Beef Ravioli

Beef Ravioli- 3 stars

I am not a cook or a chef, just a mom making dinner and having fun. One thing that I have always wanted to try my hand at,is making pasta.  With the start of this blog, I knew this would be something I would try very soon.  I must say, that now that I have done this, anyone can do it. It really is not that hard at all, however I have a few tips, especially for pasta ravioli, the dough needs to be rolled very very thin. A few of my ravioli was too thick, even though I thought they were thin.  The dough was very good though.  Rolling the dough did take some time to do, the dough does not roll that easy.  Also, this dough recipe really does not make very many either, so I had a ton of meat left over. So the filling you make, whatever kind you decide on, you do not need very much at all cause you are only going to use about 1 teaspoon in each ravioli.
All in all, I am so happy that I tried to do this.. I think I want to try my hand at some other pastas... Is there a pasta maker in my future?  More kitchen machines.. OMG help me! :)

I got my dough ravioli recipe here and I did try some of the dough before even cooking it and it tasted just like pasta.

 

Ingredients

For pasta

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons water

For filling:
ground beef cooked
1 small onion cooked
2 cloves garlic
1 TBS Italian seasons
salt/pepper to taste

To make pasta dough in a food processor: Blend flour, eggs, salt, and water in processor until mixture just begins to form a ball, adding more water, drop by drop, if dough is too dry (dough should be firm and not sticky). Process dough for 15 seconds more to knead it. Transfer to a floured surface and let stand, covered with an inverted bowl, 1 hour to let the gluten relax and make rolling easier.

To make pasta dough in bread machine: Place ingredients in bread machine per manufactor settings and push pizza dough setting.

To make meat filling: Brown hamburgar meat in pan, add diced onions and minced garlic, spices and salt/pepper. cook until onions are translucent.  Turn off heat and let cool. Transfer to food processor and process less than a minute to get all meat mixture into small ground mixture.

Roll pasta and make ravioli: Cut pasta dough into 2 pieces, then use your roller to roll the dough out very thing into a somewhat rectangle.
Put sheet of dough on a floured work surface and drop 6 (1 1/2-teaspoon) mounds of filling 1 1/2 inches apart in a row down center of one half of sheet. Brush egg wash around each mound, then fold other half of sheet over filling. Press down firmly around each mound, forcing out air. (Air pockets increase the chance that ravioli will break during cooking.) Cut pasta (between mounds) with cutter into 3-inch rounds. Line a large shallow baking pan with a clean kitchen towel (not terry cloth) and dust towel with flour, then arrange ravioli in 1 layer in it. Make more ravioli with remaining pasta dough, 1 sheet at a time, and remaining filling, transferring ravioli to lined pan.

Cook Ravioli: Bring a 6- to 8-quart pot of salted water to a boil. Add ravioli, carefully stirring to separate, and, adjusting heat to keep water at a gentle boil, cook until pasta is just tender, about 6 minutes. Transfer with a slotted spoon to a colander.

Do ahead: Dough can be made (but not rolled out) 4 hours ahead and chilled, tightly wrapped in plastic wrap. Ravioli can be made (but not cooked) 4 hours ahead and chilled in lined baking pan, covered.

Beef Ravioli