Friday Night Cooking Class/Cheese Ravioli with Red Pepper Tomato Sauce

Rebecca is here again to cook with us in the kitchen. She wanted a simple pasta dish. I guess I didn’t quite know her definition of simple. The pasta dish is a simple and light ravioli but it is not simple to make. The girls had fun making the sauce and filling and rolling out the pasta. They were thrilled with their accomplishments and it turned out fantastic. This is the last post before the season finale for FNCC. I hope you enjoy this recipe. I have had it for years and it is from a Food Network show that was on in the late 90′s called Cooking Live hosted by Sara Moulton. Enjoy!!

For The Sauce:

28 oz. can plum tomatoes
1 large red bell pepper, chopped coarse
2 large cloves garlic, minced
2 onions, chopped coarse
1/2 cup of chicken or vegetable stock

For the filling:

3/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
4 oz. mozzarella, grated coarse
1/2 cup ricotta
2 Tbsp. snipped fresh chives
1 lb. processor pasta dough
Chives for garnish
Parmesan for garnish

Pasta Dough

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
2 large eggs, beaten lightly
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 1/2 Tbsp. water plus additional if necessary

To Make The Pasta Dough

In a Food Processor blend flour, eggs, oil and 1 1/2 Tbsp. water until mixture just begins to form a ball, adding additional water, drop by drop, if dough is too dry. Dough should be firm and not sticky. Blend dough for 15 seconds more to knead and let stand, covered with a tea towel and a inverted bowl for one hour at room temperature. Yield:1 lb.

To Make The Sauce:

While dough is resting make the sauce. In a saucepan combine the tomatoes with their juice, bell pepper, garlic, onions and stock and bring mixture to a boil. Reduce and simmer the mixture covered, stirring occasionally for 30-40 min. or until vegetables are very tender. Using a hand held blender puree the ingredients. Add salt and pepper to taste and simmer until the sauce has reduced and is thickened.

To Make the Filling:

Combine all filling ingredients gently mixing them together and adding salt and pepper to taste.

Rolling out the dough:

With a pasta machine start on the widest setting put 1/3 of your dough through the machine, add a sprinkling of flour to one side, fold in half and put the dough through the pasta machine again.  Adjust the pasta machine to one size smaller and run the dough through, continue to adjust the machine smaller and smaller until you reach the desired thickness for your dough.  I usually put it through twice on each setting, we have a Roscan 150 mm Deluxe Pasta Machine and for this recipe I like to go to setting number 6, any more than that and I find the dough to be to thin to work with easily.

Lightly flour your counter and lay the dough out flat.  Place a rounded teaspoon size amount of your cheese filling approximately 1 1/2 to 2 inches apart all the way along the bottom third of the dough.  Lightly moisten all the edges of the dough and in between each dollop of filling with water and fold the dough in half over the filling. Seal all the edges around each mound, then using a pizza cutter or knife cut between each cheese packet.  Place each one on a lightly floured cookie sheet and cover with slightly damp tea towel.  Continue with the remaining 2/3′s of the pasta dough in the same manner.

Working in batches, place 6-9 ravioli packets in well salted boiling water for approximately 6 minute, using a slotted spoon remove to a plate, I use a paper towel to dab up any excess water from the plate, continue in this manner until all the pasta packets are cooked. Place 4-5 ravioli per plate and top with sauce, Parmesan cheese and chives. Delicious!!

Recipe adapted from “Cooking Live” with Sara Moulton