Wild Thyme Gourmet | bits and breadcrumbs

As mentioned in my last post, my husband and I took a little jaunt to the Highlands, North Carolina area for a weekend early this Spring. We had the good fortune to make reservations at a wonderful restaurant in downtown Highlands, Wild Thyme Gourmet. Last time I shared my version of the dish I ordered that night, the Provençal Vegetable Ragout with Soft Cheese Polenta…truly an out of this world dish.

But that wasn’t the only amazing and inspiring dish on the table that night!

Now I’d like to share a re-creation of the dish my husband ordered, a ricotta and tapenade stuffed ravioli with tomato sauce and fresh basil. My version features the same very easy to make tapenade recipe by Jacques Pépin that I used in the last post, and you can find that recipe here. This tapenade makes an outstanding appetizer on its own served with crostini, as well as an excellent and savory ingredient for use in other dishes.

This fun-to-make ravioli comes together by simply placing a bit of the tapenade and an equal amount of a creamy ricotta mixture onto some pre-made wonton wrappers, then fold, seal, boil, drain and serve with fresh basil and tomato sauce. And when it’s done, get ready for an unbelievable pop of lively flavors that will tingle your taste buds. Va, va voom! I think my version is even better than the dish from the restaurant. Click on the first picture below to scroll through the slideshow with basic instructions for the process, then try out the recipes for the tapenade, ravioli and sauce, and judge how good this is for yourself.

Stir together ricotta, lemon zest and herbs.

Lay one wrapper on flat surface and brush edges with egg.

Add 1 teaspoon tapenade and 1 teaspoon ricotta mixture.

Gently fold opposite corners to make a triangle.

Gently press the edges together.

Crimp edges with tines of fork to seal.

Finished raviloi.

Lay ravioli on a lightly floured surface until all are done.

Ravioli ready to boil.

They will be done in 3-5 minutes

Warm your sauce while the ravioli boils.

Layer a little sauce into the bottom of the dish, then place ravioli on top.

Finish the ravioli with sauce and garnish with fresh basil.

Keeping in mind how versatile the tomato sauce is for other dishes, it is well worth the effort to make your own and spin your leftovers into more delicious dinners. Here are a few ideas for doing just that: Italian Sliders, Pizza with Prosciutto and Arugula, Herbed Turkey and Veggie Meatloaf, Shakshuka (recipe coming soon) and of course, the Provençal Vegetable Ragout with Soft Cheese Polenta. You can also use the sauce as a base for your favorite spaghetti recipe, in a pasta casserole, on a meatball sub and in any recipe that calls for a marinara or red pasta sauce.

Herbed Ricotta and Olive Tapenade Ravioli with Tomato Sauce and Fresh Basil
Serves 2, can be doubled

16 Won Ton Wrappers (such as Nasoya)
16 teaspoons prepared olive tapenade (seriously, try Jacques Pépin’s link above)
16 teaspoons part-skim ricotta cheese
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
1 teaspoon chopped fresh basil
1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon zest, finely chopped
1 egg lightly beaten to use as an egg wash
1 1/2 cups homemade or your favorite tomato sauce (see recipe below)
Fresh basil leaves for garnish

Mix together the ricotta, thyme and lemon zest in a small bowl. Working one at a time, lay one wonton wrapper on a flat surface and brush just the edges with beaten egg. Fill one half of the wonton wrapper with 1 teaspoon of tapenade and 1 teaspoon of ricotta mixture. Fold over the wonton carefully, opposite corner to corner, to make a triangle and then gently press on the edges to seal. Use the tines of a fork to gently press and completely seal and crimp the edges. Lay each ravioli on a lightly floured surface such as a baking sheet, while preparing the remaining ravioli. Repeat the filling and sealing process 15 more times. When all of the ravioli are prepared, cook in a large pot of boiling and slightly salted water for 3-5 minutes, or until al dente. Drain gently, preferably removing the ravioli from the water with a large slotted spoon. To serve, ladle a small amount of the warmed tomato sauce into each of two large bowls or plates, top with 8 ravioli, then ladle more warmed tomato sauce on top and finish with a sprinkling of chopped and whole fresh basil leaves.

