Homemade Pasta Dough and Homemade Ravioli

My son asked for ravioli yesterday but I didn't have any made. That last batch I did ended up being so chewy because of how much wrapper was left on the edges and the kids had trouble chewing it, even though they liked it. So this time I opted not to use wonton or eggroll wrappers and tried out a homemade pasta dough recipe.

The filling I used was 1 lb. ground beef that I cooked and drained, then made finer in the food processor and mixed with some spaghetti sauce and shredded Italian cheese. This tasted really good.

The dough also turned out pretty good. It was soft and stretchy and seemed to work perfectly. I haven't cooked them yet, they're in the freezer right now. But tomorrow for lunch we'll see how they turn out!

Here's the recipe:

Filling:
1 lb. ground beef
not quite half a jar of spaghetti sauce, probably about 1 to 1 1/2 cups
1 1/2 cups (or however much you like) of shredded Italian cheese (you could use mozzarella or anything really, or none at all)

Dough:
4 cups regular flour
5 eggs
1/2 oz. olive oil (I looked up and read this was 2 Tb so that's what I used.)

Cook beef; drain. Let cool.

While it's cooling, make dough. Measure flour into large bowl. Make a small hole in the center and add eggs and oil; mix well with large spoon then by hand. Dough will be very firm. Knead dough on an unfloured smooth surface. If dough is too stiff, small amounts of water may be kneaded in. (I think it's important to follow these directions exactly. I did end up kneading in a couple tablespoons of water because my dough was really crumbly.)

Cover dough in bowl with damp cloth and work with small amounts at a time. (I don't have a ravioli machine or mold so I rolled the dough out using a rolling pin and a small cup to cut out circles with. You could also use a knife and cut out squares. Another note, I sprinkled a dash of flour, and I mean only a dash, hardly any really, just enough to keep the dough from sticking to the rolling pin and counter. You don't really want any extra flour in your dough or it will start cracking and won't stick together.)

If rolling with a pin, roll a small amount to about one sixteenth of an inch. Or as thin as you can and then I just stretched them out a little more once I had them cut, before I put the filling in. Cut into square or circles, fill center with small amount of meat mixture. Add another piece of cut dough and seal sides with your fingers. I also crimped the edges with a fork to ensure they were sealed good.

Place ravioli on a floured cloth sprinkled with farina, semolina, or corn meal and let dry overnight. Or for long term storage, freeze them on cookie sheets for one hour, then slide into ziploc bags when frozen.

To cook, simply cook in slowly boiling chicken broth or salted water until one (they will float to the surface when done). Be sure not to overcook.

I was wondering about using wheat flour, or a mixture of all purpose and wheat but figured I'd just do regular flour for now and see how they turn out. If they're good, I may try that next time.

This ended up making 32 ravioli for me that I'm freezing so I can pull them out and cook them for my kids for lunches. I think I'm going to sprinkle them with bread crumbs and maybe parmesan cheese when they come out of the cooking water to make them more like breaded ravioli, since that's what my kids like.