Ravioli

Ingredients

• Dough:
• 5 cups all purpose flour
• 6 jumbo eggs
• a bit of water
• Filling:
• 1 lb ricotta cheese - preferably goat ricotta
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 cups grated parmesan cheese
• 1/2 cup grated dry bread crumbs
• salt and/or garlic salt to taste
• pepper to taste
• 1 tbsp crushed dry basil
• 1 tbsp crushed dry marjoram
• a little milk

Directions

Make a well in the flour and add the eggs. With a fork beat the eggs incorporating the flour as you go along. When you can no longer work the dough with a fork use your hands to mix the dough. Add a small amount of water at a time (1 tbsp at a time) to hold everything together. Do not use more than 4 tbsp or the dough will be too soft. Knead the dough on a floured board until smooth and creamy yellow throughout. Cover with a bowl and let it sit for about 1/2 hour while you clean up and make the filling..

If you have a spaghetti machine roll out strips of dough about 14" long and 4" wide. These can be used on a raviolli cutter or you can make each raviolli by hand.

By Hand:
Down the center of the strip place a teaspoon of the filling approximately 2" apart. Place another strip on top. Gently press the top strip down in between the filling drops and all around. With a wavy rolling cutter or a very sharp knife, cut the dough between the filling drops. Seal each raviolli with the edges of tines of a fork. Trim away any excess dough.

By raviolli cutter:
Place the strip on the bottom portion of the cutter. Use the filling press to make the indentations. Gently remove the filling press. Fill each depression with the filling. Place a second strip on top and with a rolling pin press the two strips together. You need to press hard to make the wavy part of the raviolli cutter come through. This makes 10 2" raviollis at one time.

One pound of ricotta should make about 100 2 1/2" raviollis. These can be frozen for use at a later time.

Submitted 6/13/05.
Source: Meal Master
Submitted By: Shelly Black
shellack@aol.com
Ravioli