Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Pasta Attempt Número Uno

Ok, this doesn't even look like pasta. But...it is.


Every now and then I think about making pasta from scratch.  I look up recipes.  I think about what kinds of wonderful and strange fillings I could put in homemade ravioli.  And then I say "I'll do it some other time" and I make something else for dinner. 

For some crazy, insane, illogical reason, I picked today to finally try pasta from scratch.  I left home at 7:45 this morning.  There was a faculty meeting after school, then I went to take care of a friend's dog, took the dog on a run (5.4 miles) cause it seemed more time-saving then going home and running, went straight from there to see my horse, brush the dirt off her and give her an apple, and then I finally got home.  At 6:35. Which is a ridiculously long time away from home by my standards, and I was exhausted.  By the time I got to start in the kitchen, it was after 7:00.  The smart thing to do at that point would have been to heat up the leftover steak tetrazzini that I have in the fridge.  But nooooo I was dead-set on making ravioli.  Pea-filled ravioli.  It took so long I didn't get to eat til after 8:30.  Which in my opinion is much too late for dinner.  Oh well...

The recipe I looked at earlier today said 1 egg to 1 cup of flour.  But I looked at a bunch of recipes right before I started and they said 2 eggs to 1 cup of flour.  So, I started with 1 egg...and then added a 2nd.  After I added the 2nd egg, I had to add a bunch more flour.  But at that point, I was adding it as needed, so I have no idea how much flour I ended up with in the end. 

Knead, knead, knead.  Knead some more, adding flour now and then, until the dough is smooth.  Let it rest for a little while. (15 min?) Then roll it out.  This was aggravating.  It's one of those doughs that wants to spring back as soon as you lift the rolling pin.  I got it as thin as I could (still not very thin) and then cut it into about 12 pieces.  In order to make ravioli, I rolled each of those pieces out even thinner, then cut them in half before filling.  I did this with 4 pieces, so I got 8 ravioli.  (I made thinner pasta strips out of 2 other pieces, and put the rest in the fridge for later)

I put a small spoonful of filling in the center of each pasta rectangle, wet my finger with water, ran it along the edges, and then folded the pasta in half and sealed the edges.  I fried them in a pan with some olive oil because it's easier for me to tell when they are done that way. 

I boiled the pasta strips I made...but I couldn't tell when they were done, and when I did take them out, they were slimy and gross and not edible looking.  Bye bye pasta strips.

The ravioli came out ok.  Not my new favorite food, but worth trying again.  (The filling was delicious).  I ate 4 of them with a salmon burger.  The salmon burger was another adventure, I think it will get its own post.


Pasta Ingredients
2 eggs
1/3 c wheat flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1-2 c white flour (start with 1, add more as needed)

Ravioli Filling
1  cup peas, cooked and mashed
1/2 avocado, mashed
1 spoonful sour cream w/chives
blend them all together

Pictures






ewwww thick slimy noodles
 


1 comment :

  1. I had some leftover ravioli the next day...they tasted more like pita bread than like pasta...

    ReplyDelete