Making Ravioli

My new job as Foodie/Demo Cook at Austin's Central Market requires that I take several cooking courses a year. Lucky me. I really can take as many as I want, through Central Market's Cooking School, (in the grocery store) but am required to take 7/year. Tomorrow I am enrolled in the Caviar tasting class!

So, this past weekend I took my first class, a Ravioli Workshop. I had made raviolis before, at Broadway Brewery (Columbia, MO.) but this class was a refresher, and really boosted my pasta-making confidence!

Assembling ravioli is quite easy, once you understand the instructions. I really don't think anyone could figure it out by reading a book (or a blog for that matter).. maybe by watching a video, but really it is best to see how its done first hand.

Making the fresh pasta dough doesn't take much at all. All that goes into 1lb of dough is:
2 1/4 c flour
1 t salt
3 eggs
2T olive oil
water, if needed.
Of course if you wanted to give it color or an added ingredient for flavor, this is the time to add it.
Basically, you build a mound with your dry ingredients, then make a hole in the top, or a "well." (picture a volcano) You place the unbeaten eggs and oil into the well, and gently start incorporating, little by little.

Once your dough is set (must be refrigerated 1 hour) you are ready to "roll it out." Which requires a pasta roller. Pasta Rollers generally have 7-9 settings to flatten the dough. You must start at the thickest one, and move down, notch by notch until your dough is flat, even, and thin.

In the class we broke up into groups and made 4 types of raviolis. Everyone used "ravioli molds" except for my group. We hand-cut them. Using a ravioli mold means you finish 12 raviolis at once and they all look the same, cute, little and nearly perfect.

My group layed a large flat piece of dough down, dropped the filling onto the dough, in Tablespoon size, about 3in apart, layed another piece of dough on top.. and used water as "glue" to hold it all together. Then cut out the raviolis. I loved every second of it.

**All of these Ravioli Filling & Sauce Recipes are by Sahar Arafat-Ray**
whom instructed my class Oct 23, 2010