Homemade Ravioli

Yes, this is the dinner referenced from my previous post “A Mother’s Nightmare”.  We made homemade ravioli!  It was super good, really easy, and well worth the time spent, if you can forget about the nightmarish incident that happened during the middle of this process.

We began by making the pasta dough. 

After messing around by hand for a couple of minutes, Chad wisely decided to let the mixer do its thing for 15 minutes while we moved on to making the filling.  I love my mixer!!  We had to survive without one for the month of April because a little plastic bushing had broken in our previous Kitchenaid that was not replaceable.   Chad replaced all the other gears, but the plastic bushing was the key.  The makes two Kitchenaid mixers shot in 11 years.  I hope the third one lasts a little longer.  Since we use our mixer daily, take could be asking a lot.

Once the dough has been kneaded and allowed to rest for 30 minutes (and I ran around looking for a lost child)  it is ready to begin rolling.

 

This is the fun part.  The kids love cranking the handle to roll out the sheet of pasta.  Next we lay a sheet of dough over a ravioli form and are ready to add the filling.

Chad made a sausage filling (on the left) and a ricotta cheese filling.    I loved the cheese and Chad preferred the meat.   That was not a surprise.

After each cavity has been filled you can now add another sheet to seal in the filling.    The ravioli form has raised edges that crimp and seal the ravioli.  It also makes it look very professional.   Alyssa liked to help crimp the edges and was a great help.

 

Next just dump the finished ravioli out of the form onto a floured surface.    Alyssa and Chad work on that while I take pictures for posterity. 

Viola, in no time a sheet full of delicious ravioli for dinner.

 

Then we just boiled them for a couple of minutes.  Fresh pasta cooks faster, just enough time to get the table set.

 

 

Doesn’t that look great? 

I know you all are going to go out and try this yourself so you know just what I am talking about.    We even had homemade sauce, but that will have to wait for another time.