Three Cheese Ravioli

Ravioli -- thin sheets of pasta encasing spoonfuls of deliciously creamy, cheesy filling, perfumed with fragrant basil; what's not to love? I've made homemade pasta several times now, but I've always cut it up into thin, flat sheets. It was time to try something a little more involved and attempt a filled pasta. Of course ravioli was the first thing that came to mind, it seems to be the most popular (or at least most common) form of filled pasta. Rolling all the dough by hand took some time, but I was in no hurry, and the finished product was definitely worth it. I thought they looked like little edible pillows, perfect for pulling out of the freezer when I don't have a lot of time for dinner.

I found a very simple pasta dough recipe online and whipped it together, I don't know how it compares with other pasta dough recipes, all I know is that it seemed to do the job and was quite tasty. For the filling I just made up a cheesy mixture of ricotta, parmesan and mozzarella along with some chopped basil, salt and pepper, and then added an egg to hold it all together a little better. It's hard to go wrong with these ingredients, just eyeball it and taste as you go and it should turn out delicious.

I ended up making a triple batch of the dough and ended up with about 36 ravioli. I ate a few for dinner and then froze the rest of them on floured cookie sheets before bagging them up for later. It has been so great to be able to open up my freezer, pull out a few homemade ravioli, and drop them into boiling water. Heat up some leftover tomato sauce for a few minutes and you've got dinner.

Making homemade ravioli was a fun way to spend an afternoon, and the end result was tasty and convenient. This is a project I will for sure do again when I have a couple of free hours. It's a great accomplishment.

Starting to roll out the dough

Hope you have a lot of muscle

There are many methods for making ravioli,

I did it by cutting out circles with a cookie cutter

Getting a little silly in the kitchen

Lots of little circles

Grab your filling

Scoop a small spoonful into the center of a round of dough

Cover it with a second circle of dough

Use the tines of a fork to seal in the filling

Lay them out in a single layer as you go

Boil up some water and heat your sauce

Drop the ravioli into the salted water

In they go!

Let them cook up in the water for a little bit

Once they start to float they are done, it only takes a few minutes

I laid them out on a paper towel for a minute because

I don't like when my ravioli is all watery

Top with tomato sauce and parmesan cheese

Enjoy!

Basic Pasta Dough

From Allrecipes

Ingredients

• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons water

Directions

In a medium sized bowl, combine flour and salt. Make a well in the flour, add the slightly beaten egg, and mix. Mixture should form a stiff dough. If needed, stir in 1 to 2 tablespoons water.

On a lightly floured surface, knead dough for about 3 to 4 minutes. With a pasta machine or by hand roll dough out to desired thinness. Use machine or knife to cut into strips of desired width.