Lessons Ravioli Has Taught Me

Lesson One: Money Solves All Ravioli-Based Problems

The secret of the Kitchenaid ravioli is to cough up more cash for the pasta roller. It makes silky yet tough dough that can then withstand the ravioli press. And it is as fun to use as that one bank commercial makes it seem. (I think it’s a bank commercial. Some woman is making green, yellow, and purple pasta dough.)

In addition, I used semolina flour last time, and the instruction manual for the pasta roller makes it clear you should not even consider using semolina flour with certain attachments, and I imagine one was the ravioli maker. You would think that might be in the ravioli maker manual, but no.

Lesson Two: There’s a Reason They are Classics, or Ravioli Is Very Good when Served with Tomato Sauce and Parmesan Cheese

So when Gary got home I had made all my sheets of pasta. I wisely made us dinner from roughly cut up noodle of just the egg pasta dough, butter, and grated Parmesan cheese. Gary loved it. I always love egg noodles and butter.

After dinner I was ready to try the ravioli maker. Again I tried three fillings:

Home made ricotta cheese, which leached out of five of the six ravioli because the water was boiling too roughly. There was only one cheese-filled ravioli for Gary to try and pronounce it horrible.

Roast mushrooms, which was deemed too strong and overpowering after two ravioli.

Leek, Potato and Bacon, which was an unspeakable travesty. Or, in Polish, pierogi. I’d have loved them fried up in some butter.

I’m going to try them again, but this time with a more conventional meat paste filling and tomato sauce.

Lesson Three: Waste Not.

So now I have a new skill: making these silky flat sheets of pasta. If only there were some way you could combine flat sheets of pasta and fresh ricotta cheese. Maybe with a sauce you could toss a few roast mushrooms in to and no one would be the wiser.

I hate lasagna.

But I do have a recipe from twenty years ago. Everyone was gushing over some lasagna we’d had and the hostess passed the recipe around. I thought, “If I ever need to make lasagna I can use this recipe, because people seemed to enjoy it.”

So, I’ll be able to put that recipe and perhaps some of the mushrooms to use. The bacon / leek / potato filling is going to turn in to roast garlic potato soup tomorrow. I’m going to need something to eat while Gary eats the lasagna.