Originally posted on September 3, 2005.

Here are the ingredients, cost, and recipe for my pasta ravioli filling with lots of photos of the process. I used organic produce and beef so it cost a little more, but you could use regular stuff from your local chain grocery store and make it even cheaper..

Note: This recipe makes enough filling for 4 batches of my Ravioli Pasta recipe. So the actual cost per batch of 18 – 20 ravioli made is more like 92¢. (click here for pasta recipe)

The Basic Ravioli Filling Process:

1. Chop and mince garlic and onion.
2. Grate parmesan cheese (or buy it already grated if you’re a weenie).
3. Brown ground beef.
4. Add in chopped garlic and onion and finish browning beef.
5. Drain browned ground beef, garlic and onion in colander.
6. Chop or process fresh oregano and parsley.
7. Add oregano and parsley to browned ground beef, garlic and onion.
8. Beat or whisk an egg and stir into mixture.

Now onto photos of the process! Woo.

Here are the ingredients.. A ½ lb or so of ground beef, 3 oz of parmesan cheese, ¼ of an onion, 2 – 3 cloves of garlic, and some fresh oregano and fresh parsley.

Note: For this I did most of the shopping at Whole Foods and picked up organic produce and ground beef from animals that were never given antibiotics and all that.. The wedge of parmesan cheese I had picked up at the local chain store HEB the night before during some other shopping.

I then chopped and minced the 2 or 3 cloves of garlic (could have been 4 though, I dig garlic, heh) and the ¼ of a white onion by hand with my usual chef’s knife..

I grated up a little more than ½ the 5 oz wedge of parmesan cheese, you could use more though..

Note: You can buy a bag of parmesan cheese that is already grated, and it usually costs more. But we’re doing this because we enjoy cooking, so why skip part of the fun?

I started browning the ground beef in a skillet, and then added in the chopped and minced garlic and onion mid-way through cooking. I didn’t want to burn the garlic, so I added it in a little while after the meat had started cooking.

After a little while longer over low to medium heat the ground beef, garlic and onion were done.

Since we don’t want any more moisture and liquid inside the ravioli dumplings than is absolutely necessary I drained the cooked ground beef, garlic and onion in my spaghetti colander.

I pulled the leaves off several sprigs of fresh oregano and parsley (some stems won’t hurt though if they end up in the mix) to chop up and add to the other filling ingredients.

Note: Parsley isn’t just a garnish, it also has a lot of nutritional and health benefits and is pretty dense in nutrients and minerals.. (More info here)

Although you can do this with a knife (like I used to), I used a new small food processor I recently picked up at the grocery store for $10 bucks, isn’t it cute? It chops things pretty good, and very quickly!

And here is the browned ground beef with onion and garlic, chopped herbs, and grated parmesan cheese ready to combine..

We mix in the chopped fresh oregano and parsley, then add in the grated parmesan cheese and mix the whole thing together..

Note: Since I won’t be using it until tomorrow I covered it with plastic wrap and stored in the fridge over night. We’ll be adding some raw egg into it before it’s ready, but I didn’t want to add that in until shortly before I was going to use it.

We’ll be adding in 1 or 2 (it’s up to you) eggs into the mix now to blend it all together nicely..

Then whisk or beat the eggs with a fork, and stir into the filling mixture.

And here it is ready to fill ravioli dumplings with! I’ll cover it and store it in the fridge again while I work on making the ravioli pasta dough (click here for ravioli pasta recipe).

Originally posted on August 15, 2005.

Here are the ingredients, cost (I used a mostly organic produce, so it’s higher than usual) and recipe for my first homemade pizza sauce complete with photos of most of the process.. woo?

The Basic Sauce Process:

1. Blanch the tomatoes.
• Start a pot of boiling water.
• Cut a cross on bottom of tomatoes.
• Boil tomatoes for 20 seconds.
• Immediately place boiled tomatoes into ice water.
• Peel skin from tomatoes.
2. Cut tomatoes into quarters and remove guts and seeds.
3. Boil quartered tomatoes for 5 – 10 minutes (5 should be enough).
4. Put some olive oil into a sauce pan and add tender tomato quarters. Then mash some with a potato masher. Simmer on low heat.
5. Finely chop green onions and 3 – 4 garlic cloves.
6. Sweat the chopped onions for a while, then add in the chopped garlic toward the end.
7. Add onions and garlic to the simmering tomato sauce.
8. Add a cup of water and keep simmering.
9. After an hour add another ½ to 1 cup of water, and a splash red wine if you’re so inclined, and continue simmering.
10. Add the herbs (basil, parsley, oregano, whatever you’re into) toward the end for the last 30 minutes of cooking or so..

Now onto photos of the process! Woo.

