Good Day all!!
I am having so much trouble pin-pointing why my ravioli’s are splitting sometimes when I freeze them. We have made an absolute commitment to featuring a ‘rav of the day’ everyday (or at least weekly) at our restaurant and it’s quite a bear. We do roughly 850-1000covers and will probably sell 160 ravioli specials, 4 to 5 rav’s a plate and your banging out 700-800 a week at least! (only open 5 nights)… So we have to, have to, have to make them in bulk and freeze them.
I’m about 70% on the pass to fail ratio, on what I would consider a successful large batch freeze. Complications ranging from, splits where the filing bulges due to freezing, and/or splits that you probably cannot ordinary see but allow water to leak in before the entire the rav filling is heated through. Mind you; any of these ravioli if made to order would hold up to even a brief rapid boil. So, we are not having seal problems or air problems. Most often the rav filling contains a house-made ricotta that we do more-than our due-diligence to make sure it is dry as can be. I don’t believe watery fillings is our problem; especially after learning from a butternut squash filling disaster!!!
I have been at this for about 6 months and cannot put my finger on why sometime I can freeze pasta and treat as rough as I want, boil it and then fry it brown butter and it comes out amazing, super durable. And, then sometime the dough is a complete failure or at least not up to a profession standard. Like I say, cooking the rav before freezing they are always good!
Ok so…my basic ‘pasta’ dough recipes is:
3 ½ cups four (2/3 AP, 1/3 semolina)
4 (whole) eggs
1/8 – ¼ cup olive oil
(whisking the oil into the eggs)
About 2 tbsp. of warm salted water, as needed
I use the well method most often, but sometimes use a machine Hobart with dough hook, (which works really good) and I make all variation from of pasta from squid ink, tomato, spinach, saffron, beet, stripped pasta dough have become quite a specialty of mine, and all have had success and failures in the freezer. And I have tried every variable of drying method… Dry for 30 minute and then into the freezer uncovered, straight into the freezer, covered in parchment only, covered in parchment and plastic wrap, parchment lined with corneal, parchment with literally a million pounds of four on it, dried and flipped over and over and straight onto the metal… I have found resting the dough overnight before you role it out does make a wonder of improvement. I just don’t know what actually works?
I can’t figure out the metric to making a consistent rav that will freeze foul-proof…
ERRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
Any advice!!!
Chef Dylan