Welcome to my food blog. At the suggestion of some friends I decided to take pictures when I make food and post them in this blog. I am not a chef, just a guy who likes to cook. I am no photographer so the pictures are not great but will hopefully show the process.
I made ravioli. Fresh pasta is a wonderful thing but when you stuff it with mushrooms and cheese it is amazing.
First I made the dough.
I mixed (around 2 cups) flour with 1 tsp salt.
Next I made a "well" in the flour.
I cracked 3 large eggs into the hole I made in the flour
Then I mixed the egg whites and yolks together.
After that I stirred the eggs gradually incorporating more and more of the flour as I mixed.
At this point I also added two tablespoons of olive oil.
Eventually you will use up the flour and it will form a ball.
You will want to knead it for a good 10 min and then place in the refrigerator for at least 30 min.
NOTE: Making the dough can be done in an electric mixer but is not difficult to do by hand.
THE FILLING.
There are so many wonderful ingredients you can put in ravioli.
This time I used organic Crimini mushrooms and cheese.
I started by chopping up organic Crimini mushrooms, onion, garlic and cheese.
For cheese I used a mixture of Gruyere, Mozzarella and Romano.
First, I heated oil in the pan and then added some butter. The butter started to brown quickly so I added the onion and garlic and mushrooms right away. I kept the pan very hot so the mushrooms would brown a bit. This really brings out their flavor. At this pointed I add salt and pepper to the mushrooms.
I then added some red wine (maybe 2/3's of a cup)
I let the wine reduce a bit and then took it off the heat.
When it had cooled a bit I mixed it with the cheese.
Next I rolled out the dough. I used a pasta machine to roll out the dough but you can use a rolling pin if you don't have one.
After I had the thickness I wanted I began placing the filling on the dough. (Make sure you dust your board with flour or you will have trouble picking up your ravioli after.)
I tried a few different methods of filling and folding.
Then I cooked them in boiling salted water for 4 min and served with a simple home made tomato sauce.
