Valentine’s Day Dinner Recipes

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Valentine's Day Dinner Recipes

Dining at a restaurant on Valentine’s Day is tough. The crowds, wait times and bad service are not fun. Most years my husband and I choose to dine at home. Which means I am always trying to come up with recipes to make our Valentine’s dinner special. Tonight I made a Fig, Gorgonzola and Chicken Ravioli with Brown Butter Sauce. I cooked a few portions of ravioli with the sauce so I could taste my recipe. Since I made up the recipe, I thought a taste test might be important. Fortunately, it was fantastic!

The recipe is listed below but I wanted to share a few cooking tips. The first is how to turn your pasta pink. 

I have to be honest and let you know that I have never colored my pasta. I had heard of someone using beets to color the pasta so I decided to give it a try. I roasted the beets for 45 minutes in the oven. Then I chopped them in the food processor. I added boing water to the chopped beets and strained the juice. It worked perfectly!

Valentine’s Day Dinner Recipe – Fig, Gorgonzola and Chicken Ravioli

Make the Pink Pasta

Valentine's Day Dinner Recipes Fig, Gorgonzola and Chicken Ravioli

This is what the beet juice looked like. I only used one teaspoon so you don’t need a lot.

Valentine's Day Dinner Recipes Fig, Gorgonzola and Chicken Ravioli with Brown Butter Sauce

I added the beet juice into the pasta dough at the very beginning.

Valentine's Day Dinner Recipes Fig, Gorgonzola and Chicken Ravioli 2

I put the pasta in my KitchenAid pasta machine and made pasta sheets at a thickness of #5.

Valentine's Day Dinner Recipes Fig, Gorgonzola and Chicken Ravioli 3

Next, I cut out heart shaped pasta pieces.

Valentine's Day Dinner Recipes Fig, Gorgonzola and Chicken Ravioli 5

My recipe made about 50 ravioli hearts of pasta.

Valentine's Day Dinner Recipes Fig, Gorgonzola and Chicken Ravioli 6

Prepare the Filling

To make the filling I baked the chicken in the oven. I only used two chicken breasts and then cut and shredded them in the Cuisinart.

Valentine's Day Dinner Recipes Fig, Gorgonzola and Chicken Ravioli 7

For the filling, I mixed chicken, fig jam, gorgonzola cheese, and balsamic vinegar. These flavors, when combined together, are fabulous.

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Next, I filled each heart with about one tsp of filling and topped with another heart.

Valentine's Day Dinner Recipes Fig, Gorgonzola and Chicken Ravioli 9

Sealing the ravioli piece is really important because you don’t want the filling leaking out when it is cooked. I thought about using a fork but I don’t think it looks that great. So I pulled out a biscuit cutter and used the edge of the cutter to seal the edges of the ravioli pieces.

Valentine's Day Dinner Recipes Fig, Gorgonzola and Chicken Ravioli 10

Seal the edges all the way around the outside edge.

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And store on a piece of parchment paper. You can freeze them for later use or you can cook immediately. They will also store in the refrigerator for a few days.

Valentine's Day Dinner Recipes Fig, Gorgonzola and Chicken Ravioli12 Valentine's Day Dinner Recipes Fig, Gorgonzola and Chicken Ravioli 13  

Cook the Ravioli

The secret to cooking the ravioli is to boil them in a shallow pan. Add only about two inches of water to the pan. This prevents the ravioli from flipping over and breaking while cooking.

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To make the brown butter sauce, cook a stick of butter on the stove top until it turns slightly brown. Don’t overcook or burn the butter. 

Pour over the cooked pasta and serve. This is so delicious. I know you will love it.

Valentine's Day Dinner Recipes Fig, Gorgonzola and Chicken Ravioli 16

Yield: Four entrees

Homemade Fig, Gorgonzola and Chicken Ravioli

Homemade Fig, Gorgonzola and Chicken Ravioli

This savory and sweet pasta is amazing. The sweet fig jam, coupled with the gorgonzola cheese, create an amazing contrast of flavors.

Prep Time 1 hour
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 20 minutes

Ingredients

  • 4 eggs
  • 3 1/2 cups flour
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2 TBL water
  • Two small beets, peeled and roasted
  • Two chicken breasts, baked and chopped
  • 1/2 cup gorgonzola cheese
  • 5 TBL fig jam
  • 1 TBL balsamic vinegar
  • 1/2 cup (one stick) butter

Instructions

  1. Mix the eggs, flour, salt and water in the kitchen aid mixer and mix with the paddle for two minutes at low speed.
  2. Meanwhile, roast two beets at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Cut in to small pieces. and mix with 1/4 cup boiling water. Let sit and strain to remove all beet pieces. Save the juice to use to dye the pasta.
  3. Add 1 tsp beet juice to the pasta ingredients and mix together. Change the KitchenAid attachment to the dough hook and run at low speed for two minutes. Cover in plastic wrap and refrigerate 20 minutes.
  4. Place chicken breasts in baking dish and drizzle with oil and sprinkle with seasoning sauce. Bake at 350 degrees for thirty minutes.
  5. Remove chicken from baking dish and shred in food processor. Add gorgonzola, fig jam and balsamic vinegar. Stir thoroughly.
  6. Remove pasta from refrigerator and run through pasta maker.Thin out pasta to level #5. Lay flat on plastic surface and cut with heart shaped cookie cutter. Place 1 tsp of filling in the center of heart and top with another. Seal the edges with a fork or the edge of a biscuit cutter.
  7. To cook pasta, place in a flat pan filled with two inches of boiling water. (Don't use a taller pan as the pasta will break open while cooking.)
  8. Cook until pasta is still slightly al dente, about 10 minutes.
  9. Meanwhile, heat one stick of butter in a fry pan over low heat. Cook until butter turns light brown, about eight minutes. Don't boil and don't burn. Once done, spoon over pasta on plates.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

4

Serving Size:

1

Amount Per Serving: Calories: 916Total Fat: 36gSaturated Fat: 20gTrans Fat: 1gUnsaturated Fat: 13gCholesterol: 311mgSodium: 1108mgCarbohydrates: 105gFiber: 4gSugar: 15gProtein: 41g

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