Ravioli

About 8 years ago or so I started making a chicken ravioli recipe from a Williams-Sonoma cookbook on pasta. It became one of my standards, something I could usually throw together from the ingredients I had on hand if I didn't know what else to make for dinner, and a darn good way to use up all those chicken breasts that I don't really want but have left over from making stock! I never deviated much from the recipe until the other day; I had a little wave of inspiration and decided I wanted to make the chicken ravioli with a bit of an earthy twist, so I added some bacon and black summer truffles and a bit of gruyere cheese along with the usual parmesan. It was a nice little change. The point in all of this is that ravioli is a very flexible dish, perfect for experimentation, and limited only to a cook's imagination!

Below I will show you the steps I took when I made ravioli this past Monday, but I invite you to not just duplicate it, but use it as a springboard for making your own unique creations. Just a month ago I used the filling from the Alain Ducasse stuffed summer vegetables for making a ravioli. You can use anything you desire just as long as it's not too wet I guess!

So, for my most recent creation, I first made a mirepoix as I usually do for my chicken ravioli, mixing equal parts chopped onion, carrot and celery and sauteeing in butter. Once you get this going, fill a big pot with water to get it boiling so it will be all ready for the ravioli.

Then I fried up some bacon

and then drained it on some paper towels to take away the grease.

I mixed the bacon in with the mirepoix, adding some chopped black truffles and chopped leftover roasted chicken, as well as some gruyere and parmesan cheeses.

All of this was chopped even more finely before mixing in a little beaten egg to bind it together.

Then I moved on to making my dough. Three eggs to two cups of all-purpose flour will make roughly one pound of pasta. Make a well in the center of your flour and crack the eggs into the well.

Mix together with a fork until the ingredients are well-blended.

Knead until smooth.

Roll long, thin sheets of dough through a pasta machine, taking the dough to the very last setting. I roll a quarter pound of dough at a time, so before I roll I cut my ball of dough into four equal pieces. Make sure your work surface is well-floured to prevent the dough from sticking. I do it all on a long sheet of parchment paper, which makes the eventual transfer to the pot of boiling water much easier!

Evenly space your filling, maybe a little over a tablespoon per "square", to begin forming your ravioli.

Next I dab a little water or egg white around the exposed dough, and then place a new sheet of dough on top, or sometimes I fill half the sheet and then fold the other half over. The water or egg white helps the top sheet of dough to adhere to the bottom sheet so that the ravioli will not separate during cooking.

Next the ravioli squares are cut using a pastry wheel.

Now they are ready to be boiled, which takes only a few minutes.

Serve topped with olive oil and grated parmesan cheese.

Buon appetito!