Adventures in Ravioli

So last night I decided it would be a good idea to try making homemade ravioli, from scratch. I started off enthusiastic, thinking it will be one of those challenges I can learn from. Boy was I right. Luckily after all was said and done, we had a yummy dinner and they didnt look half bad. And this picture here is proof. Thats right! Thats not some photo I stole from a site. That was taken, last night, in my kitchen, with my rolling pin and jar of semolina flour. Mhmm.. alright. Enough gloating.

For those who wish to partake in the same adventure I am going to link you to the recipes that I used from various sites. I will also interject my own comments and suggestions.

The first step is making the pasta dough. This takes a bit of effort if you, like me, dont have an electric mixer and need to do it by hand. This allrecipes.com recipe has photos and step by step instructions.

Something they left out...(that would have been nice to know)
In Step 2, when you start to mix the egg with the flour, slowly mix from the inside out, depending on the humidity and size of your eggs you may not need to mix in all of the flour. just keep adding until it starts to firm up and stop being sticky. dont force the rest of the flour making it dry and hard to work with.

While your wrapped up pasta dough is sitting around, this is the perfect time to make your filling. The great thing about making homemade ravioli is that you can stuff them with whatever you like. I chose to go with a more traditional ricotta cheese/egg/parmesan cheese mix. But in the future i plan to mix in some pesto, or spinach. or even try some non conventional fillings like the mashed potatoe ones listed in their recipe, or a butternut squash mix. The possibilities are endless.

How much stuffing you make depends on how many raviolis, how big they are, etc. so i would just try and guesstimate. But if you follow their recipe of 3 cups of semolina flour and 3 eggs, you'll probably need a cups worth of filling.

The next step is making the noodles. This also can take a bit of effort, if you, again like me, dont have a pasta machine and need to roll the noodles flat by hand. This allrecipes.com recipe again has nice photos and easy to follow steps. (if you dont have a machine skip to step 14 and get rolling.

While rolling keep in mind the shap of the noodle you want to make. If you are using a mold you will need a long noodle that is wide enough to cover the mold completely. Also make sure to keep dusting the surface with flour and flipping over so stuff doesnt stick.

This is the kind of ravioli mold that I used. You can make your ravioli anyway you want, but using the mold is an easy way to have uniformed looking squares. To use the mold you need one wide long rolled out sheet of pasta. You dust a little flour on the mold and then lay the noodle ontop. Gently with your fingers you can press the noodles into the indents to make a little space for the filling.

Once your first noodle is on the mold you can start filling each little try with a small amount of filling. Depending on the size of your tray you want to make sure the filling doesnt over flow. just enough to fill the space.

When all your little trays are full then you take your second long wide noodle and gently lay it over the filled mold. with your hands flatten it out carefully to try and get rid of any extra air pockets. once this is done you can use your rolling pin to roll firmly across the top. The mold has raised separations that will cut each ravioli out.

When you are done, in theory, you can just turn your mold over and the little raviolis will pop out. (i had to carefully peel mine out because i forgot to dust the mold with flour)

So there you go, perfect, or not so perfect ravioli that you made! To cook submerge them in boiling salted water for 3-4 minutes. Fresh pasta doesnt take as long to cook.

If you want to freeze the ravioli for later, place the ravioli in a single layer on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Do not throw the ravioli together in a bowl. It will stick together. Put the entire cookie sheet into the freezer. Once the ravioli has frozen, you can remove the pasta and put them into bags.