When I'm not working...

I thought I would use today's post to give a glimpse into my life outside of work travels. When I'm not working, which admittedly, isn't often these days, I love to cook. So this Sunday I had some friends over for a big pasta dinner. Growing up we always had pasta on Sundays and I've continued that tradition. I try to make a big pot of sauce, probably every other month, and freeze it in individual portions. More recently I started making my own pasta as well. When this weekend came up I decided to give ravioli a try for the first time.

4 cups of unbleached, all purpose flour

6 eggs, 1 tsp of salt, 1 tsp of olive oil, whisked and poured into the well in the flour

Stir the egg mixture in the well

Gradually increasing the size of the well...

Stir in as much as possible until you give up and decide to use your hands and form a rough ball

Kneed the dough for 10 to 20 minutes

Let the dough rest (in a mixing bowl covered with saran wrap) for at least an hour

Cut the dough into 6 equal portions (and then cut each in half again because your counter space isn't long enough to hold the full length of pasta dough)

Feed the dough through the pasta maker, starting at the largest setting, pass through each setting twice, stopping at the second to smallest setting (wonder why they have a smaller setting if you're not supposed to use it).

Keep passing through pasta machine...

 Lay the pasta sheet out on the counter and place dollops of cheese mixture (ricotta, pecorino romano, egg, parsley, salt and pepper) across the sheet

Lay the other side of the pasta over the first side and smooth out air

Use crimper thing to seal and cut ravioli (and make them look pretty)

Place ravioli on dishtowel, covered with cornmeal until ready to cook.

Make pasta sauce.

Eat

Drink

and be merry.


(* Recipe adapted from Lidia's Italian Table)