Five Cheese Ravioli

My good friend gave me a pasta maker the other day and it inspired me to experiment with it. I have always wanted a pasta maker but never got around to actually buying one.  I love making pasta and I am looking forward to making all the types of pasta I can think of.

Even though, this time, I only used my pasta maker to stretch out the dough for my ravioli, I plan on making all sorts of flavored tagliatelle, spaghettini, fettuccine, etc.  The actual pasta dough for these ravioli was flavored with fresh avocado and it turned out spectacular, so tasteful and beautiful. I hope all of you have wonderful results as well.

Dough Ingredients (makes about 40 ravioli)

2 1/2 cups of Flour

2 tsp. Salt

1 tsp. Pepper

1 tsp. Paprika

1 1/2 tsp. Olive Oil

1 egg

1/4 cup of Pureed Avocado

2 1/2 cups of warm water (might not need all of it)

Filling Ingredients:

1  15oz  package of Ricotta (preferably whole milk)

1 cup of Shredded “Four Mexican” Cheese (combination of: Cheddar, Mozzarella, Monterrey Jack, Muenster or Colby Cheese) –

1 Egg

Salt and Pepper to your taste

——

1 Egg + 1 tsp. of water for the egg wash

Directions

First we make the filling. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Cover and refrigerate until needed.

For the dough you can you either use your countertop or a mixer. If you are using a mixer, place all ingredients in your bowl and mix on medium for about 8 minutes or until your dough is thoroughly combined. Cover and let rest of 30 minutes. I personally prefer making my dough on my countertop because it allows me to feel the dough and make adjustments accordingly. Place the flour on your counter and make a well in the middle of it.

Before adding any wet ingredients sprinkle the salt, pepper and paprika all over the flour. Then in the center of your well place the olive oil, avocado, and the egg, in that order. With a fork gently mix all your wet ingredients while little by little incorporating your flour to the mixture. Slowly pour small amounts of warm water over your mixture while continuing to incorporate all the flour. When all your wet and dry ingredients are mixed together we now use our hands to finish incorporating and folding our dough until it has a smooth texture or feel to it. If you need to add a bit more flour or water please do so but add tsps. at a time. Form your dough into a ball, cover and let sit for about 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes uncover your dough and cut in half. Cutting the dough will make it easier to handle when passing it through the pasta machine. With a rolling pin roll the dough just enough that it can pass through the widest level in the pasta maker (level 1).

Now, pass your dough through level 1 first and then continue up to level 4, being careful not to pull on it. Every time you run it through the pasta maker, cover it a bit with flour just to make sure it doesn’t stick to the rollers on the pasta maker. When done stretching your dough, use a circle cutter to cut about 2” circles. If you have some remaining dough, roll it out again with your rolling pin and run it through the pasta maker from 1-4, then cut some more circles. Do this until you have barely any dough left. Now pair up all the circles. Take your filling out of the fridge, it’s time to use it and make your egg wash. In the middle of one circle place a tsp. of your filling and then with a basting brush, brush egg wash all over the other circle. Do the same for the rest of the pairs.

Now, place the circle with the egg wash on top of the one with the filling, center it as much as possible and with your fingers press on the edges just enough to seal the two circles. To reinforce this seal you will slightly press a fork on the edges all around your ravioli. Sprinkle some flour over and under your ravioli and set them aside for about 10 minutes so that the egg wash can truly seal them.

Bring about 6 cups of water to boil, add about a tsp. of salt and a tsp. of Olive Oil. Carefully, add one ravioli at a time up to a max of 10 and let them cook in the water for about 4-6 minutes. Take those ravioli out and put in another batch and continue this until you are finished cooking all your ravioli.

Serve on a plate with your favorite sauce or as I like it, freshly grated Parmeggiano Regiano.

Enjoy!