Food,  Pasta,  Vegetables

Success! Homemade Ravioli

October 26, 2010 /

Yes! I did it! I finally made the leap and made my very own homemade pasta! I have always heard how people say that pasta made from scratch is so much better than store bought. However, I was never brave enough or frankly had enough time to make homemade pasta. Well, this weekend while I was sick and curled up in my blanket reading my book (Blood Men), that I actually finished this weekend – it is amazing how much reading you can get done if you sit still for a while, I decided that I was going to attack my fear and just do it…MAKE THE PASTA!

Pasta is actually pretty simple to make. There are few ingredients and honestly, you don’t need a pasta maker. It would make things a lot easier…but I don’t currently own one. A rolling pin will do the trick, might take a bit longer, but it will do the trick. The only drawback is that it does take time to make pasta. So allow yourself a good time slot if you plan to make any.

Ingredients for Pasta:

  • 3 cups flour
  • 5 egg yolks
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • Enough water to make a smooth dough

Directions for making the dough:

  1. Beat the egg yolks and add them to a mixing bowl that is filled with the flour and salt. Use your hands to form the dough. If you cannot get all the flour hydrated into the dough, just add a bit of water until you get a nice and sticky dough.
  2. Knead the dough for about 10 minutes, or until it is smooth and stretchy. Let the dough rest for about 20 minutes (I have been told that the proteins in the dough relax if you let it sit for a bit after kneading). I put my mixing bowl over top of the dough so it did not dry out.

Just a few side notes for help: I found that I had to add quite a bit of water into this mixture to get it to become “sticky”. I would say almost 1/2 cup. The recipe said you could add more egg yolks, but considering I already had 5 egg whites with nothing to do with I went with the water instead. (I actually made myself a killer egg white omelet the next morning, yum!)

Also, keep your flour handy. This dough is very sticky and it WILL stick to your counter-top if you do not lay down flour before you place the down down to knead it.
Ok, so we let the dough rest for 20 minutes….

TADA! Ain't she bootiful?

Directions for Rolling out the Pasta sheets:

  1. Tear off a bigger than a golf ball but smaller than a baseball sized hunk of dough and flatten it with you hand. Make sure you sprinkle that flour on the table!
  2. Roll the dough with the rolling pin firmly a few time and after a few good rolls, lift the dough sheet off the counter and flip it over, adding a bit more flour of course. Use as little amount of flour as possible but always keep the dough loose and sliding on the counter.
  3. Keep rolling and flipping and rolling and flipping until the dough is paper thin.

Again some side notes: It will take a while for to roll the dough out, but the thinner you get it the better. I promise! Also, don’t worry if the dough sheet ends up being odd shaped. It won’t matter one bit 😉

Directions for Cutting the Ravioli:

  1. I actually used a water glass, but you can use a cookie/biscuit cutter to make the circles. Anything that has 3-4″ diameter will work out just perfect.
  2. Use the glass or cookie/biscuit cutter to make  your circles. Repeat until you have used all the dough.

Side note: make sure to thoroughly flour the circles when you are done cutting them. Those little suckers LOVE to stick together! Just a warning, hehe

Now onto the filling for the ravioli! This filling is simple and easy and deeeeellicious!

Ingredients for Filling:

  • 1/2 lb of fresh spinach
  • 1/2 lb ricotta cheese
  • 2 tablespoons fresh chopped garlic
  • 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • Salt and Pepper to taste

This is super easy…all you have to do is heat the olive oil in the pan. Throw in your garlic and let it brown up a bit. Put in your fresh spinach and cook if for 5ish minutes and that is it!

Drain your spinach. Try to get as much extra liquid out of it as possible. Place into a bowl with salt, pepper, ricotta, and mozzarella. Give it a good toss together and then let it cool in the refrigerator until you are ready to fill the pasta.

how pretty is that?

Here we go now, we are nearing the finish!

Directions for Filling the Ravioli:

  1. Place the circles that you have cut on the counter for yourself in rows. Place about a teaspoon of the filling onto each circle. Use as much filling as you possibly can get away with.
  2. In a bowl, beat and egg and then using your finger, spread the beaten egg around the outside of the pasta circle. This will provide the seal/glue for top portion of the pasta.
  3. Use the left over circles and place on top of each filled circle. Press together the edges that have the egg to seal the Ravioli shut.

Side notes: make sure you keep plenty of flour on these Ravioli. They will stick together if you don’t. Also, I had WAY too many Ravioli after I rolled out all the dough. You can freeze the extras. Place them onto a cookie sheet and put them into the freezer for a few hours. Once they are frozen place them into a Tupperware and woohoo! you have dinner one night when you don’t feel like making anything! (the frozen Ravioli will only take 1-2 minutes longer to cook than the fresh)

Next is the easy part! Bring your water to a boil, and place the fresh Ravioli straight into the boiling pot. They will take between 4-5 minutes to cook.

 

 

Now, we plate….

NomNoms

Can you believe it?! I made my own pasta! YAY! 🙂 I was so proud of myself for actually making this AND it turned out really good! I can’t say that I would do this every time I have pasta, but it was so much fun and it ended up being really yummy!

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