Fresh pasta (aka homemade ravioli)

     I think I have officially decided I am addicted to cooking.  It is a sickness; filling up my off hours, creating loads of dishes, expanding my waistline... If only it weren't so gosh darn fun!  And delicious!  People become addicted to drugs because they release dopamine (our pleasure neurotransmitter).  Sex and good food do the same.  Well, I suppose technically, any type of food; but I like to think that homemade food releases even more dopamine.  It certainly gives you a sense of achievement and reward that buying something pre-packaged does not.  My brain eats, thinks and dreams about food.  I stay up late at night reading cookbooks.  I think about what I am going to make for dinner on my off time.  And, sometimes, I wake up in the morning with cooking impulses.  All of which, of course, brings us to this blog's recipe: homemade pasta.
     I woke up Wednesday (I think... although it might have been Thursday) with an impulse to make fresh pasta.  I don't know where it came from; I hadn't read anything on pasta making or watched anything.  I just woke up and bam! there it was.  It kept coming into my head again and again so of course I had to research it.  My first source I looked at made it seem a little difficult.  However, I went back to my always loved How to Cook Everything cookbook and looked at the recipe for that.  Mark Bittman made it seem possible; maybe even easy!  I have known other people to make fresh pasta; and they always said that it was a lot of work.  Could I do it and still have fun?  Well, as it turns out, the answer was yes.  And it wasn't nearly as difficult as I feared!

Ingredients


2 cups (10 ounces) all‐purpose flour, plus more as needed
1 teaspoon salt
3 eggs
A few drops water, if needed

Procedure:
1) To make the dough by hand, mound the flour on a smooth counter top, or place it in a bowl. Make a well in the center and add the salt. Then break in an egg, beating with a fork and incorporating a little of the flour. Beat in another egg and repeat, until all the flour is mixed with the eggs. Gather the mixture in a ball.
     To make the dough in a food processor, combine the flour and salt in the container and pulse once or twice. Add the eggs all at once and turn the machine on. Process just until a ball begins to form, about 30 seconds. Add a few drops of water if the dough is dry and grainy; add a tablespoon of flour if dough sticks to the side of the bowl.


2) Turn the dough out onto a dry, lightly floured work surface and knead until it is smooth, just a minute or two. Add water by the half‐teaspoonful if the mixture is dry; add flour if it is sticky. This should be an easy dough to work. Cut the dough into 6 pieces; wrap 5 pieces in plastic.


3) Roll the dough out with a pin until it is as thin as you can make it or use a manual pasta rolling machine.

     I will have to admit that I saved myself time by using two machines; a food processor and a manual pasta rolling machine.  A big thank you to Tiffani and Mickey at WOLF for letting me borrow theirs!  I had to remove a drawer from my kitchen to clamp it to my counter but it worked brilliantly!  It saved you a lot of rolling time and was super fun, to boot!

Instructions for a machine (paraphrased by me)
Prepare your machine.  Sprinkle a nearby surface with flour.  Put one of the six dough balls through the machine at level 1.  Flour the dough if necessary to keep from breaking.  Keep increasing the level each time until you get to level 6.  Super easy!

The pasta machine and filling for the ravioli all ready

One of the six lumps of doughs, rolled in flour

First pass through the machine



What the dough looks like after its first pass




Using the pasta machine




Second pass




Third




Fourth




Fifth




Sixth and final pass

     Now, on to the filling.  I thought that since I was going through all this trouble of making homemade pasta  that I might as well make it even more delicious and make homemade ravioli.  Now, I love ravioli.  I don't usually order it at Italian restaurants because they never give you enough.  Has anybody else noted this?  If you order lasagna, or fettuccine, or spaghetti they give you loads!  However, order ravioli and they'll give you maybe six (if you're lucky).  After making the ravioli from scratch, I think I can start to see the reason why...
     First, the filling:

Ricotta and Spinach Filling for Fresh Pasta


Ingredients:


10 ounces spinach, cleaned and trimmed
1 egg
1 cup ricotta, preferably fresh, drained for a few minutes in a fine strainer
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

Procedure:

1) Plunge the spinach into boiling salted water; remove it 30 seconds later. Drain, cool, and chop finely.


2) Combine the spinach with the remaining ingredients; taste and adjust seasonings if necessary. Use to fill the pasta immediately, or refrigerate for up to a day before using.

     Making the filling might have been the most difficult part.  Stuffing the ravioli was tedious and time consuming, but not too difficult (although you did have to watch out for stickiness).  I just had a hard time getting all the spinach out in time and drained and finding enough counter space and you get the picture.  However, I mixed all the ingredients in the food processor turned it on for 30 seconds or so and voila- pasta filling!

How to make ravioli (again, paraphrased by me)

1) On one of your flat (level 6) roll of pasta, put a small (small) teaspoonful of filling every inch or so on the pasta. 

2) Brush water all around the filling.

3) Take another sheet of pasta and put it over the top.

4) Seal it down with your fingers and then cut it with a knife.

