Tuesday, November 29, 2011

The one where I play a food blogger....

If I were ACTUALLY one, I'd have better lighting figured out. And, my 5 yr old took pictures. But, since I'm just pretending, we'll have to live with what I've got.

Meat Ravioli - obviously you can sub this out for cheese, spinach, whatever makes you happy. I love meat, though, so we had meat.

Pasta recipe I used was this one from Tyler Florence. Super easy. As the commenters noted, I did have to add some water to the dough to get it right... see below. I don't have a dough hook, so I did the mixing by hand.

I started my tomato sauce before any pasta making - crushed tomatoes, salt, pepper, basil, parsley, oregano, garlic, onion, a splash of balsamic vinegar, and a dash of parmesan cheese. Simmer.

First, pile up your flour and mix in the salt, build a mound, and dig a hole. Put the eggs and oil in side the hole, then whisk GENTLY with a fork. Then, slowly start mixing in with the fingers on one hand - use the other hand to kind of brace the outside of the flour wall. It is sticky and messy at first.

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(Yes, I know I'm a messy cook, and my hands are skeletal. Creepy.)

Mix the flour in until it's all incorporated.

If you need to add more water at this point, do so about a tablespoon at a time... Then, start kneading.

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Knead on a lightly floured surface about 10 minutes, until the dough becomes pretty elasticy (You see, there, how official I am?). Then, brush/spray the outside lightly with olive oil, and wrap in plastic wrap (or parchment) for about 30 minutes to rest.

If you're going with meat ravioli, now is when you want to lightly brown your meat. I used lean ground beef, just browned with salt, pepper, onion, garlic, oregano, and basil, then drained. I've also done this with half pork/half beef, and it was also delicious. But if you want to go non-meat route, any melty type of cheese will do - ricotta, mozzarella, goat cheese... and add spinach, because spinach is delicious, too. When it's done cooking, lay the meat out to cool while you work on the pasta dough.

If you're rolling this out with a pasta roller, go read Tyler's recipe. If you're rolling it out by hand like I did, continue.

I cut my dough ball into quarters, and shaped each quarter into a rough rectangle.
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(Keep the extra dough covered while you work through it.)

On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out into a long, thin rectangle. You're looking for very, very thin sheets here - you should be able to see through the sheets. Like so....
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I stacked my rolled out sheets on parchment, and added parchment between the sheets while I kept rolling out the rest of the dough.
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Then, cut strips out of your sheets. Be smart - you're putting in about a teaspoon of filling here, so make sure you account for extra space to seal the dough. I suck at this part and apparently can't cut in a straight line, but you really want about a 2.5" wide strip.
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While you start filling, bring a GIANT pot of water to a boil. I'm not joking about giant. You want a LOT of space to let the ravioli float about.

I fill mine assembly line style a row of filling, with about an inch in between. Then eggwash between the fillings (1 egg with 1 tsp water, beaten, then brushed on the pasta), drawing a little square around the filling.

Then, add the top sheet to the bottom, and seal between the filling pockets. This is tedious - you have to kind of push around the filling to get as much air out as you can, and then seal the outsides.

Then, I use a pizza cutter to trim up the edges and cut between the pieces to create ravioli. If I were fancier, I'd have prettier ravioli. Alas, square is my favorite shape.

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Keep doing that, for what seems like forever (seriously, it's a pretty time-intensive project).

Once you have all of your ravioli's cut, be ready to move fast, because they cook FAST. My kitchen is tiny, so I was doing all of this on the dining room table, and made The H clean up while I cooked the pasta. Thanks, H.[

So, in your pot of boiling water, you want to cook these in batches so you don't crowd the pot. I did just two batches, because I had a seriously giant pot.

Into boiling water, for 4 minutes. Remove, drain, serve with sauce and grated cheese, and delicious crusty bread.

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Eat. The end.

7 comments:

  1. Wow I am coming to your house to eat! It looks delish. I wouldn't have the patience to do this.

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  2. heather. YOU MADE RAVIOLI. i mean, freaking all of it. crazy.

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  3. I am beyond impressed. That looks amazing!

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  4. the last picture needs a TADAM!!!!
    looks really good!

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  5. Ok, well, you've got me fooled into thinking you ARE a food blogger! Really impressive.

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  6. THIN is key or else they come out clunky. I have a machine to roll it out but I wonder if I could get it even thinner rolling by hand. The lowest setting almost feels like it's still not thin enough.

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