It's Friday and I have been ready to roll up my sleeves and get rolling (both pasta and bread) all week. Today, I made round two of home made baguettes using the Four Hour Baguette recipe from Saveur and decided to make home made egg pasta. I used to dread kneading dough and preferred using my mixer for this "laborious" part, but the past few years I have become rather fond of dough kneading. It gives a much better feel for the consistency and your chances of having too dry or too sticky dough are slimmer given you can feel the texture as it develops. With that said, the recipe for Egg Pasta is as simple as it comes.
Pasta Ingredients:
2 cups of flour
3 very fresh eggs
A drizzle of olive oil
A quarter cup of warm water waiting in the wings
Ravioli Filling:
4 oz. Chevre (goat) cheese
6-8 cremini mushrooms- chopped up into tiny pieces
1/2 medium shallot- chopped into tiny pieces
Create a mountain of flour and burrow a depression in the middle.
Drizzle a splash of olive oil into the depression and carefully crack each egg into the hole
Slowly work the flour into the egg, for about 10 minutes.
If the dough seems dry and crumbly, resist the urge to add any liquid at the start of your kneading. If after, a few minutes, the dough is still crumbly, drizzle a few fingertips full of water from the nearby cup. Use sparingly, as your dough can quickly become too sticky.
During the kneading process, you add a teaspoon of kosher salt, and whatever other herbs you prefer. I added Cracked black peppercorns this time.
Work the dough until you have a stiff, yet smooth ball of dough.
Place the ball of dough in a bowl to rest and chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
During this time, set up your pasta roller and saute the shallots and mushrooms in olive oil.
Let the pre-cooked mushroom-shallot mixture cool, then blend into a bowl with the goat cheese.
Add salt or herbs to taste. I added a pinch of truffle salt and fine herbes de Provence.
After 30 minutes, remove the dough from the refrigerator and split it into four balls, which are then pressed into flat disks.
Roll each disk through the pasta maker as directed. I'm using the flat roller to make raviolis.
Once the pasta is rolled, set it aside in a dusting of flour to dry.
I use a ravioli press to cut the right shapes, so I lay out each ravioli sheet and dab a spot of filling about 2 inches apart. Laying a second sheet of pasta on top and press it closed around the edges. (Be careful not to squish the ravioli filling).
Use the ravioli press (or a pasta cutter, or a knife) to cut out each ravioli, making sure the edges are properly sealed.
Bring water to boil and, when you are ready to eat, drop the raviolis into the gently rolling water for about 3 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to remove when they float. Home made pasta cooks very quickly and does not require much time in the water. Leaving them boil makes them starchy and increases the potential for the filling to ooze out.
The sauce is up to you. I sauteed some garlic scapes and sage in butter, pouring it over the raviolis as a sauce once the butter browned-- after about 3 minutes.
Bon Apetit!!
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