Mushroom Ravioli

inspiration: intermediate cooking series
prep: 30-45 minutes
cook: 5 minutes
serves: 8-10

Description: Homemade pasta is absolutely to die for! At the beginning it did take my husband and I a very long time to make it. But now that we have been doing it a while, (and I had a whole cooking class on pasta making) it really doesn't take much time. The hardest part is rolling out the dough. My kids and I have a system and they have become a necessary part of the process. my favorite is mushroom ravioli, but there are dozens of fillings that can be done.

                                

Ingredients:
2 cups ricotta
2 yolks
2 tbs chopped parsley
4 cloves minced garlic
1/4 c grated Parmesan (I always add more)
1/4 cup of pureed sauteed mushrooms (I used a hand chopper to get them super small) or any other meat or vegetable you want to use.


Directions:
1. Make pasta dough or buy ravioli dough. Roll the dough into flat sheets using a pasta machine. Dough should be transparent and thin.
2. Whisk stuffing ingredients together in a mixing bowl.
3. Cut or lay out the pasta sheets as desired. (see below for a visual)

This is best to make fancy pansy pretty ravioli's
cut the dough out with a nice scalloped cookie cutter
scoop the filling into the middle and with your finger
and some water seal the two pasta's together

Best for mass ravioli making.
lay sheet of pasta, put tbs of filling, lay over filling another
sheet of pasta. Cut out with knife, pasta cutter, or cookie cutter.

4.  Scoop 1 tbs of stuffing onto pasta. Seal with an egg white or water.
5. If serving soon lay ravioli's on a cookie sheet and cover with a damp towel and set in fridge.
If mass making before hand lay the ravioli's out on a cookie sheet in the freezer. When they are frozen you can put them in a ziploc and take them out as needed.
6. Gently put ravioli's into a boiling pot of water. If they are fresh try not to crowd them or they might stick together. When they float they are done. For fresh it only takes a few minutes.


Tips and Tricks
Variations: instead of mushrooms add spinach, pumpkin, roasted tomatoes, or obviously beef, pork, sausage, or anyway you like.
Wonton wrappers are also a cheap and quicker way of making ravioli.