Mushroom Puree for Ravioli Filling

bronsonpetti

I need some help forming a recipe. I am hosting a dinner party for 50 with some friends. Our fourth course is a Hanger, woodgrilled, with eggjam (sousvide eggs at 67c then blended w/ lemon juice and salt) and chicken of the woods mushrooms. The dinner is on June 20th.
I am looking to make a large ravioli, about four inches in diameter, and filling it with a chicken of the woods puree. I have access to a woodfire oven and I was thinking about starting the cooking process in there. I would go in the oven after service for a while a low temperatures. I just check "on food and cooking" by mcgee and he says its important to only cook mushrooms at low temperatures to compress their flavor without halting the processes that do so with high temps.
Any ideas for a good mushroom puree recipe?

Matthew_Snyder_68770

A 4" raviolo? That's a lot of puree per order. What other ingredients are going into the puree? Or is it just mushrooms? Take care that your puree is not too liquidy, otherwise it will wreck the pasta. My suggestion would be to blend it coarsely so it maintains a sort of chunkiness; in fact, you might even consider rough chopping everything by hand. Consider also making a barrier between the puree and the side walls of the raviolo using ricotta, so it would be like the giant uova da raviolo, where the puree is sort of nested in a ring of ricotta. (Or spinach puree, or arugula puree, or.... or........ you get the idea)

This is Tom Colicchio's recipe for pan roasted mushrooms from Think Like A Chef. It's pretty much how I like to do it, minus the addition of tarragon. Or you could do the ChefSteps method of coarsely chopping the mushrooms, drizzling with oil and salt, and whacking them into a 425°F oven for 20-25 minutes or so. To me, higher heat/shorter cook time helps enhance the texture of the mushroom, the chew. That isn't a concern for a puree, so maybe you could do the ChefSteps method, but in a slower oven (~325° ?) for maybe 35 or 40 minutes. Take this method and apply it to the woodfire grill you'll have at the site. Mushroom + smoke = happy eating, imo.

Good luck, and remember: Pics, or it didn't happen.