I used to have a pasta press- I loved making my own fresh pasta. After I moved to Norway, I got out of the habit of making pasta; it just seemed like too much work and too much time. But yesterday, I got a hankering for raviolis. I just happened to have the left overs of a cheese aperitif: creamed cottage cheese, sun dried tomatoes, more cream cheese, ramsløk pure ( a wild, garlic flavored shallot), and a sprinkle of sunflower seeds. Then, on my way home, Gina stopped me and handed me three fresh eggs from her hens. The plot thickened.
I needed some organic spelt flour, salt, and olive oil, all available in my cupboard. I discovered it was amazingly easy to make the dough (two cups flour, three eggs, one tsp olive oil and one tsp salt, divide it in two, and roll out a large rectangle. Then I dropped spoonfuls of the cheese mixture at regular intervals onto the dough, rolled another rectangle to place on top, and cut the raviolis into squares. while I was rolling the dough, I set a bag of frozen tomatoes from last years’ garden into scalding water. I peeled the skins and cut out the stem ends, then cooked them up into a quick tomato sauce with olive oil, garlic, onion,and some herbs:
Finally, I tossed the ready raviolis into boiling water (the water I had scalded the tomatoes in, actually), boiled up each batch for two minutes or so until the raviolis floated to the top, ladled the tomato sauce over them, and added some dried oregano:
The picture seems to have come out sideways, but the raviolis came out great! Now that I know how easy it is to make and roll the dough, I can experiment with all kinds of fillings, and have a fresh ravioli meal ready in under an hour. Amazing, I always thought I had to buy these things, or that it would take hours to make by hand.
