Striped Ravioli

Well this Tuesday night thing is getting very interesting (and competitive)! We had dinner at the Architect’s house on Tuesday night and she made Striped Ravioli with Truffle Ricotta filing. Shoot…I better get cracking because next Tuesday is my turn!

The striped ravioli is achieved by making a batch of regular pasta and passing the dough through the pasta machine into long ribbons, then making a batch of flavored pasta (beet, spinach, saffron, basil, butternut squash, etc….), cutting that batch of dough into linguine, pressing the linguine into the plain pasta ribbons, then passing the newly adorned pasta ribbons through the pasta machine one more time. Phew – I get exhausted just writing about it! It was quite fun but a lot of work. So here’s what you do.

First, you need all the necessary accouterments…a pasta machine, a dough cutter, and a ravioli press. Architect got her stuff from Fante's on 9th Street in Philadelphia.

Then, make the filling by mixing together two cups of ricotta cheese, ½ cup Parmesan cheese, two eggs and 2 teaspoons of truffle oil. Cover and place in the refrigerator until ready to use.

To make the plain pasta dough, make a well in the middle of three cups of flour and add three eggs and a little salt. Using a fork, gradually incorporate the eggs into the flour (not all of it) from the middle working your way out. When pliable, knead the dough until it is a bit elastic and somewhat shiny and bounces back easily when poked.

Wrap the dough in plastic and let it rest for 15 minutes. My grandmom used to put the dough in a bowl and cover it with a towel…both methods keep it from drying out.

While the plain dough is resting, make the flavored dough using the same method but only add two whole eggs, one egg yoke and a ½ cup of pureed vegetables or herbs…we used beets. Wrap that dough up and let it rest for at least 15 minutes.

Cut off ¼ of the plain dough, sprinkle it with flour and run it through the pasta machine on gradually thinner settings several times. When running the dough through on the thicker settings, fold it onto itself into three times before running it through the pasta machine each time. You won’t need to do this as the dough gets thinner.

When the dough is “linguine” thin, sprinkle the ribbons with flour and set aside.

By the time you are done with the plain dough, the flavored dough will be rested and ready to run through the pasta machine. Use the same method ONLY the final pass through on the pasta machine will be on the linguine setting. Lightly brush the plain pasta ribbon with water then press the linguine strips into the plain dough...

...and run through the pasta machine to fully incorporate the stripes into the plain dough.

Place the striped dough into the ravioli mold and fill with a teaspoon of the ricotta mixture…

…place another ribbon of the striped dough on top of the ravioli mold and roll over with a rolling pin.

This will both cut and shape the ravioli.

Boil in salted water until the ravioli floats to the top. Poke a tiny pin hole in in the top of each ravioli to prevent them from bursting when boiling.

Serve with your favorite sauce. Architect made a simple sage olive oil sauce so that the flavor of the ricotta truffle mixture emerged nicely. We also had a delicious Caesar salad in the lovely traveling salad bowl. A fantastic – and educational – evening.

Architect got this striped ravioli idea from one of her recipe books and I will update this post with the name of the book (forgot to jot it down!).