Honey, Pesto & Ricotta Ravioli

I've often made fresh pasta at home using different flours, but I've always wanted to try out making my own ravioli and I finally did it. I ended up ordering the ravioli stampers from Amazon and was so excited to use it. I absolutely love fresh pasta. I cannot wait to try out more fillings and different flavors of pastas to make ravioli and other stuffed pastas. There's just something so fresh and light in the way it taste that makes it so worth it to go through the trouble of making fresh pasta at home. Also, the possibilities of adding different flavors are Endless, which makes it fun! In our house though, even though Mr. Sunit doesn't cook, he does help when it comes to kneading and rolling out the pasta dough. His precision really comes in handy when it comes to getting the pasta sheets perfectly thin, which is a huge help!

For this recipe, I ended up using King Arthur's all purpose flour and it worked so beautifully. I've used 00 flour before as well as regular all purpose flour and they both tasted good, but I have to say that I really enjoyed this dough for the pasta that I made for ravioli. I've bought ravioli from the grocery stores and have had it out in restaurants as well, which I'm fine with, but there's still a huge difference when it's homemade. I think the best fresh pastas and raviolis that I've had in the past have been at really authentic "hole in the wall" Italian restaurants in large cities like New York City, San Diego, and Paris. I remember having pasta and ravioli that were so light and delicious with fresh sauces. You really know that these places are authentic when everyone in the restaurant is speaking in Italian and you feel like you're lost. haha! Anyhow, try out my recipe for my yummy ravioli below and hope that you enjoy!

Honey Ricotta & Pesto Ravioli

Ingredients

- Pasta sheets (See recipe below)

- Ravioli filling (See recipe below)

- Flour for dusting

Tools:

- Pasta maker (I used Kitchen Aid brand)

- Pastry bag or a ziplock bag

- Ravioli stamper (I used Master Feng brand)

- Pastry scraper/cutter (optional)

Directions

1 - Lay out your pasta sheets on a surface and measure out whichever ravioli stamper you'd like to use.

2 - Carefully, start pipping the ricotta mixture about 1.5 to 2 inches apart on the top half of the pasta sheet (horizontal).

3 - Fold over the half of the pasta sheet over the side that has the filling. Carefully remove any air pockets in between.

4 - Using the ravioli stamper, stamp the ravioli and remove and sprinkle some a little flour on it so it doesn't stick.

5 - Boil water with salt and 1/2 tsp of oil and then boil the fresh ravioli for about 2-3 minutes for al dente texture, and then add the ravioli to whichever sauce you'd prefer. Top it off with fresh parmesan cheese and herbs. Enjoy!

Garlic Oregano Pasta Sheets

Ingredients:

- 3.5 cups of King Arthur Unbleached All Purpose Flour

- 4 large eggs

- 1 tbsp of salt

- 5 medium size cloves of garlic

- 2 tbsp of fresh oregano

- 1 tbsp and 1 tsp of EVOO

- 4 to 5 tbsp of warm water

Directions

1 - Grind the garlic cloves and oregano together into a paste and set aside.

2 - Measure out the flour on a clean surface and make a well in the middle.

3 - Sprinkle salt evenly over the flour.

4 - Add the garlic oregano paste into the flour well.

5 - Crack the eggs in the middle of the flour well.

6 - Add the EVOO and 2 tbsp of water in the middle of the well and start whisking the eggs together with a fork, while also incorporating little bit of the flour all around.

7 - Add 2 more tbsp of water and then bring the dough together using the dough scrapper.

8 - Once the dough comes together, start kneading the dough with your hands and filling it; if it's too dry and you think it needs more water, then add the last tbsp of water. I did add 5 tbsp all together, but it's all about how you work with it, and the climate around.

9 - Sprinkle some extra flour around and knead for at least 10 minutes; the dough should turn into a smooth ball. Note: Add a couple of drops of EVOO, if needed, towards the end to smooth it out.

10 - Wrap the ball of dough in plastic wrap and cover it with a light towel and let it sit for 30 minutes before starting on the pasta.

11 - Cut the dough into 8 to 10 pieces or to your preference and start rolling the pasta sheets either with an automatic pasta attachment, or a manual pasta maker according to the instructions.