I have loved homemade tomato sauce since I was little. My mom let me help her in the kitchen all of the time, but it was her delicious spaghetti sauce recipe (that she learned from her second-generation Italian father) that stuck with me the most. While this isn't her spaghetti sauce recipe, the method is very similar. Learning the method to making a basic tomato sauce is key. From that knowledge you can build it into any kind of sauce you want it to be: arrabbiata, vodka, marinara, etc. The one I want to share with you today was meant to highlight the flavor of the basil, thus I kept the rest of the ingredients pretty simple.
I decided to pair it with ravioli because I didn't want to just give you a recipe for tomato sauce over spaghetti or some other plain noodle - how boring would that be?! This way you're getting two recipes for the price of one! The process of making your own ravioli is somewhat time consuming, so I understand if you want to take a shortcut and buy store-bought, pre-made ravioli. But I think everyone should try making their own once. You can ask someone to help you and really get into it. Put on some music, throw some flour at each other, have a good time with it! It's fun, plus you're controlling the ingredients which makes it a little healthier. OK, OK... I'll get off my soap box now.
So I already mentioned buying store-bought ravioli as a time saver. Another time saver would be to only make one type of filling. I'm giving you two filling recipes, but you don't have to make both. You can do either/or. There's no way I'm going to tell you to skip making the sauce in order to save time. For one thing, the sauce is the whole point of this post (because it uses our featured herb, basil), but more importantly - I don't believe in using store-bought sauce. No way José! My grandfather would roll over in his grave, plus it's just so easy to make yourself, there really is no excuse for using the store-bought stuff.
Alright, pour yourself a big ol' glass of red wine and let's get cookin'!
Homemade Ravioli with Tomato-Basil Sauce
Servings: 4
Prep. time: 1 hour
Cooking time: 1 hour 15 minutes
Ingredients:
For the Dough:
2 cups bread flour
3 eggs
For the Mushroom Filling:
4 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
1 clove garlic
2 teaspoons unsalted butter
1 portobello mushroom cap, sliced & halved (see picture below)
1/2 teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper
2 teaspoons red wine
1/2 teaspoon salt - grey or sea
1/2 cup ricotta cheese
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
3 basil leaves
For the Plain Filling:
1/2 cup ricotta cheese
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon salt - grey or sea
1/2 teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper
1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper (cayenne)
For the Sauce:
4 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic
1/3 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 28 ounce can of petite diced tomatoes
4 teaspoons tomato paste
1 1/2 teaspoon salt - grey or sea
1 1/2 teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper
3 teaspoons white sugar
4 teaspoons red wine
8 basil leaves, torn into small pieces
First, make the dough. Here is a link to some instructions if you want to do it by hand or if you don't have a food processor. I happen to have a food processor and think it's a great time and aggravation saver to use it for this, so I'm going to give you those instructions.
Make sure your food processor is fitted with the dough blade instead of the chopping blade. Put 1 3/4 cup flour in the food processor along with all three eggs.
Turn the food processor on so that the flour and eggs are combined. Stop it occasionally if necessary to scrape down the inside of the bowl. Continue processing until the all of the flour has been incorporated and the dough turns into a ball.
Remove the dough from the food processor bowl and place it on a clean, flat surface that has been sprinkled lightly with flour. Knead the dough for about five minutes.
Roll it into a ball, wrap it in plastic wrap, and stick it in the fridge for at least a half an hour to chill.
While the dough is chillin' in the fridge, make the mushroom filling for the ravioli.
Start by pre-heating 2 teaspoons of olive oil in a non-stick pan over medium-low heat on the stove. Grate in one clove of garlic and allow that to cook for two minutes.
Next, stir in the butter and let that melt into the garlic oil. When the butter has melted completely, add the portobello slices. Drizzle 2 more teaspoons of olive oil over the top of the mushrooms and stir.
Sprinkle with pepper and allow to reduce for about three minutes. Once the mushrooms have reduced slightly and soaked up a lot of the butter and oil, add the red wine and the salt. Allow to cook for another three minutes, then reduce the heat to low and cook for another five minutes.
