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Tasty Tuesday
Sep. 20th, 2011 09:50 amFirst, I want to apologize to people who have been trying to call me; I'm short on both time and money at the moment, and have a.) been finding means enough to procrastinate without the aide of the telephone, and therefore do not need the assistance of yet another distraction, and b.) have been dangerously close in the last few months to going over my minutes limit, and being that our phone bill is already pretty high because we both use mobile eb and unlimited texting (most of my social planning/interacting takes place via Internet and text messages), I'm trying to "ration" my phone calls. So, yes. Apologies, but no regrets. I'm doing what I need to do.
Anyway. Food. Specifically, ravioli.
I frickin' love ravioli. Dough and cheese and meat (or veggies, however you swing) and spices and, mmm. I decided I want to try something different in the cooking department, but familiar in the flavor department, so last week, I opted to make homemade ravioli.
The funny thing is, for the bridal shower my co-workers threw me in May of 2010, they all pitched in on this big gift basket and bought me kitchen supplies and the like - dish towels, paring knives, measuring spoons (I love the set they bought me, it's the one hanging in the kitchen - it's small, sturdy, and simple, but nice to look at), etc. They also, possibly because they consider me a much better/more ambitious cook/domestic diva than I clearly am, bought me a ravioli crimper. I said thank you, but oh, I laughed. I laughed at their foolishness. Ha ha, laughed I. But I guess it wasn't as silly of a gift as I thought, because if I had spare time, a ravioli crimper, and a craving for ravioli, well goddamnit. Why not make some.
I'm not quite sure why I thought it would be difficult, because truthfully, it's not. It's not even particularly more time consuming than preparing a lot of other meals. The basic instructions for making ravioli are, "make the dough, roll it out, spoon stuff on it, cover it with more dough, cut." And when the "make the dough" portion of the instructions reads like this:
2 cups flour
2 large eggs, whole
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp. sea salt
3 tablespoons water
Combine all ingredients in a food processor and process for 30 seconds. Check consistency and add a small amount of flour is pasta is too wet, or a small amount of water if pasta is too dry. Process another 30 seconds to incorporate any additions.
You are not performing rocket science, here. I think what intimidated me about all of this, really, was everything I read kept saying "set the pasta roller to 5," or "use the thin setting on your pasta roller." I was under the impression that, apparently, making ravioli form scratch involved rolling the dough out to inhuman levels of translucency. This, to be frank, is bullshit. You can make perfectly servicable ravioli with some patience and a rolling pin. Also, you can make decent ravioli with my rolling pin substitute:
Because I'm poor. Also, anyone who wants to buy me an actual rolling pin, it would be appreciated. Thanks.
I filled the ravioli with ground sausage mixed with garlic poweder, sea salt, and parsley. Probably the hardest part of the whole ordeal, honestly, was figuring out how precisely to space out the filling to ensure you weren't cutting to close or didn't have loose flaps of pasta everywhere (I didn't want to hand to trim each piece individually), but I assume that this is a skill you learn in time, the way experienced bakers can work their magic without measuring things, just eyeballing the ingredients and knowing what "feels" right. I'd heard cooking time for freshly made ravioli ranging from three minutes to ten, so I kind of just stood around the boiling pot, prodding them occassionally.
In the end, they turned out quite well; a few of them had weakish seams, or were slightly too thick, but they were well-cooked, tasty, and very much ravioli - they didn't turn out as some culinary monstrosity. I am going to try them again, possibly this week, possibly Friday night, possibly (?) with an actual rolling pin.
I might have photos? If so they are on my camera at home. Perhaps I will supplement this post with visual supports after work.
Anyway. Food. Specifically, ravioli.
I frickin' love ravioli. Dough and cheese and meat (or veggies, however you swing) and spices and, mmm. I decided I want to try something different in the cooking department, but familiar in the flavor department, so last week, I opted to make homemade ravioli.
The funny thing is, for the bridal shower my co-workers threw me in May of 2010, they all pitched in on this big gift basket and bought me kitchen supplies and the like - dish towels, paring knives, measuring spoons (I love the set they bought me, it's the one hanging in the kitchen - it's small, sturdy, and simple, but nice to look at), etc. They also, possibly because they consider me a much better/more ambitious cook/domestic diva than I clearly am, bought me a ravioli crimper. I said thank you, but oh, I laughed. I laughed at their foolishness. Ha ha, laughed I. But I guess it wasn't as silly of a gift as I thought, because if I had spare time, a ravioli crimper, and a craving for ravioli, well goddamnit. Why not make some.
I'm not quite sure why I thought it would be difficult, because truthfully, it's not. It's not even particularly more time consuming than preparing a lot of other meals. The basic instructions for making ravioli are, "make the dough, roll it out, spoon stuff on it, cover it with more dough, cut." And when the "make the dough" portion of the instructions reads like this:
2 cups flour
2 large eggs, whole
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp. sea salt
3 tablespoons water
Combine all ingredients in a food processor and process for 30 seconds. Check consistency and add a small amount of flour is pasta is too wet, or a small amount of water if pasta is too dry. Process another 30 seconds to incorporate any additions.
You are not performing rocket science, here. I think what intimidated me about all of this, really, was everything I read kept saying "set the pasta roller to 5," or "use the thin setting on your pasta roller." I was under the impression that, apparently, making ravioli form scratch involved rolling the dough out to inhuman levels of translucency. This, to be frank, is bullshit. You can make perfectly servicable ravioli with some patience and a rolling pin. Also, you can make decent ravioli with my rolling pin substitute:
Because I'm poor. Also, anyone who wants to buy me an actual rolling pin, it would be appreciated. Thanks.
I filled the ravioli with ground sausage mixed with garlic poweder, sea salt, and parsley. Probably the hardest part of the whole ordeal, honestly, was figuring out how precisely to space out the filling to ensure you weren't cutting to close or didn't have loose flaps of pasta everywhere (I didn't want to hand to trim each piece individually), but I assume that this is a skill you learn in time, the way experienced bakers can work their magic without measuring things, just eyeballing the ingredients and knowing what "feels" right. I'd heard cooking time for freshly made ravioli ranging from three minutes to ten, so I kind of just stood around the boiling pot, prodding them occassionally.
In the end, they turned out quite well; a few of them had weakish seams, or were slightly too thick, but they were well-cooked, tasty, and very much ravioli - they didn't turn out as some culinary monstrosity. I am going to try them again, possibly this week, possibly Friday night, possibly (?) with an actual rolling pin.
I might have photos? If so they are on my camera at home. Perhaps I will supplement this post with visual supports after work.
