Make Your Own Pasta

When I make a homemade pasta dish (which is nowhere near often), it's very apparent that I'm a novice home cook that has no idea what the hell she's doing, and that there has probably never been a single Italian person in our family tree. My pasta is awkward and my sauces look terrible, but everything tastes pretty good (with some room for improvement). It's fun to try, though!

I had some time to myself this weekend, and chose (because I AM INSANE) to spend a chunk of it on my feet in the kitchen, covered in flour. I'll start off with the basic pasta recipe that I have...
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PASTA DOUGH

• 1¼ cups flour
• Pinch of salt, to taste
• 1 tbs water
• 1 tbs oil
• 3 eggs

I made two batches of this dough, because I had a big bowl of filling to use up and wanted to make enough food to freeze. One batch will make a good sized meal, though.

Sift flour/salt lightly. Beat eggs and mix with water and oil. Gradually add to flour. Knead until smooth on floured surface. Cover in a bowl and let stand 15 minutes.

After it rests, what you do with it is up to you. If you have a pasta roller, awesome - less arm cramps for you! If not, break out the rolling pin, flour a surface, and roll your dough out as thin as you can get it. Then you can shape it however you want, fill it with whatever you want, and generally get as creative as you feel like getting.
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I did not feel super creative, I just wanted some cheese ravioli. So I played with the recipe for the ricotta filling that goes in lasagna. I mixed a tub of ricotta (about 28 oz of a 32 oz container) with 1 egg, 3 oz of shredded Parmesan and Romano (bought pre-shredded and mixed), and good shakes of salt, pepper, basil and parsley. That is probably where you should stop, stir, and call it done.

You may be tempted to add mozzarella, from a bag. Don't do that, because a) the mozzarella will make the cheese filling stringy when hot, and b) pre-shredded cheese in a bag does not melt well. You may also be tempted to throw in a little cheddar, for color. Don't do that, either, because cheddar is oily and will make the filling clump all up when you cook it. It will taste fine! But the texture won't be creamy and smooth.

I learned a lot this weekend.

Here are some pictures of the whole process, just for some idea of what you're in for. There may be an easier way to shape ravioli, but this is what I came up with:


line up little balls of filling...


tuck them in...


and cut them out!

That shot glass is one of the most useful things in my kitchen, FYI. Also, I abandoned this nice easy assembly line as I ran lower and lower on dough, but it's fun at first and goes quickly. You might have air trapped in some of the ravioli, but you can push the bubbles out as you pinch them closed. If your dough does not pinch closed very well, dip your finger in water and trace the edges.

Once you've made your pasta creation of choice, you can boil them in salted water right away (about 10 minutes for the ravioli), or line up your pieces on a cookie sheet (not touching each other) and stick them in the freezer. Once they're frozen, you can put them in a freezer bag and store them away for next time you want an easy meal.

Sauce? Oh, anything you want. Part of the fun of pasta is pairing fillings with sauces in any combination you want. I made a tomato meat sauce for my ravioli, and will probably blog about it tomorrow.



This pasta dish:

A) Looks bad
B) Tastes good
C) CARBS!
D) All of the above

A: D