work surface with kitchen towels. Divide dough into thirds and pass each through the widest setting twice. Reduce the roller width one setting, and again run each piece of dough through twice. Continue through each setting until all three pieces of dough have gone through rollers at the narrowest setting (No. 7 on most pasta machines). As you work, lay sheets of pasta on towels, covering them with more towels to keep them moist.

4. To fill ravioli, place a teaspoonful of filling at 1 1/2-inch intervals about 1 inch from the edge of one length of dough. Dip a pastry brush in water, and brush dough around filling, moistening all the way to the edges. Fold dough lengthwise over the filling, and press around each scoop, pushing out any air and sealing ravioli.  Press edges to seal completely. Dust finished ravioli with semolina or cornmeal. Cover with a kitchen towel and refrigerate for up to 1 day if not using immediately.

5. To cook ravioli, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add ravioli and cook just until very al dente, about 2 to 3 minutes. Use a slotted spoon or skimmer to scoop ravioli into a colander. 

6. Toss with melted butter and roasted tomatoes and serve immediately.

by Marlene Osteen