Homemade Ravioli

Okay, I have been posting a lot lately...because I have made a lot of new things lately!  So here is what we had for dinner tonight.   I had been promised by Jeff's mom to be taught how to make homemade pasta.  I wanted to try making homemade ravioli for my first try, and so I decided to try it today!  Turns out making pasta is really easy to make, and more about method than about the recipe.    Here we go....be prepared, this one is somewhat involved.  I'll start with the actual pasta dough, and then give you the recipe for the filling, and then give you the directions for putting it all together.

Pasta Dough (you'll need about 2.5 recipes of this to use all of the filling)

2 c flour
2 eggs
4 tbsp cold water

In a food processor, pulse together flour and eggs.  Add water, one tablespoon at a time, and then blend til it forms a ball in the food processor.  Dump onto a floured surface and just knead lightly til the flour makes it less sticky, not much.

In a pasta press, start at the widest setting, and run the dough through.  You'll start at setting 1, and run it through, and then fold the dough in thirds, and run it again.  Then you'll move it up to the 2nd setting, run it through the first time, and then fold it, and then run it through again.  As you get to the 3rd setting, you'll stop folding it in thirds and just run it through to thin it out, twice through each setting, til you get to the 5th setting, and then you'll quit.

Before you roll out your dough though, you need to mix together your filling.   Here's the recipe:

Cheese and Spinach Filling

15 oz ricotta cheese
10 oz frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
4 oz shredded mozzarella cheese (about a cup and a half)
2 eggs
salt and pepper

Mix all of these ingredients together.  Get your pasta dough ready, and use about a half tsp to a tsp of filling per ravioli.  Basically you'll have a long rectangle of pasta dough, and you'll want to place each spoonful of filling about a half inch apart and then place another sheet of pasta dough over the top of the first sheet.  Use your fingers to press the dough together between fillings, and press out as much air as possible from each ravioli.  once they are all sealed shut and no air is in there, use a pizza cutter or rotary cutter to cut the pasta apart.  Place them on a cookie sheet, making sure you don't overlap them so they don't stick together.

**Note** I am so sorry I didnt think to get the camera out.  It would be a lot easier for you to picture this if I had pictures and more of a tutorial.  If you need a tutorial, go to www.foodnetwork.com and search for   ravioli.  There's an Alton Brown video that shows you how to do everything I did.  REMEMBER:  BECAUSE IT IS FRESH MADE PASTA, IT ONLY TAKES 1-2 MINUTES TO COOK.   Just cook it til it floats to the top of the boiling water.