Cooking good food makes everyone richer

I can not believe I have never made homemade pasta before, especially being predominantly raised on Italian food. This stuff is so easy to make and so damn rewarding. While this dish was the most expensive one I have made so far you could very easily fill it with cheaper fillings; at the same time I did get 16 large-sized ravioli, and one jumbo sized, so enough to feed easily 4 hungry people, and 6 regular people.

Ingredient List ~ $14

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 4 eggs
• 2 tbsp of olive oil
• one tsp sea salt
• 1 lb salmon
• 6-8 oz of goat cheese, depends on your level of cheese worship

First make the pasta. Combine the flour with the salt, and then add one egg at a time mixing the whole time. I used my hands for this part but the recipe called for a mixer with a dough hook, I have no interest in a dough hook while I still have non-arthritic fingers. After getting all the eggs in there, mix in the oil and knead it until it is one cohesive doughy mass. Let sit for 30 minutes.

While the dough is resting, cook up the salmon, I put a little oil down in a pan and cooked both sides of a filet till it was easy to break apart with a fork or spatula, these allows you to cook the salmon evenly. Once the flesh has been cooked place in a bowl, mix in the goat cheese while the salmon is still warm. You should be left with a pink creamy pile, place this in the freezer to cool down.

Next you will reconnect with your ancestors and become one with your rolling-pin. Put some flour down on your counter and sprinkle both sides of your pasta bowl. Much like we did when stretching the pizza dough, roll out from the middle until you have a uniform pasta sheet. The thickness of the pasta sheet is up to you but I would recommend going a good bit thinner then your first, “I think it’s thin enough moment”. Do not let your rolling-pin muscles decide how thin your pasta will be. While you are finishing off rolling out your dough get a good pot of salted water boiling.

Once your sheet is the desired thickness, use a knife to make it a large uniform rectangle (remember squares are rectangles). You are going to put the filling down on half the sheet, spacing each lump about 1.5-2 inches apart from each, err on the side of too far as this is important to the integrity of the ravioli when cooking.  Before folding over the remaining half of your sheet, wet your finger tips and make a checkerboard of moisture around each filling lump, this increases the stickiness between the two layers of pasta. Now fold over the sheet, and press the two pasta sides together, be sure to work any air pockets between the layers out. You should begin to recognize that you are making ravioli. When you arrive at this point simply take a knife or a pizza cutter and slice them into individual pieces. Use a fork to pinch together the 4 sides of each ravioli, in addition to making this a more cohesive ravioli it also increases the aesthetic value.

You now have delicious homemade ravioli, serve anyway you like. After boiling these I pan-fried them in….wait for it….aioli mixed in with some fresh oil and crushed red pepper, then coated them with some freshly grated parmagiano. Amazing.

Eat Well!