ravioli

the last time i fiddled around with anything pasta, my success was a little greater, as i had my handy dandy pasta press. soooo...this was completely experimental.

i also didn't have one of those nifty ravioli cutters (for the prettiness factor), so that might be something else of interest, if wanting to try this out.

well anyway, the pasta recipe was fairly simple--adapted from tyler florence's ravioli recipe. I halved it, of course.

1.5 cups flour

1/2 tsp salt

2 eggs

1 tbsp. olive oil



It would probably work best to use a mixer with a dough hook, but gotta improvise when tools are missing at hand. Combine flour, salt, then add the eggs one at a time and continue to mix. Drizzle in your olive oil and continue to incorporate all the flour until the dough a ball is formed. Haha, as you can see, this doesn't quite work well with these particular attachments. (momentary pause to mourn separation from kitchen aid 600) but anyway...



as you can see, i didn't get very far with the mixer. decided to manhandle this with my magic wooden spoon...



After I felt it was coming together with the spoon, I finally threw my hand into it and kneaded the life out of the poor thing. What to expect: a very very elastic piece of dough. This is the nature of pasta dough (and why it's so crucial to have a flippin pasta press)...



So the directions say to wrap up the dough and let it rest for a while so the gluten relaxes for a bit.

In between I made my filling. It's really up to you how creative you would like to get, but again, just used whatever I had on hand, which was:

1/2 cup thick cottage cheese

1/4 cup shredded asiago

1/4 cup shredded kasseri

1/4 tsp pepper

1-2 tsp italian seasoning (or whatever spice you like--i chose italian, b/c it has a good blend of almost everything.



Mix it up all together, and try to keep it as thick as possible. I read some recipes which called for an egg. I skipped it, b/c my cottage cheese was pretty thick. Again, if you'd like to add meat, spinach, different cheese, etc. feel free.

So I made that, put it aside, and went back to my pasta.

Separated the one ball into two, and proceeded to roll the first half out into a long piece. This was hard work by hand, and would have been much better with the machine. I got it as thin as possible (the thicker, the longer it takes/harder it is for the pasta to cook)





When you've had enough playing, time to lay it out and fill. tyler florence says to make a rectangle...but yea, no that didn't happen! I put little blobs of my filling on the right side of the dough, and left enough room to fold it over in half, so I could cut squares and flute them.

I started out fluting them/sealing them with a fork, but ended up using my fingers to seal them up. You want to make sure they're sealed well enough so they don't open up when you're boiling them. tyler mentions using an egg wash to help the insides stick, but i skipped this part. luckily, i was successful enough with my fingers to seal them = )



Put some water to boil with a bit of cooking oil and a dash of salt. Once it's boiling, put in your finished raviolis. They should take about 15-20 minutes to cook.



While you're waiting, you can make any sauce of your choice. I opted for a marinara sauce. Sauteed some peppers, onions, and garlic, then added some pasta sauce, seasonings and let simmer.



And that's that, really. Once your raviolis are done, remove from the water, drain, and dress with your sauce as you'd like. Gsrnish with some shredded cheese.

Will definitely try this one again with the right tools...determined to get it right. However, for a first attempt, they weren't too bad. A little more al dente (ok fine, dense) than I would have liked, but it's a work in progress.