Ricotta and Basil Sourdough Ravioli

Don’t let the sourdough part scare you away from this yummy ravioli recipe! You can substitute any pasta dough for this, as long as it’s one more suited for a ravioli shape. There are many recipes out there that would work with this one including this one from Lidia (whom I loveeee). Anyway, if I can make this for dinner, so can you! All you need is someone to watch your kids, because it can get quite hectic at times if they’re pulling at your leg while you’re making homemade pasta!!! Then again there are many ways to get kids involved in kneading the dough, or brushing on the egg wash, squeezing out the filling, whatever you think they can handle! And if you don’t have kids, then this should be a breeze comparably! lol Enjoy!

Recipe for the pasta dough adapted from the NYTimes and Samin Nosrat

Recipe for the filling and sauce by Tierney Larson

Servings: 2, or 4 if you’re using them for an appetizer makes about 20 large 2 1/2 inch wide ravioli

Ingredients:

For the pasta dough:

110g All-Purpose Flour

110g Semolina Flour, plus more for dusting

1 large egg and 2 egg yolks

175g Sourdough discard (unfed)

For the Filling:

16oz of whole milk ricotta cheese

1/2 lemon zested

1/4 tsp of freshly ground nutmeg

8 basil leaves, finely chopped

kosher salt

black pepper

1 egg

For assembly:

Semolina flour, for dusting

1 egg for egg wash

For the Sauce:

3 tbl unsalted butter

1 anchovy

kosher salt

3 sprigs of fresh thyme

squeeze of lemon

To top:

Parmesan cheese

Torn basil

Ok so…

Make the pasta: In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the two flours. Dump them out onto a clean work surface and make a large well in the center. Pour the discard into the center, and the egg and egg yolks. With a fork start combining the eggs and discard, then start bringing the flour in and whisking to combine. When it starts to get hard to use the fork, switch to a bench scraper and continue to bring the flour in, folding it into the middle onto itself. When the dough is firm enough to start using your hands, use them to start kneading the dough, making sure to incorporate all the flour. Continue to knead using a dusting of flour to help with sticking until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 8-10 minutes.

Cover and let rest for 30 minutes.

Make the filling: Place the ricotta cheese into a cheesecloth or paper towel and place over a small bowl. Squeeze out the liquid (you don’t need to go crazy, you just don’t want it to be really liquid-y like some ricotta can be). Discard the liquid and mix the drained ricotta cheese with the lemon zest, basil, nutmeg, a pinch of salt and a few grinds of black pepper. Taste and adjust any seasoning and then add the egg and stir to fully combine. Spoon your filling into a piping bag fitted with a circular tip (if you have, if not just get a spoon ready to help you spoon it onto the pasta sheets.). I keep the piping bag resting in a measuring glass piping tip up and bottom twisted and propped up (like a “v”) so if it does leak, it’s neat!

Shape the Ravioli: Before you start, fill a large pot with water and season it generously with salt. Bring to a boil while you make your pasta.

Get a large sheet tray and dust it generously with semolina flour. Make a small bowl of egg wash by whisking together an egg and a splash of water. Set your pasta roller to the widest setting (on mine it’s 1). Divide the pasta dough into 4 pieces and work with one at a time, keeping the others covered while you work. Take one of the pieces and press it out and shape it into a rectangle. Run it through the machine and then fold it into thirds and run it through again so that you get a wider piece of dough.

Continue to run the dough through the machine, using semolina if necessary to prevent sticking, until it gets too long for you to hold. Cut the dough in half and work with one half at a time, (you want them to be the same length) until you get to setting 7. You want the dough to be thin enough to see the shadow of your hand through it. Once both sheets of dough are at the same thickness (level 7), place them on a clean surface dusted with semolina flour.

Using a 2 1/2 inch biscuit cutter, lightly indent one sheet so that you have a guide for where to put your filling. Pipe about 1 tbl of filling into the center of each marking you made. Using a pastry brush, paint the egg wash around the filling of each ravioli, then drape the other pasta sheet moving from right to left, pressing the dough around the filling one ravioli at a time. If you put the sheet directly on top without draping it one at a time, you will get air bubbles in the filling. Then cut each ravioli out using the same biscuit cutter and place them onto the semolina dusted sheet pan. Repeat until all the pasta dough has been shaped and the filling is used up. As long as your pasta scraps aren’t covered in egg wash, you can save them and make them as you would any pasta!

Make the Sauce:

The sauce is super quick, and so is the ravioli to cook, so you want to do them at the same time. Start by melting the butter in a medium skillet over medium heat, while it melts carefully drop your ravioli into the boiling water. Add the anchovy to the butter and a pinch of kosher salt. Add a squeeze of lemon and the thyme, by this time (about 2 min) the ravioli is ready to be added to the sauce. Transfer the ravioli to the sauce and let finish cooking (about 1 min.) in the sauce. Gently toss the ravioli so that they all get a chance to get coated in the butter. Remove from the heat and serve topped with parmesan cheese and torn basil.