I remember my dad making homemade pasta growing up. He would make a dozen batches around Christmas time, and gift them to friends and family at the Lee Family Homemade Christmas Party. I remember watching and helping him pass the pasta dough through the press until it reached the correct thickness, and then passing it through again, to cut the dough into long delicate noodles. Then he would lay them out on the dining room table to dry a bit, before packaging them.
That was years ago. When I went off to college, Carina and I convinced my dad to let us bring the pasta maker to Calvin with us. I think we ended up using it once. Then when Carina got married and moved to Pittsburgh, I sent the pasta maker with her. Needless to say, I haven't had much practice making pasta. But Carsten and I now have our own pasta maker, and we finally decided it was time to try our hand at pasta again. Ravioli to be precise.
We looked at a lot of different dough and filling recipes, and finally settled on one recipe for the dough, and an outline of a recipe for the filling. The pasta recipe we got from one of our favorite cooking and baking blogs, smitten kitchen. We just cut the recipe in half. The filling we made was an adaption of a recipe we found on Veggie Belly.
Since pasta making can be quite the task, and so much fun, we had a friend over to help us cook and eat :)
For the pasta:
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 large eggs
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbs water
Procedure
Mound flour on your work surface, preferably wooden, and make a crater in the center, like a volcano. Add eggs, salt, and water to well, and with a fork, gently beat eggs and water until combined. Gradually mix flour into the egg mixture to form a paste, pulling in flour closest to egg mixture and being careful not to make an opening in outer wall of well. Once you've got a paste, put the fork aside and use your fingers! Knead remaining flour into mixture with your hands to form a dough, adding more water, drop by drop, if dough is too dry (dough should be firm and not sticky). Knead dough until smooth and elastic, 8 to 10 minutes. Cover and let stand 1 hour (to make rolling easier).
For the filling:
Ingredients
1/4 cup pecans
1 cup frozen Edamame, (no shell)
2 small garlic clove
1 + 2 Tbs white wine
Juice of half a lemon
Salt and Pepper
Olive oil
1/2 cup chopped portabella mushrooms
1/4 cup white wine
Procedure
Place the walnuts in a large pan. Toast the pecans on medium heat until fragrant. Add the frozen, shelled edamame, garlic cloves, 1 Tbs white wine, salt and pepper. Simmer over medium heat until the liquid has evaporated, then transfer the walnut-edamame mixture to a food processor. Add 2 Tbs white win and lemon juice, and blend into a smooth paste. You want to reach the consistency of thick hummus. So add olive oil a bit at a time, until you've reached the right consistency. Add more salt and pepper to taste.
In the pan, sauté the mushrooms in 1/4 cup white wine until cooked. Mix into the edamame purée.
For the Sauce:
Ingredients
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
To Assemble the Ravioli:
Divide the pasta dough into two equal portions. Pat into a rectangle, and pass it through the pasta press on the thickest setting. Repeat the process, on the next thickest setting. Continue to decrease the thickness of the dough until you've reached your desired thickness. You can go very thin!
Lay pasta onto your worksurface, and cut into rectangles, about 2 inches wide. Place a small scoop (about 1 tsp) toward the bottom of each rectangle. Fold over the top half of the dough and press the sides together to seal in the filling. Make sure to press out all air bubbles! Any air trapped inside the ravioli will expand when boiling, and will cause the pasta to burst. If you have trouble getting the pasta to stick to itself, use a dab of water to act as glue.
Boil a large pot of water. Throw in a few pinches of salt. Once the water has reached a full boil, add the ravioli and boil for about 5 minutes, or until done.
While the ravioli are boiling, melt the butter in a large pan over medium heat, stirring occasionally. After about three minutes, the butten will stop bubbling, and will turn golden brown. Turn off the heat, and let cool for one minute (if you don't let it cool, it will splatter all over you when you add the vinegar). Stir in the balsamic vinegar.
When the ravioli is done boiling, drain them thoroughly, and add them to the sauce. Stir to coat each ravioli well. Serve immediately!
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