Originally posted on September 4, 2005.

Here are the ingredients, cost, and recipe for my ravioli pasta with lots of photos of the process. It’s fairly simple using just semolina flour, all-purpose flour, eggs, salt, olive oil and a tiny bit water.

The Basic Ravioli Pasta Process:

1. Sift together semolina flour, all-purpose flour and salt.
2. Whisk or beat with fork eggs, olive oil and water.
3. Make mountain of flour on any flat surface, and form well in the center of it.
4. Pour in ½ of egg mixture and begin forming dough with 2 fingers while supporting the mound of flour with other hand, adding in the rest of the egg mixture once the dough gets going.
5. Kneed dough for 8 – 10 minutes, flouring surface with semolina as needed.
6. Form dough into ball and wrap with plastic wrap.
7. Let dough “rest” in the refrigerator for an hour or so.
8. Cut dough into 2 pieces with a knife or dough blade.
9. Roll out dough into thin strips the thickness of a nickel.
10. Fill with Ravioli Filling, brush edges with egg wash, then close and seal individual ravioli dumplings making sure no air is trapped inside them.

Now onto photos of the process! Woo.

Here we have the ingredients we’ll need. Semolina flour, all-purpose flour, olive oil, salt, a couple of eggs, and a tiny bit of water..

Note: Although recommended I’ve heard that ravioli pasta can also be made with just all-purpose flour. Semolina can be found easily at places like Whole Foods and Central Market in the bulk containers, so I’d suggest using some semolina too.

Start by sifting together 1 cup of semolina flour, 1 cup of all-purpose flour and a pinch of salt.

Whisk or beat with a fork the 2 eggs, teaspoon of olive oil and 1 – 2 tablespoons of H₂O..

Form the flour mixture we sifted earlier into a mound on any flat surface. Then form a well or hole in the center of the mount and pat the sides in so they’re stable.

Pour about ½ of the egg, oil and water mixture into the well in the flour.. After you start working the dough you’ll add in the rest.

Note: Please resist the urge to pour all of the egg mixture into the flour at the beginning, unless you enjoy cleaning egg off of your cabinets and floor (Not that I’d know anything about that, heh)..

Patience grasshopper, the rest will be added in after you get the dough started.

Use two fingers to start mixing the egg mixture into the flour gradually, while supporting the wall of the mound with your other hand. Supporting the mound with your other hand will prevent the wall from collapsing and the egg mixture from leaking all over the place.

Note: Do not force the dough to take all of the flour. You’ll probably have some flour left over when the dough has come together, I did..

After a while it’ll start to look like dough! And since I don’t yet own a pasta machine (and will be rolling it out by hand) I kneaded it for around 8 to 10 minutes or so, dusting the surface with semolina flour as needed so it won’t stick.. Then form the dough into a nice ball.

After forming the dough ball, wrap it pretty tight with plastic wrap and place it in the refrigerator for a least an hour to rest. Do not skip this step!, like any other dough this won’t work well without first ‘resting’ it for a little while.

After removing the dough from the fridge I let it sit for 10 or 15 minutes on the counter so it would be a little easier to work with.. I then cut the dough lengthwise into two pieces so I could roll them out into thin strips.

Then I start rolling out the dough, dusting the board and dough lightly with semolina as needed, while trying to keep it somewhat in a straight line. I found it can want to roll out into a curve, so I applied more pressure to one side of the rolling pin when needed and also moved and stretched it a little by hand to keep it straight.

Note: The reason we let the dough ‘rest’ for an hour in the fridge earlier was to allow the gluten proteins (Alton Brown is always going on about, heh) to get going so the dough is pliable and doesn’t want to tear while we roll it out and work with it..

Once I had rolled out the pasta dough to about the thickness of a nickel I trimmed it a little on each end and the sides with my trusty pizza cutter.. I had wrapped the other chunk of dough in plastic wrap so it wouldn’t dry out while I worked with the first half.

Note: Mid-way through rolling I had cut the dough strip into two pieces since my board is too short, and then finished rolling out each piece. If you have a pretty long counter top, or table, this won’t be necessary.. I need a bigger kitchen!

Now fetch the Ravioli Filling we made earlier (click here for recipe, or use your own) and place small globs of filling spaced apart enough so we’ll be able to close and completely seal each ravioli dumpling.

Then whisk or beat together with a fork one egg and a couple tablespoons of water. Use a brush to lightly (but don’t over due it!) brush on the egg wash in the center, outer edge, and in between each of the dumplings. This is the “glue” that will seal each ravioli together.

Fold over the other half of the pasta and seal each ravioli, while trying to make sure there’s no air trapped inside with the filling. Press the edges down good for a nice tight seal!

I used a pizza cutter again (you could also use a knife) to cut the strips into individual ravioli dumplings. Pick each up and press the edges of each between your fingers to make sure there is a nice tight seal.

You can put them in a freezer bag and into the freezer until you’re ready to use them. When ready to cook put the frozen ravioli right into a pot of rapidly boiling water for 4 to 8 minutes or until tender and slop on your favorite marinara or pesto sauce.. Buon appetito!

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).