Homemade Ravioli!

A few months after Dan and I got married, my mom gave us a pasta maker that she didn't want anymore. So, for years we talked about making homemade pasta. We FINALLY got around to using it on Sunday. We've been wanting to make ravioli for awhile. We got a pasta cutter/roller thing recently, to help make ravioli. It was surprisingly easy and not difficult at all.

I had a recipe book that I got from the library a few years ago for like a dollar. I made the dough, which is basically flour, eggs, salt and a tiny bit of water. I divided it in half, then we rolled it through the pasta maker. You roll it through, then shorten the slot the pasta goes through each time, so eventually the pasta gets thinner and thinner.

Dan rolling that pasta!

We enlisted Anna to help.

Nothing like good 'ol child labor to get the job done!

She actually did pretty good once she got the hang of it.

Once you get the pasta to the right thickness, you lay it out. We cut our pasta in half. One is the bottom, the other half is the top. Put your filling on the pasta in small spoonfuls. We made a ricotta spinach filling.

Then, you take a cooking brush and brush water on the edges and in between the pasta.

If you look closely, you can see squares around each filling circle. That's where the water is.

Then, you cover the bottom with the top layer and press around it. The water makes the top layer bind with the bottom. You'll have to press well and get out air bubbles. This is probably the trickiest part, but still isn't hard at all.

Bust out your pasta roller and cut in between the mounds to make your ravioli squares.

We made ours kind of big. Next time, I want to make them a little smaller.

A nice, homemade ravioli square!

Anna saw me take a picture of pasta in Dan's hand, so she grabbed some pasta and wanted me to take a picture of her hand. :)

Boil them for about 8 minutes, top with homemade red sauce, a little basil from the garden for garnish and presto, homemade ravioli!

And the best part is, it actually tasted good too! Haha. I was a little worried about how it would turn out, but they were really good. We're looking forward to trying different fillings.

Mmm, buono!!!