My Ravioli Recipe

I love the tupperware ravioli maker that I got from my friend Anne. Works great with my pasta machine, ha!

Making your own pasta is a lot easier than it sounds, although here are a few tips:

- pasta dough dries out pretty fast, so when you run it through the pasta machine or flatten it with a rolling pin--use up all the dough before it dries.

- put some flour in between your flattened sheets of pasta to keep from sticking

- be prepared for a mess if your kids help you

Basic pasta recipe:

3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3 large eggs
3 tablespoons olive oil

Make a little hole in the flour and put the eggs in it. Mix very, very thoroughly and slowly add the olive oil. Knead until smooth, this could take a while.
Let it sit in saran wrap for half an hour.


My ravioli fillings are as follows:

ricotta filling

1 cup ricotta
1 egg
salt
pepper
very finely chopped parsely (optional)

meat filling

1 cup of minced meat, I blend this one more time to make it very fine
1/4 onion, minced finely
salt
allspice



My tomato sugo:

1 can of whole, peeled tomatoes. (Or 4-6 fresh, peeled tomatoes)
2 cloves garlic, minced
olive oil
salt
sugar

Put a small saucepan on medium heat and add some olive oil when it's hot.
Add tomatoes and fry them just for a little.
Add water, until the tomatoes are covered. Add the garlic, equal amounts of salt and sugar. Some people also like a dash of balsamico.
Simmer and let the water almost evaporate, add more water and let it simmer again. Now you can either use a mixer to puree the tomatoes, or a potato masher if you want it more chunky.
Optional: add a handful of chopped basil and/or parsely

Boil the filled ravioli for about 3-5 minutes depending. Toss in either tomato or cream sauce and serve immediately.

Unfortunately for my blog viewers, we ate our delicious ravioli before I could take any pictures! :-)