In the past year, cooking and baking have become a serious hobby of mine. I really enjoy looking at food blogs and other food websites, and I also like the actual cooking process. I like that I can take a bunch of random, individual items and create something new and different. I feel inspired, relaxed, and artsy. It is slowly becoming the creative outlet I have been looking for (take for example my sea-foam green cupcakes).
Last Thursday night, my roommate asked me for some appetizer ideas. She, and all the girls in her family, were going on a weekend get-a-way and they were going to have tapas on Saturday night. I quickly thought back through the recent postings on my favorite food blog and offered up some ideas. After listing a few, it hit me: fried ravioli. It is simple, only a few ingredients, and you don’t need utensils to eat it. Although my roommate did not make the fried ravioli, I could not get it out of my mind. After a long day at school dreaming about the 2:55 bell and my fried ravioli, I finally got home, went to the store, and got out my frying pan.
Side note: I do not like change. If something works well for me, why switch it up? So for the past year I have been very much against using Panko breadcrumbs. Even though recipe after recipe say to use Panko breadcrumbs, I refused. I like the breadcrumbs I use. But, I thought: “I want my ravioli to have a thick, crunchy crust, lets try the Panko crumbs.” I felt like Meryl Steep when she took a chance and hired “the smart, fat girl” in The Devil Wears Prada. I don’t know what came over me, but I sure am glad that it did. Panko breadcrumbs are my new food obsession! Use them, I promise!
A little bit of this, a little bit of that, some freakishly hot oil and done! The ravioli was warm and gooey on the inside and crunchy on the outside. I love mixing food textures and temperatures, so I decided to take it up a notch: I dipped the ravioli in cold marinara sauce. It was so good that I made it again on Saturday night.
My roommate may have been the one on a get-a-way, but I had fried ravioli, wine, and the Olympics! To make it even better, it was the men’s figure skating re-runs. I love you Johnny Weir. (What do you all think about this idea: rather than Johnny Weir star in a reality show about his life, he needs to be the first bachelor on the first gay season of Bachelor. It could fly…at least a lot better than Jake’s season did. Ha ha!)
PS-I know that this is not the best picture, and my second batch looked much prettier than this one, but food photography is a whole new issue. It was not the best ravioli to fry, and I still working on my frying techniques. I am just going to have to persevere and keep making this!
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