Tales from the Kitchen: Homemade Cheese Ravioli

My son Kyle and his wife, Lindsay, recently took a trip to Italy where they attended a cooking class and learned to make homemade pasta. If you look closely, you can see Kyle at the back of the picture, on the left, with Lindsay next to him at the end on the right. They received this recipe at the class. They’ve told us they’re going to have Elizabeth and me over for dinner so they can share what they learned. However, that hasn’t happened yet…so we wait in anticipation for the coming ravioli dinner. Enjoy this base recipe that you can adapt as you like :)

Ingredients (This recipe is for
one person. Remember to duplicate
if you are two, or triplicate if you are
three, and so on)

For the Pasta:

100 grams of 00 flour

1 medium egg

1 pinch of salt

For the Filling

Ricotta Cheese 200 g

Parmesan Cheese 20 g

Salt & Pepper

For a Butter Sage Sauce

Butter 40 g

Sage (up to 5 leaves)

Preparation:

1) Put the flour in the shape of a pyramid, and make a hole in the centre, add a pinch of salt, and put the egg in the middle. Begin to work the egg with a fork and slowly add the four. Once the ingredients are blended, knead the dough for 5 minutes.

2) Create a homogeneous dough, not too hard consistency. With your hands, make a cylinder and roll out the dough with a rolling pin, first in one direcction and the in the other. Take care to add the flour when needed so as not to stick the dough to the surface.

3) At the end of the operation, divide the strip, and then, arrange on the long side of the strip small heaps of ricotta, parmesan, already mixed together with pepper (you can help yourself with a teaspoon). Place them at a distance of 4 centimeters from each other. Once you have finished the strip of pasta in order to lay the filling, proceed to fold the strip of free dough, so as to cover the stuffing balls well. At this point, press your fingers around the filling so as to let the air escape and seal your ricotta and parmesan ravioli well (prevent them from opening and the filling from escaping during cooking).

4) Then cut the ravioli with the wheel and, as they are ready, place them on a floured cloth. Once the cropping operation is over, place in a saucepan with plenty of salted water (you can add a drizzle of oil to the boiling water so that the ravioli does not stick). Dip the ravioli and cook for a few minutes (ravioli will be cooked when they rise to the surface).

5) At this point take your ravioli with the aid of a slotted spoon. Melt the butter in a pan, add the ravioli and sage in that pan and toss them together for a few seconds. Add parmesan on top and everything is ready! YUMMY!

Bon Appetit,
Alain Guichard