Remove the mushrooms from the pan and place them on a plate covered with two overlapping paper towels so that the oil can drain off a little.
Place the mushrooms in your food processor (with a clean bowl - don't use the same one you used for the dough - and fitted with the chopping blade) with the ricotta, basil, and 1/4 cup parmesan cheese.
Turn on the food processor to combine all of the ingredients. Once all of the mushrooms are fully chopped and combined with all of the other ingredients, turn off the food processor. Spoon the mixture out of the food processor bowl and into a food storage container. Place the lid on it and put it in the fridge until you're ready to assemble the ravioli.
While we're at it, let's go ahead and make the plain cheese filling. Simply add 1/2 cup ricotta, 1/4 cup grated parm., 1/2 teaspoon each of salt & pepper, and the cayenne to a food storage container. Stir to evenly combine the ingredients. Place in the fridge while you make the rest of the food.
Moving on to the tomato-basil sauce. Pre-heat the oil in a saute pan with high sides over medium-low heat. Grate the 2 cloves of garlic into the oil and allow that to cook for two minutes. Then add the red pepper flakes.
Let them cook in the oil for one minute and then add in the can of diced tomatoes. Stir to incorporate the oil, garlic, & pepper flakes.
Add the tomato paste and stir to make sure it breaks up and gets distributed into the sauce. Sprinkle in the sugar, salt, & pepper and stir. Let the sauce cook for about five minutes, stirring occasionally.
Next, stir the wine into the sauce. Let the sauce cook for five minutes, then reduce the heat to low and let it simmer while you assemble the ravioli. Remember to stir the sauce occasionally while you're working with the ravioli.
Now for the ravioli assembly. First, place a large pot filled 3/4 full with water on the stove over high heat.
Take the dough out of the fridge, unwrap it, and place it on a flat, clean surface that has been lightly sprinkled with flour. If you have a pasta maker, great - use that to roll out the dough. If not, use the method I used and roll it out using a rolling pin until it's very, very thin. (Not gonna lie - this is hard so I had my man do it! I needed his brute strength!) Make sure when it's finished that it's in a shape at least somewhat resembling a rectangle.
Next, use a pizza cutter to cut the dough into squares. Do this by scoring the dough first length-wise. Mark off the halfway point, then the halfway points on each half (confusing enough?!). When you're done you should have the dough marked into quarters. Then just go ahead and use the pizza cutter to cut the strips. You will have four long strips when you're done.
Now slice it the other way using the same method. First mark the halfway point, then divide each half into thirds. (You can kind of see the score marks in this picture:)
Then make your cuts across using the pizza cutter. Now you should have a bunch of squares and some outer edge pieces that have a little bit of a funky shape, but that's OK, you can work with those.
Now get your cheese mixtures out of the fridge, remove the lids, and use teaspoons to add dollops of the cheese filling to the center of each of your squares. (We made rectangles and triangles to differentiate between the plain cheese filled ones and the mushroom filled ones because my boyfriend doesn't care for mushrooms. But if everyone you're cooking for likes mushrooms, go ahead and make triangles for all of them - they're easier to form.)
Fold one corner to its opposite corner and press down. Use the tines of a fork to press down along the edges to secure your ravioli closed.
Once the water has come to a boil on the stove and all of your ravioli have been assembled, place them in the boiling water along with a sprinkle of salt. Allow them to cook for ten minutes to al dente.
At the end of the cooking process for the pasta, you'll need to finish your tomato sauce by adding in the torn pieces of basil. Stir them into the sauce and leave to simmer while you drain the pasta.
After cooking the ravioli thoroughly, drain the water from the pasta by carefully dumping them into a colander in the sink. You don't want the ravioli to break open if you're too rough, so make sure to do it carefully. Gently shake the colander to remove any excess water and then place the colander with the ravioli still in it over the hot pot you cooked the pasta in. The heat will dry off the pasta.
Place the pasta on your serving plate and top with spoonfuls of the tomato-basil sauce. Sprinkle lightly with grated parmesan and serve immediately. Salute!
No comments:
Post a Comment