Here are the main ingredients.. 2+ pounds (my bunch was just a hair over 2 pounds) of whole tomatoes still on the vine (they’re fresher and much better that way), some green onions, 3 or 4 cloves of garlic, ½ a small can of tomato paste (to thicken it up), some extra virgin olive oil and some basil and maybe parsley. Some salt and pepper are a given, used to your own taste.

Note: I would normally use fresh basil and parsley, but slacked and it slipped my mind when I was roaming around the local Whole Foods store, so we’re making due with the dried and jarred version.. d’oh. Alton Brown would probably say there’s more flavor in the glue holding the label on than in the jar, heh.. Alton is the Man.

We’ll need to “blanch” the tomatoes, so we can remove the skins. The skins are tough and don’t do anything good for the sauce. The only part of the tomato we want to use is the meaty part, with no skins or seeds and insides. So we slice a cross on the bottom of each tomato to start..

Place the tomatoes, only a couple at a time, in a pot of boiling water for 20 seconds or so. This will help loosen up the skin on them.

Then toss them immediately into a bowl of cold ice water (notice the floating cubes in our bowl there, coldness). This immediately stops any cooking and keeps the insides from getting mushy..

You’ll notice that you can now start peeling at the cross we cut and the skin should come off easily, woo? Like magic! Never knew peeling a tomato could so easy, eh?

Here are the peeled tomatoes.. At this point we cut them into quarters and cut out the insides, ends where the vine was, and scrape out any seeds.. Seeds also add nothing to the sauce, and can’t be digested anyway..

Note: If a few seeds end up the sauce it’s not the end of the world.. Just run the quartered pieces under the faucet to wash most of them away.

Here are all the quartered tomato chunks.. It’s all downhill from here.

I placed the tomato chunks into the previous boiling water we used for the blanching process.. It softens them up some and makes them a little more tender. I’m not sure if this is how a real chef would do it, but it worked for me.

Update: I have since acquired a blender, which I usually use to break down the peeled tomatoes these days. Easy and saves a couple of steps here.

I strained the water off the tomato chunks first. Then I put some olive oil in a sauce pan (on low) first and then added in the tender tomato chunks. After heating up a little bit I used a potato masher to crush up the tomato chunks a little more (you could also use a food processor before putting them in the pot).

Now that the tomato sauce is simmering (on low!) we chop and mince up some green onions and the 3 or 4 cloves of garlic (more or less than that to your own taste, but I dig garlic). Fresh whole garlic is also very healthy, so more is better..

Here’s the chopped up green onions and garlic. You could also use a garlic press on the garlic (I often do that instead of chopping and mincing), but for this I chopped it fine with the knife.

I started some extra virgin olive oil heating on low in a pan, then added in the chopped onions. I let them simmer for a bit until some became somewhat translucent, and then added in the chopped garlic. We don’t want to burn the garlic, so we add it in toward the end of the simmering.

After the onions and garlic have simmered some (but not too much!) we add them to the simmering tomato sauce.. At this point I also added in a ¼ to ½ of a small can of tomato paste to the mix. The whole can of tomato paste would be too much with such a small batch of sauce..

I let the sauce simmer for about 2 hours or so (it’s up to you, but long is good and stir the stuff once in a while!). But I added in a cup of water after adding the tomato paste, then another ½ to 1 cup of water an hour later. Don’t worry about it getting watery, since simmering it uncovered evaporates most of the water. And after 2 hours I also added in a tiny splash of red wine (optional, but I always have some in the fridge and it adds a little something to the sauce).

Note: Some might add some sugar to the sauce before letting the sauce simmer. A little bit of sugar can help counteract the acidity of the tomatoes if needed. It all depends on the tomatoes you bought, some aren’t very acidic and don’t need it. It’s up to you..

Toward the end of the simmering I finally added in some parsley and basil. The herbs don’t need the life cooked out of them, and I’ve always heard it’s best to add them in near the end of the process. I also added some salt and pepper at this point, and I didn’t measure it but it was probably something like a ½ teaspoon of salt and even less pepper..

After another 30 minutes or so with the herbs in the sauce should be done! Everything has broken down, and there are no traces of whole tomato left, it’s all sauce. Woo. Turn the heat off, put a lid on it, and you can either use it immediately or refrigerate it or freeze it for later..

With the help of an old roommate and skydiving buddy I’ll be learning about canning sometime soon (not sure why they call it canning when jars are used), and when I do I’ll be sure to take photos of the process and share it here on the site. This is some damn yummy stuff (I just tasted it since it’s done!)..

Other Translations!

I noticed recently that others have translated the recipe into Arabic on the following sites. I kinda wish they would have posted a link back to my site and given the proper credit though.

http://www.14noor.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=90058

http://www.arabseyes.com/vb/showthread.php?t=11485