Last light was the first time I've made ravioli from scratch! It was difficult to roll out the dough by hand, but I'll give you a tip on that. Other than that, it was super easy to prepare, and they only cook for about 5 minutes! I would recommend making a whole bunch at once -Jared and I made a night of it, haha- and saving them in a ziplock in the freezer for when you want something quick to pull out for dinner. Almost like store bought ravioli at that point....but with maybe 10x less ingredients...it's worth the time, to me!!
Here's the recipe for the dough:
http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/ravioli-pasta-dough.aspx
It is SO much fun to make it right on the counter. Except I didn't make my flour "well" deep enough -you'll want to pretty much have it go down to the surface of the counter, just with flour around it- and my eggs overflowed. It takes a good amount of patience to knead the dough, especially after watching videos of the pros doing it...the first time will probably be rough, unless you've done it before. But it's so fulfilling, let me tell ya! Knead it until all the ingredients are well incorporated, and it's reached the point of a happy dough ball. I actually separated my dough into three parts, so I could handle it better. After that, put it in the fridge until you forget about it.
I think after this point, they assume you're going to run it through a pasta maker, but I don't have one of those! You can use a rolling pin. You'll want to keep everything- your flat surface, the rolling pin, your hands- very well floured. The dough takes some work to roll out, especially if you don't wait for it to warm back to room temperature. But if you keep plenty of flour under it, it will slide outward as it expands, rather than sticking to the surface and hindering progress. Jared figured this out, once I had turned the rolling pin over to him.
Get the dough thin, then cut it with something...we used the rim of a wide recycled jar (we keep all our jars to use as glasses...so we had a selection to choose from, haha). You could also use a cookie cutter, or a wire coat hanger, maybe? You just want something that you can press into the dough to cut it.
The Filling:
Standard Kale Procedure: Strip the leaves off the stalks, chop them up a little bit, throw them in a frying pan or wok with some oil, salt, pepper, and enough water to steam them...stir, then cover to steam on medium high heat for about 10 minutes or until tender, stirring occasionally. Once they're lightly cooked, if there's water left in the pan, drain it out.
Sweet potato: I had been baking it for about 45 minutes, but it wasn't quite as soft as I wanted it, so I sliced it up, removed the peel, and threw it in with the kale to saute them both for another 5-10 minutes.
I added curry powder and cinnamon at this point.
Dump the kale and sweet potato in a bowl, and combine the ricotta. Mash it all up, and you're ready to start stuffing the ravioli!
To stuff:
This is the time consuming, you're-going-to-want-to-turn-on-music-and-dance-while-you-cook part. Take a spoonful of the filling and place it in the middle of one of the wrappers that you just cut out.
Crack an egg into a bowl and whisk it a little.
Take another wrapper, dip your fingers in the egg bowl and wipe egg around what will be the internal edge of the wrapper, then place it on top of the wrapper with fill, and press down around the edges. Go back with a fork and press down with that around the edges to give it a finished, crimped look.
DO NOT STACK THE FINISHED RAVIOLI BEFORE YOU COOK THEM.
You're going to have 40+ ravioli laying, not touching eachother, on every surface in your kitchen. Unless you freeze them immediately, which is a good option for whatever you're not planning on eating that night.
When you cook them:
Bring the water to a boil, add a teaspoon of oil. Place the ravioli in, and cook them for about 5 minutes on a high boil until you think they might be done but not overcooked. I have no scientific measurement of time for this, I'm sorry...ours were done after about 5 or 6 minutes.
Here's the SAUCE I made:
1/2 cup milk
1/2 stick of butter (2 tablespoons or so...or more)
2-3 tablespoons cream cheese
A happy amount of pepper jack cheese (about 5 slices? 1/2 cup?)
1 1/2 tablespoons of hummus (I added this for the tahini flavor...if you don't happen to have it, no worries)
Salt, plenty of pepper, dried basil, minced garlic...use these at your own discretion.
Really, there's no way to go wrong with the sauce. Cook at medium heat until all the ingredients have melted and combined for about 5 minutes. Don't panic if it looks too thin, maybe add a bit more cream cheese. It WILL thicken once it cools!
I served this with another baked sweet potato on the side! All you have to do is bake them as-is until they're soft, and the skin feels crispy. Cut in half, they're amazing plain. Or you can add butter, salt, oil, honey, herbs, ANYTHING!
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