Homemade Tomato Sauce
(Slightly modified from Mario Batali’s Basic Tomato Sauce Recipe)
Makes about 8 cups of sauce

1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 medium red onion, diced
4 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
3 Tablespoons of fresh thyme, minced
¹⁄₂cup shredded carrot
2- 28 ounce cans of whole, peeled tomatoes in juice
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Heat olive oil over medium heat, add onion, garlic and cook until soft and light golden brown, 8 to 10 min. Add thyme and carrot and cook 5 minutes more. Add the tomatoes and juice and bring to a boil, stirring often and breaking up the tomatoes with your spoon. Lower the heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Season with salt and black pepper. Taste and add more seasoning if necessary. Will keep tightly sealed in fridge for one week or frozen for 3 months.

Spring has popped here in Atlanta and we are leafed out! It’s been so pretty here, but the weather continues to be fickle…hot one day and downright cold the next with freezing temperatures coming this weekend, which is not good for azaleas. Still, the longer days and beautiful spring colors are most welcome.

A few weeks ago as the first buds were starting to show, we took a jaunt up to Cashiers, North Carolina for the weekend. It was still very much winter there, but the hiking was magnificent. Our close proximity to Highlands—which is only 15 minutes from Cashiers—meant that we could check out some very good new restaurants. One of them was Wild Thyme Gourmet. This restaurant used to be in a very small cottage a block or so off the main street of Highlands. They had little to no seating other than outdoors, but we had lunch there a couple of times and it was good. A few years ago they moved into a much larger space right on the main street and expanded their menu. It is now a fine restaurant worthy of reservations!

The night we dined at Wild Thyme Gourmet, both my husband and I were drawn to the vegetarian dishes on the menu. He ordered the ricotta and tapenade stuffed ravioli with fresh basil and tomato sauce. I ordered a Provençal vegetable ragout with soft polenta. The vegetables were meltingly delicious with a slightly smoky and rich undertone and were incorporated into a tomatoey sauce with briney kalamata olives. This was served atop a nutty and cheesey tasting soft polenta with just a few crumbles of soft, fresh goat cheese scattered on top. Both dishes were outstanding, so much so that the taste haunted me all the way back to Atlanta…and you know what that means!

So here’s my recreation of that delicious dish, which started off by making Jacques Pépin’s exceptionally wonderful version of tapenade which you can see here. While it wasn’t exactly like the dish at the restaurant, we thought it was every bit as good. And you guessed it, the next post will be my husband’s ravioli dish, so stay tuned.

Provençal Vegetable Ragout with Soft Cheese Polenta
Serves 6

For the Ragout:
2 medium uncooked zucchini, split in half lengthwise
2 medium yellow summer squash, split in half lengthwise
1 each red, yellow, orange and green bell pepper, halved, stemmed and seeded
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 medium red onion, peeled and diced
1 Tablespoon minced garlic
3 medium plum tomatoes, diced
1/4 cup tomato paste
1 1/2 Tablespoons Kalamata olive tapenade, preferably homemade
12 Kalamata olives, pitted and halved
1 1/2 fluid oz. Pernod or Pastis liquor
1 1/2 oz. unsalted vegetable stock, preferably homemade
1 Tablespoon Italian Parsley, chopped
2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves, chopped
1 Tablespoon fresh basil, chopped, plus extra leaves for garnish
1 Tablespoon soft fresh goat cheese, crumbled

For the Polenta:
3 cups unsalted vegetable stock, preferably homemade
3/4 cup skim or 1% milk
4 Tablespoons half-and-half
1 cup whole-grain yellow cornmeal
3/4 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese

Freshly ground black pepper and kosher salt

Place the halves of zucchini, squash and peppers on a medium high heat grill or grill pan and grill both sides just until you have nice char marks. Remove from the heat and dice into 1/2 inch pieces.

Place olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and the garlic and cook until fragrant. Add the zucchini, squash, and peppers and cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are starting to get tender. Add the tomato, tomato paste, olives, tapenade, vegetable stock, herbs and the Pernod or Pastis and cook on low heat, covered, until the tomatoes are soft and all the ingredients are integrated, about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Turn off heat and leave covered while making the polenta.

Bring the 3 cups vegetable stock, milk and half and half to a gentle boil. Add the cornmeal slowly while whisking and then turn the heat to low. Continue to whisk until the polenta is creamy and tender to the bite, about 5-8 minutes. Add the parmesan and some freshly ground black pepper. Taste and add salt if needed. Serve 3/4 cup polenta with 1/6 of the ragout on top. Finish with a tiny sprinkle of goat cheese and a spring of basil, if desired.

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For those of you “Jones-ing” for spring, rest assured it is on its way. Here are some pics from our yard and neighborhood to tide you over.

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