Homemade Ravioli

2015/02/22Andrew Leave a comment

Meat
Egg
Parmesan Cheese
Onion
Garlic
Mushrooms
Olive Oil
Salt & Pepper
Pasta Dough

It’s all to taste really so no proportions. I used about a 1/2 kilo of beef, 1 egg, 1/2 bulb of garlic.. You get the idea. Savory.

Roll dough into large rectangle, then cut in half. Spoon meat into a grid.

Dampen the areas in between meat if dry, then cover. Starting from one side so you can p push the extra air out, press in between each piece of meat to seal it in.

After its all sealed, cut along the center of each groove to make individual raviolis.

Boil in salted water with a drizzle of olive oil. These are large so I served 4 per bowl with a large scoop of pasta sauce.

Also great to freeze for later.

Another fantastic sauce we used was a simple mushroom garlic sauce.

Homemade Pasta

2015/02/15Andrew Leave a comment

Homemade Pasta (פסטה הביתי)

: : Firm : :
4 Cups Flour
6 Eggs

: : Softer : :
3 Cups Flour
6 Eggs

That’s seriously it. Start with a volcano pile of flour, then drop the eggs into it. Gently beat the eggs in the flour and start to blend with flour. Keep blending until its mostly together. Kneed the dough.. a lot. It’s really firm dough so its a tough job. Keep it up until its smooth and blended. Wrap air tight in plastic wrap and place in fridge for at least 30 minutes to rest.

After rested, cut 1/4-1/3 of the dough and roll out into a large flat sheet. Squarish is probably easiest to work with. Very lightly dust with flour every so often to prevent sticking.

Once its rolled into a very thin sheet, fold it into a loose roll.

Cut into strips of your desired width.

Unfurl into pasta strings.

Boil a pot of water with salt and a bit of olive oil. Cook pasta in boiling water until al dente, drain and serve.

Works great with pasta sauce. I suppose it could also be cut wide and used as lasagna noodles. I bet if rolled thin it could probably be used to make ravioli too! Definitely going to try that. Golly I love ravioli..

Lasagna

2015/01/07Andrew Leave a comment

Lasagna Noodles
Pasta Sauce
Mozzarella
Provolone
Ricotta
Emek
Parmesan

Cook noodles leaving them slightly firm so they can absorb extra liquid from the sauce. Then layer sauce, noodles, cheese, and repeat.

Layering should always have sauce on at least one side (top or bottom) of a noodle layer. I do sauce, noodle, sauce, Emek, sauce, noodle, Mozzarella, sauce, noodle, sauce, Ricotta, noodle, sauce, Provolone & Parmesan.

Pasta Sauce

2015/01/07Andrew Leave a comment

Fresh Tomatoes
Tomato Paste
Onions
Garlic (lots)*
Mushrooms (lots)*
Basil
Oregano
Thyme
Rosemary
Bay Leaves
Salt
Italian Sausage

Boil a pot of water. Set aside a large bowl half filled with ice water. Add tomatoes to boiling water for about 1-2 minutes or until the skin starts to split. Remove tomatoes and set in ice water to help the skin separate. Remove skin and core then squash tomatoes by hand or with a hand blender.

Add squashed tomatoes and tomato paste to clean pot. Chop onions, garlic, and spices and add to pot leaving the bay leaves whole so they can be easily removed later (no one wants to chomp on bay leaves). Fry and break apart sausage and add to pot. Bring to light boil then simmer for several hours stirring often.

* A note about garlic and mushrooms. I know many folk don’t garlic and mushrooms. I hear you. Until recently I never really liked mushrooms. However, I recognize that even though I may not like certain ingredients on their own, they are required to make certain flavors as a whole. Mushrooms add an earthiness that just makes it. So… even if you don’t like mushrooms, no matter how good your sauce is, it’s just not as good as it COULD be without mushrooms. The same goes for garlic, although I will make concessions for using a smaller amount if you are not a fan. I will not however make allowances** for omission of either the mushrooms or garlic.

** The only reason I can think of that is acceptable is if someone is allergic. As is the unfortunate case of a friend of mine with mushrooms. Truly tragic.

Italian Sausage

2015/01/07Andrew Leave a comment

Ground Pork
Ground Beef
Garlic
Onion
Fennel Seed
Oregano
Basil
Parsley
Paprika
Thyme
Black Pepper
Chili Flakes
Brown Sugar
Salt

There are no measurements because all this is really to taste and depends on what you want your final result to be. For sweet, use more basil, sugar, onion, and parsley, and less garlic and peppers. For spicy do the reverse. The key for that nice “Italian Sausage” flavor though is the fennel seed. Use some whole and more that has been loosely broken up with a knife.

Blend it all up thoroughly then let sit in the refrigerator overnight to allow the flavors to settle.