5) Complete the seal by using a fork to press around the edges.  It helps to flour the fork or else it will stick.

6) Store the ravioli separately until ready to cook.

(You can also only fill one half of the sheet and fold the other half over it)

Putting on the filling



Sealing the edges




The final ravioli



36 in all!

Leftover pasta bits that I made into fettuccine



Close up of the spinach cheese filling.  A little water has separated out




The final, cooked product.  They may not look perfect, but with a little
bit of olive oil they tasted perfect!



Enjoying dinner!

As Julia Child says, "Bon Appetit!"

     So that's all folks.  It really was not that hard at all.  As I mentioned earlier, the most time consuming and tedious part was making the ravioli itself.  With Scott's help, it probably ended up taking about an hour or so.  Making the filling took maybe 10-15 minutes (including the time it took for the water to boil).  The dough whipped up in about five minutes.  I stored it in a tightly wrapped plastic bag for about a couple of hours, simply because I didn't want to make the ravioli right away.  I still have lots of leftover filling, so I might try making more ravioli or tortellini tomorrow.  I think I might also make some spaghetti or fettuccine since it would be a blast in the machine.  I've got to take advantage of the pasta machine while I can!  I definitely want to own one someday!  Best of all, it was super fun!  The ravioli pasta part had a subtle delicious egginess to it and the filling was divine.  It tasted good cold but was so delicious hot (with all the melted cheese and spinach).  A little bit of olive oil on top just made the grade.  Yum!!!  I hope I've inspired you to go out and maybe try making your own pasta one of these days.  It is a fun process and everyone can do it!

Mint chip brownies

     The idea for these brownies took a long and myriad trip before ending up in my stomach tonight.  Part 1: Eating delicious (probably the best ever!) brownies at Russian River brewing company while on vacation this summer.  Part 2: Wanting to replicate that feeling and taste at home.  Part 3: Realizing the brownies were good (although not as good as Russian River brownies) but would be even better with mint chips.  Part 4: Long desperate search for mint chips.  Seriously, they don't sell them anywhere!  Part 5: Final discovery of mint chips (and salt pork [but that's another story...]) at a Henry's Market in my hometown of San Pedro, CA in November.  Part 6: Bringing said mint chips up in my car where they sat in the cupboard until today.  Part 7: Finally making the brownies. 
     What do you think?  I think it could make a riveting Hollywood blockbuster.  There's drama, suspense, a mystery, discovery and a super sweet ending.  Alright Hollywood producers, eat your heart out!


Mint chip brownies
Time: 40 minutes

Ingredients:
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, roughly chopped
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened, plus a little more for greasing pan
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
Pinch salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup toasted walnuts
3/4 cup mint chips1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Combine chocolate and butter in a small saucepan over very low heat, stirring occasionally. When chocolate is just about melted, remove from heat, and continue to stir until mixture is smooth. Meanwhile, line an 8-inch-square baking pan with greased aluminum foil.
2. Transfer mixture to a bowl, and stir in sugar. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Add flour, salt and vanilla and stir to incorporate. Stop stirring when no traces of flour remain.  Add in the nuts and mint chips.
3. Pour into pan, and bake 20 to 30 minutes, or until set and barely firm in the middle. Cool on a rack before cutting.


Yield: About 1 dozen brownies.

     Of course, Scott and I couldn't wait until they cooled which meant we had a very warm, crumbly, melty brownie cake.  Oh my, but it was delicious!  I think I can feel my waistline expanding now!

The chocolate sugar mixture

The final batter

Out of the oven

Close up on mint chip goodness...

Leftover lentil soup

     For a while now, I have been wanting to make a lentil soup.  I figured it should be pretty easy, delicious and simple to make.  Well, I finally followed my own advice of easy soup making (i.e., just make it up!) and made lentil soup.  I will have to admit that I did look at quite a few recipes to get an idea of what they put in it.  However, the finally choice of ingredients was mine and mine alone.  Why do I call it leftover lentil soup?  Because I kind of put whatever I had on hand into the soup.  I can't tell you the exact proportions as I just eyeballed it, but the recipe went something like this:

Leftover lentil soup

Ingredients:
6 cups chicken stock
lentils (1 cupish?)
carrots, cut up
red onion, chopped
leftover brown rice (cupish?)
ham, cut into squares (1/2 cupish??)
thyme
salt and pepper to taste
bay leaf
Italian seasoning
olive oil

Procedure:
1) Cook the onions and carrots in the olive oil until they soften.  I like to put the onions in first and then the carrots.
2) Add in the rest of the ingredients (except the rice) and simmer for about 30 minutes.
3) Taste, adjust the seasoning if you desire and add in the rice.  Let it cook for another couple of minutes or so so the rice has time to warm up.
4) Enjoy!

It is even more delicious the next day, as everything has had a chance to marinade in the flavors.  I ended up accidentally adding in a lot of thyme, but it really tasted great.  The lentils really soaked up a lot of the excess moisture, so it is now more lentils than soup.  But it is still delicious!

Cooking in the pot

Mmmm...