Handmade Ravioli and Bruschetta

Yum! A few weeks ago I found a recipe in Food Network Magazine for a Ricotta-Tallegio Ravioli with Wild Mushroom Sauce.  We're talking handmade pasta here (as opposed to foot-made pasta, which evidently is how pasta was made until around the late 18th century...as per the owners manual to my new pasta machine...MY NEW PASTA MACHINE! Which I love.  It's a hand crank thingy, not so much a Kitchen-Aid Stand-Mixer-Attachment-Thingy and I feel quite novel hand cranking my own pasta.)

After searching extensively throughout Wichita for Tallegio cheese and finding none and no good substitutions (evidently it is Italy's answer to Brie -- and being aged for only 40 days the FDA will not allow it imported into the US) I decided to scrap the recipe and give portabello ravioli a try.  Mushroom ravioli is one of my all time fav's when dining out and I have tried it at a lot of different restaurants so I winged a recipe. 
I topped it with an asiago cheese alfredo sauce, which I loved...but I felt like it was just too much and the ravioli would have been better showcased with a much lighter, more simple finish...after some research I've found that a butter/sage sauce is quite popular with mushroom ravioli.  I'll post the asiago cheese sauce recipe another time this week with a fresh fettuchini and blackened chicken meal.  I didn't do a lot of measuring while preparing the ravioli filling so these measurements are approximate.  As always, use what you have and adjust to your taste.

I did however, keep exactly to the basic pasta recipe from Food Network Magazine (it follows below)  because I have never made pasta at home before.  It was amazing.  I will forever make fresh pasta from scratch instead of buying dried pasta at the store (when I have time, and energy...and time...because it takes a lot of time.)

I also made bruschetta as something yummy to snack on while I cooked up everything in the kitchen.  It's a favorite when I cook Italian food so I've included that recipe as well.

FINAL NOTE:  Please try this recipe.  It is amazing!  If you try it, let us know what you thought. I love comments, recommendations and especially subscriptions as this blog takes off!  Thanks for reading!


BRUSCHETTA

1 baguette
5 or 6 plum or roma tomatoes
10-12 large basil leaves
2 or 3 cloves of garlic
1 tbsp (or so) of GOOD olive oil
1 tsp of GOOD balsamic vinegar
Finely grated parmigiano reggiano
Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Move your oven rack to the top slot.  Preheat to 450.  Then, bring a large pot of water to boiling. Once it reaches boiling, remove from the heat and drop in the tomatoes for 1 minute.  Remove the tomatoes and peel the skin from the them.  Cut them in half and remove the seeds, dice them into small pieces. Finely chop the garlic, chop the basil and mix all the ingredients.  Cover and refrigerate.

Slice the baguette on the diagonal.  Arrange the slices onto a baking sheet and brush each slice with olive oil.  Bake for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned around the edges.

Serve the baguette with the bowl of bruschetta and grated cheese on the side or top the slices last minute, so they don't become soggy.

RAVIOLI

Pasta (from Food Network Magazine):

1 pound all-purpose flour (about 33/4 cups), plus more for dusting
5 large eggs
3 to 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Kosher salt
Semolina or polenta, for the baking sheet

Filling:

8 oz. of ricotta cheese
8 oz of baby portabella mushrooms
1/2 small white onion
2 cloves of garlic
1/2 cup of chicken stock
2 or 3 tbsp of butter
Fresh thyme
Salt and Freshly ground pepper


For the pasta:

Make the dough. Mound the flour on a large cutting board and make a wide well in the middle. Add the eggs and olive oil and season with salt. Beat the eggs with a fork, then use the fork to break the wall of the well and incorporate the flour into the eggs. Gather the dough into a ball; don't worry if there are lumps.

Knead the dough. Using the heels of your hands, push the dough away from you, then fold it back over itself and push again (put your whole body into it!). Continue kneading until the dough is smooth and supple, 10 to 15 minutes. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and let rest at least 1 hour at room temperature.

While the dough rests make the filling.   Melt 2-3 tbsp of butter on medium heat.  Add onions and garlic.  Cook for 2-3 minutes until onions are transparent.  Add sliced baby portabellos. Cook for 5 minutes until the mushrooms begin to sweat.  Add chicken stock.  Cook for another 10-15 minutes until the liquid evaporates.  Add the mushrooms and ricotta to the bowl of a food processor and blend together.  Add thyme and salt and pepper. Pulse until well incorporated.

Roll out the dough. Cut the dough into four pieces. Flatten one piece slightly, then run it through the widest setting on a pasta roller twice, dusting with flour in between if it feels sticky. Fold the length of dough into thirds and run it through the roller two to three more times. Continue running the dough through the roller, reducing the width setting between each run, until you reach the second-to-last setting and the dough is about 1/16 inch thick. Repeat with the remaining pieces of dough. Layer half of the dough sheets between parchment paper, wrap in plastic wrap and freeze for up to 1 month (you'll only need half of the dough for the ravioli recipe).

Assemble the ravioli. Place the lengths of dough on a floured surface. Lightly brush the lower half of each strip (the part closest to you) with water. Snip the corner off the pastry bag; pipe 1-inch balls of filling, 2 inches apart, onto the lower half of each strip. Fold the dough over the filling to meet the bottom edge. Press around each ball of filling with your index fingers, making sure there are no air bubbles. Cut out the ravioli using a 2-to-3-inch round fluted cutter. Transfer to a baking sheet dusted with semolina.

Cook the ravioli. Bring a large pot of well-salted water to a boil; add the ravioli and cook 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer with a skimmer or slotted spoon to the pan with the sauce. Bring the sauce to a boil, shaking the pan.