All Photos By Gail

Hello and welcome to another installment of Cooking with Gail: the series that is all about me making a meal from whatever I can find in my house. The weather has been a bit inclement here in NYC just recently, and getting out to the store can be a pain. On a recent snowy and bitterly cold evening, I was staring down my open refrigerator in search of ingredients to make into some kind of interesting meal.

There are about 40 Wonton Wrappers in Each Package!

The first intriguing item I found was a package of Nasoya brand Wonton Wraps. My neighbors have used these wraps and absolutely rave about how great they are for filling with just about any kind of leftover, so I knew they would be adaptable to my creativity – or lack thereof! In the Freezer/Fridge I also found:

One 4-ounce Ground Beef Burger courtesy of Omaha Steaks

Jarred Pasta Sauce

Sartori brand Asiago Cheese

Thus the idea for Italian Style Wontons was born!

Here are all of the ingredients laid out, with the wontons now ready to be assembled. Don’t worry if you have no idea what are doing (raises hand), as a step by step, visual guide on how to fold and seal a wonton is included in the package.

They also include a few recipes, which were helpful to use for reference in deducing how exactly the wontons should be cooked. More about that later.

Into the center of each wonton wrapper put one small teaspoon of meat sauce topped with a small pinch of cheese. I am not kidding when I say that you must not put more than one teaspoon of filling in each wonton. If you overfill them they will not be easy to seal, and then you will be sad.

This what they look like once they are all pinched and twisted. Pretty! You may be surprised (I sure was) to know that just 4 ounces of cooked, lean ground beef yields 15 plump wontons! Wow, what a feast!

Here they are all ready for the oven! Before baking, brush each wonton lightly with melted margarine and be sure to spray the pan with non-stick cooking spray or just brush with leftover melted margarine (which is what I did).

There was not an exact cooking time or temperature recommended for my on-the-fly creation, so I came up with a baking estimate of 425 degrees for 8 minutes. This proved to be pretty accurate, as the wontons came out lightly golden brown, and slightly browner and crispier on the bottom, which was very desirable.

Since I was basically experimenting, I baked the wontons in two batches. This is what the second batch looked like coming out of the oven. As you can see, they are a bit dark at the edges (though this yielded no discernible burnt taste). I chock that up to the oven being really hot after having cooked the first batch. I’d recommend that if you are going to use the “batch method,” that you lower the oven temperature by 25 degrees and cut the cooking time down to 7 minutes for the second batch. Your mileage may vary.

Now you are ready to eat these delicious morsels of goodness, so just arrange them on a plate with a small dish of warm marinara sauce for dipping (I used the leftover shredded Asiago cheese for a garnish). Mmm…so super tasty! I would like to point out also that it is perfectly OK for you to eat these wontons using only your hands. And as everyone knows, eating with ones hands makes all foods taste better. Enjoy!

For delicious recipes and additional information on Nasoya Wonton Wraps, and other Nasoya Products, please visit Nasoya Dot Com.