Birthday Dinner: Pea and Parmesan Wonton Ravioli

Man was I naive.  On May 20, the day of my last post I did not realize that a veritable crap storm was heading our way (sorry to be gross, but really there is no other way to say it).  A lot of things in our life took a turn for the crappy and Husband and I spent a lot of hours trying to bolster each other's faith in life.  Anyway, about 3 months later things have resolved themselves and we're back to normal.  Hopefully NOW I can keep my goal of posting once a week. To the food post!

Husband's 30th birthday was a few days ago.  As per usual, he didn't want a fuss and I was left with the task of planning a special but unfussy 30th birthday jubilee.  I'm happy to say everything turned out well and fun and we even got some time to ourselves without Toddler or Dog, which is a rare and precious thing.  Because his birthday was on a Monday we didn't do anything too special on the actual day but I did make him these great Pea and Parmesan Wonton Raviolis and they were well received.  I've actually been making these for years (I got the recipe from Gourmet Magazine, back when it was a thing) and every time I make them the reaction is the same: "Hmm... these are like candy"

And every time I make them I never make enough so I thought I'd share the recipe.  You can also find it on epicurious.com, just fyi. But I have WAY more instructions in here to make your life easier, believe me. I've been making these long enough to have come up with a few tricks.

These are so great because they are fast, healthy and so easy.  Oh and delicious - you really can't beat them.  Also, a word on the wonton wrappers.  These can be a bit hard to find, most of the time I find them around the produce, but the other day I found them in a fridge/cooler thing, so I would ask if I were you.

Read the instructions once or twice before you actually do this recipe.  It's not a hard recipe, but like I said, I have added instructions that will make your life easier and keep you from swearing.

Pea and Parmesan Wonton Ravioli
Makes enough for about 2-3 people.  You'll be surprised how many you throw down.

2 2/3 cups frozen peas
1/3 cup grated Parmigiano cheese
2 tsp. chopped fresh mint
Salt and Pepper
Olive oil
About 32 wonton/dumpling wrappers

1. Place the peas in a small pot and fill it with water just until peas are covered.  Then cook peas just until tender, about 5 minutes.

2. Drain peas and place in a small food processor (I tried using my blender but the mixture is too thick so I wouldn't recommend it.  If worse come to worse smash peas with fork).
3. Add cheese, mint, a small pinch of salt and pepper.  Pulse mixture until it is smooth. If it is too dry and unyielding add a little olive oil, just enough to make it so the mixture binds together.  Beware that you don't make it too wet.

4. Put a small cup of water on your working surface. Grab one wonton wrapper and place flat on a clean surface.  With a spoon scoop about a teaspoon of filling and place it near a corner of the wrapper leaving enough space to seal the wrapper.  Dip your finger (you can use a brush, if you're making a mess, but I like to use my finger) in the water and wet only the two edges of the wrapper closest to the filling.  Then bring kitty-corners of the wrapper together to make a triangle shape - do not seal yet. Squeeze out the air starting from the filling and ending at the edges then press the edges together to seal. Picking them up is easier than trying to do them flat on the surface. The wrappers are pretty resilient so as long as you're gentle they won't break.  Just make sure your fingers are not too wet because they become very sticky very quickly.  Place wonton on a dry plate or sheet of wax paper and keep it covered with a dry dishtowel or paper towel so it doesn't dry out.

Wrapper with filling. So here you would only wet right and bottom sides.

5. Repeat the process until you've used up all of your filling. Make sure that every so often you're drying the surface you're working on otherwise the wrappers will start to stick and get messy.

6. Now boil water in a large pot and add a small splash of oil, if you don't do this the wontons will start sticking to the side/bottom of pot or each other.  Add wontons in 2 or 3 batches and cook for about 2-3 minutes each batch.

Right out of the pot.

7. Scoop out with slotted spoon and SERVE IMMEDIATELY. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle pepper and some more cheese.  If your house is like mine and you have to yell ten times before anyone shows up to the table, you want to spray the plates you will be using with a little Pam.  These guys, again, are very sticky so without the oil they'll start sticking to each other and the plate and eventually become kind of hard to tackle with a fork.

Vegan Note: These are almost vegan. If you want you could skip the cheese and instead add just a pinch more salt to the filling mixture.  Then when it's time to serve lightly sprinkle with kosher salt and pepper.

There you go.  I served this with a spinach/berry salad (also a Husband favorite) and it was a light, refreshing, and filling dinner.
So go try them!