Homemade Ravioli

Yesterday, Gina came over the the morning to show Paula and I how to make homemade Ravioli.  We also made Rondelli.  We had such a good time. We filled the ravioli with a filling of ricotta and pears.  Oh my, it was really good.  Ravioli are one of my favorite dishes to order when we eat out.  But I always complain that they don't give you enough.  Usually five or six is all.  After making them and seeing how long it takes, I will appreciate every taste of those five or six Ravioli.

Step 1.  Make the pasta from 1 kg. flour, 4 eggs, 4 Tablespoon olive oil, and work in water a little at a time on the table.  About a cup and a half total.

Step 2:  knead th dough for about ten minutes.  It's a very stiff hard dough.  Not soft like for bread.

Step 3:  we used a pasta maker to roll out the dough in long lengths.

Step 4:  Then we made the filling: 

 2 cups of Ricotta, 3/4 cup of grated Parmesan cheese, 1/2 cup of cubed mozzarella cheese, 2 T. Fresh parsley, salt and pepper to taste, 2 eggs, 2T. Bread crumbs, 2 pears cut up in small pieces and heated in a skillet for a few minutes with a shake of sugar over them.

Here is the filling with the ricotta.  It was so good, I just wanted to eat it all by itself! 

Stap 5:  We dabbed just a small teaspoon of filling every three or four inches in the middle of each pasta length.  And by finger, wet the dough with water in a semicircle around the bottom half of each filling blob, being sure to keep about a 1/4 inch away from filling.  Then we folded the dough in half and pressed the pasta together around each ravioli so that they were sealed tight and no air bubbles were inside.

Then we cut them in a little more than half circles, and pressed the edges with a fork to seal them tight.

                               We made 38!  And wow were they yummy.

We boiled them in salted water for about 5-7 minutes.  You can then toss them in a little olive oil and sprinkle sage over them.  I have had them with a yummy lemon white sauce over them, or you can eat them plain.  If you don't add pear to the filling, you can add ham or chicken or hamburger to the filling instead and then pour a red sauce over them just before you serve them hot.