so remember those salted caramel brownies?  yeah those were good, well on the same day that tammy and i made the brownies we also made four cheese ravioli with a broccoli cream pesto.  boy was it good – it was actually so good that i made the dish again the next weekend.  i just got my ravioli press in the mail so i wanted to try it out.

i love using the ravioli press – you can make so many at once.  12 of them!  yes!  but when tammy and i first made ravioli we didn’t have one.  so i’ll show you both ways.  i also learned some great tips and strategies when using a ravioli press after having too many of them lose their filling while they’re boiling.  i hope they help you when you try your hand at ravioli making.

this four cheese ravioli is super flavorful – it has of course, four different kinds of cheese: ricotta, mozzarella, provolone, and parmesan as well as a few different herbs including basil, oregano, and parsley plus some garlic too.  they are great with this broccoli pesto or marinara sauce.  although they take some work, it’s well worth it once you bite through the fresh, perfectly cooked pasta and then into the flavor packed, gooey cheese.

of course, the ravioli making process starts with fresh pasta.

roll it out according to your past maker’s instructions.  i have the atlast 150 pasta maker and i roll out my dough to the number 5 or 6 setting and found that it was the perfect thickness for ravioli.  you don’t want it too thick because the edges of the ravioli is double the thickness of the dough, so it may get chewy and not cooked thoroughly – and you don’t want it to thin because then it will tear and not have enough give to make room for the filling.

now that your pasta is ready, it’s time to mix up the filling.  combine all of the ingredients (cheese, herbs, garlic, salt, pepper and egg) into a medium bowl.

mix it all up and your ravioli filling is ready.  easy peasy!

now time to assemble the ravioli.  first up, here’s how to make the ravioli if you don’t have a ravioli press.  place the pasta sheet on a floured surface.  then on the bottom half of the sheet, spoon about scoops of 2 teaspoons of filling about an inch apart.  then using your finger or a pastry brush and a small bowl of water, wet the pasta around the filling.  this will help the top half of the sheet of pasta stick to the bottom and seal in the filling.

fold half the pasta sheet over the side with the filling.

carefully press out any air from the filling area, like so.

next using a pastry cutter, cut the filled pasta sheet into raviolis.

place the finished raviolis on a floured baking sheet and allow the pasta to dry for 1 hour.

though this process works fine, i love using my ravioli press.  it’s so much faster and easier.

start by laying a sheet of pasta over the metal part – be sure the side of pasta that is touching the metal is well floured. this will keep the ravioli from sticking to the press which is a real pain in the you know what.

then use the plastic bubble looking part and press bubble side down on to the pasta sheet.  this make little pockets or wells for you to put your filling in.

now brush the pasta, between the wells, with egg wash (egg mixed with a little water).  this will help the pasta sheets stick to one another and seal in the filling.

next fill each well with about 2 teaspoons of the four cheese filling.  i used a small cookie scoop which made it super fast and easy.

see, quick like a bunny.

now place another pasta sheet over the filling and gently press down to seal.

okay so now the instructions says to take a rolling pin and roll over the pasta to make sure the raviolis are well sealed and formed.  so that’s what i did…

looks good right?

but then it was impossible to get the ravioli out of the press.  no matter how hard i banged the press against the counter they refused to get out.  so i pried them out and it was a mess.

so instead, i skipped the rolling pin part and just pressed the top pasta sheet just gently enough so that i knew the ravioli were sealed and the pasta was indented with the zigzag lines.  then i used a pastry cutter to cut the ravioli, following the lines made by the press.

it worked so much better and the ravioli stayed nicely shaped.  yippee!!!

after the ravioli has dried, boil these bad boys up and serve it with your favorite sauce.

i cannot tell you how excited i am to be able to make my own ravioli.  there are so many different kinds that i can’t wait to try!!!!  be on the look out for lots more ravioli filling recipes.  yay!!!

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for valentine’s day, chris got me this beautiful pasta maker.

oh my goodness was i excited when he gave it to me.  i have wanted a pasta maker for so long.  i originally looked at the kitchen aid attachments but they were just so gosh are expensive.  so i put the idea aside and made pasta by hand.  okay, i only did it once and it was terrible so i never did it again.  but with this amazing contraption, i am finally able to make my own pasta.  yayyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!

chris and i tried out the pasta maker for the first time a few weeks ago and made some fettuccine.  it was divine.  so different from dried pasta you buy at the store.  the texture is so light and delicate and just amazing – i don’t know how to describe it.  we served our fettuccine with a homemade roasted garlic and sausage sauce.  yum.

you know what i was most surprised by?  making fresh pasta isn’t as hard as you may think.  if you have a pasta maker it is really pretty easy.  plus it only calls for 2 ingredients!  yes only 2!  just flour and eggs.

so to make the pasta, just pour the flour on to a clean surface (i used an amazing roul’pat – similar to a silpat but made just for rolling out dough.) and form a well in the middle.  then add the eggs to the well.

then scramble the eggs with a fork.

that’s not scrambled!  this is scrambled.

now slowly start incorporating the flour into the scrambled eggs.

keep going until the flour is mixed in.

it will look like a big ol’ shaggy mess.  don’t worry – it’ll be okay.

knead the dough with your hands and magically it starts to form a cohesive ball.

keep kneading the dough until it’s a smooth ball – about 3 more minutes.  once the ball is “elastic and a little sticky” knead 3 more minutes.

then wrap the ball in plastic wrap and allow the dough to rest for 20 minutes.

now it’s time to make the pasta.  just follow your pasta maker’s instructions and roll out the dough to your desired thickness.  here are some pictures of tammy and i rolling out pasta for our three cheese ravioli (recipe coming soon!)

then you can make any kind of pasta from fettuccine like this (don’t you like our makeshift pasta drying rack?  haha.  i just ordered real one and i can’t wait to use it).

or ravioli like this.

lots more pasta recipes will be coming up.  i know i will be making good use of my pasta maker.  thanks chris!!! ❤

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