Adventures in Ravioli-Making

And here is the tale of our adventure:

We began by rolling out pasta dough to the #4 thickness setting on our pasta maker. We used our basic recipe for pasta dough.

We then put small spoon fulls of the shrimp mascarpone cheese filling onto the dough, laid out on a generously floured board.

Filling recipe for 1/2 lb of ravioli

from Roberta Dowling, Cambridge School of Culinary Arts

½ Tbs unsalted butter
½ Tbs extra-virgin olive oil
1 shallot, finely chopped
1 Tbs brandy
2 Tbs white wine
½ lb shrimp, chopped
½ lb mascarpone cheese, at room temperature
1 egg, beaten
1 Tsp dried basil
s&p
Pinch nutmeg

Heat butter and olive oil in a large skillet. Add shallots and cook until soft and translucent, about 3 minutes. Remove pan from heat and add brandy. Turning pan away from you, carefully light with match to flambe. Add white wine and cook until reduced to syrup-like consistency, about 10 minutes. Add shrimp meat, cooking until just warmed through. Remove from heat and place into a large mixing bowl and allow to cool.

In a medium bowl, combine mascarpone cheese with beaten eggs, basil, nutmeg and salt and pepper, to taste. Add to shrimp and shallot mixture and combine well. Taste to adjust seasoning. Cover and set aside.

We then brushed egg whites around the filling to prep for the top dough. The egg whites bound the dough together and sealed in the filling.

We pressed the top into bottom by hand, letting any air escape.

Then we hand cut raviolis with a cutter.

And voila – beautiful, handmade raviolis!

We then cooked them in plenty of boiling water for 5 to 7 minutes, or until they floated to the top. Tip: pour a tiny bit of olive oil into the water so the raviolis don’t stick together while cooking.

Then we made the quick truffle butter white wine sauce:

Melt 1. 5 oz. of truffle butter (you can find truffle butter at Whole Foods, it’s a little pricey but delicious and worth it) and 1.5 oz. of unsalted butter over medium heat. Add about 1 Tbs of white wine and lemon juice and cook about 3 minutes. Pour over plated ravioli. Last, we sprinkled a little parsley and Parmesan cheese on top. Delicious!