Here goes kids, the step by step tutorial you have been waiting for to make your very own homemade pasta and raviolis. I know you are excited.
You may ask why I was inspired to create this meal on a random Tuesday night, after I worked all day and had a Jaycee meeting…well Michelle over at Thursday Night Smackdown has inspired me to try new things and get over my fears of stupid things like pasta dough and she posted this fantastic recipe for Winter Squash Raviolis that Scottie sent to me yesterday morning. I thought that was a hint that he wanted to try and make it, I was later to find out, about half way through this process that he was simply relating the post title to the movie Three Amigos, you can imagine my frustration, but the meal ended well so I couldn’t complain much.
I was also thrilled to not have to purchase anything! I had a butternut squash sitting on my counter waiting for its debut and I JUST so happened to have Italian flour in my pantry, sad I know.
I also got to break out my pasta roller, the uber cool machine that Mom got me when I was in college. This thing is mac daddy and it’s a shame it’s been living in my closet for so long. Come out of the closet- it’s time to play!
Ok on to the fun, recipe for the dough at the end so if you wanna skip past the crap load of pics I am about to post and the witty banter, go ahead and scroll down.
We start with a well, yes a well. Scottie was adament that he wanted to make the well and make the dough by hand, he wanted to show off his Alton Brown skills I guess. So I got the ingredients together and made the well.
*Nice beer, consider it an appetizer
Then he began to slowly stir the eggs, gradually bringing in the flour from the sides.
This proved to be a long process, I think we were mixing for like 15 minutes before it finally looked like dough and not a pool of freakishly yellow snot. Next time I may throw the whole thing in the KitchenAid and see what happens. Finally we got to the kneading stage.
The directions state not to knead the dough like bread, which is foreign to me because I only know how to knead bread, hence my troubles with biscuits and pie dough. But I tried my best and pressed out the dough into a disk and then reformed it into a ball, repeat the process. I did this for about 10 minutes and then decided the dough (and my arms) needed to rest. Meanwhile I made the filling; roasted butternut squash, crisp bacon, thyme, sage, a bit of milk, salt and pepper and a generous amount of grated parmigiano reggiano cheese. When my arms stopped aching I went back to kneading for a few more minutes until the dough became as “silky” as I thought it was going to get.
Then is was time to get rolling!
I quartered the dough and fed each piece through the largest setting on my rollers. Be sure to wrap up the dough you are not using or it will get dry and crumbly and almost impossible to roll smoothly. We continued to roll until we had nice thin sheets of beautiful yellow pasta. We then periodically dropped little teaspoon mounds of squash filling on the dough.
Then folded the dough over and cut very imperfect ravioli squares.
After finishing all of the dough it was time to boil the raviolis. They only take a minute or two to cook so I began trying to make the brown butter sauce that Michelle made. I open the fridge and realize I only had light butter, I know, I didn’t know they made such a thing either and I felt like less of a foodie because I bought it against my better judgment. I plunked a few tablespoons on my hot pan and held my breath. The butter melted ok, and it looked to begin foaming so I added my chopped hazelnuts. Then the whole thing seized up and began to almost crystallize. It was gross and totally inedible. I was not even about to put my beautifully imperfect raviolis in this mess.
After a freak out moment and almost throwing my hands up in defeat, I was talked down by Scottie who suggested a cream sauce. I had whole milk, that I conveniently needed to use up, the fake butter and cheese. Figuring this was my last resort I went for it, making a quick bechamel sauce and adding in a huge mound of grated parm. The fake butter didn’t ruin this sauce and dinner was saved. Hooray!
I dotted the raviolis with the sauce, which ended up quite thick but I figured any moisture from the noodles would thin it out. I topped it with a bit of crisp bacon and a nice grind of pepper and dinner was finally served, only 2 hours later and 10pm. But definitely worth it.
*Scottie likes lots of cheese, and maybe future heart failure 
Scottie actually ate these even though he is not a big fan of squash, whoops! My bad! Though he had quite a pile of cheese on top and I gave him extra bacon. I will play around with fillings for future pasta making attempts. I think next time we will go all out and make a full on lasagna from scratch, I will be sure to have appetizers and 3 hours to get that feat accomplished!
Seven-Yolk Pasta Dough
Adapted from French Laundry Cookbook
1 3/4 cups (8 ounces) all-purpose flour
6 large egg yolks
1 large egg
1 1/2 teaspoons olive oil
1 tablespoon milk
Mound flour on a board or other surface and create a well in the center, pushing the flour to all sides to make a ring with sides about 1-inch wide. Make sure that the well is wide enough to hold all the eggs without spilling.
Pour the egg yolks, egg, oil and milk into the well. Use your fingers to break the eggs up. Still using your fingers, begin turning the eggs in a circular motion, keeping them within the well and not allowing them to spill over the sides. This circular motion allows the eggs to gradually pull in flour from the sides of the well; it is important that the flour not be incorporated too rapidly, or dough will be lumpy. Keep moving the eggs while slowly incorporating the flour. Using a pastry scraper, occasionally push the flour toward the eggs; the flour should be moved only enough to maintain the gradual incorporation of the flour, and the eggs should continue to be contained within the well. The mixture will thicken and eventually get too tight to keep turning with your fingers.
When the dough begins thickening and starts lifting itself from the board, begin incorporating the remaining flour with the pastry scraper by lifting the flour up and over the dough that’s beginning to form and cutting it into the dough. When the remaining flour from the sides of the well has been cut into the dough, the dough will still look shaggy. Bring the dough together with the palms of your hands and form it into a ball. It will look flaky but will hold together.
Knead the dough by pressing it, bit by bit, in a forward motion with the heels of your hands rather than folding it over on itself as you would with a bread dough. Re-form the dough into a ball and repeat the process several times. The dough should feel moist but not sticky. Let the dough rest for a few minutes while you clean the work surface.
Dust the clean work surface with a little flour. Knead the dough by pushing against it in a forward motion with the heels of your hands. Form the dough into a ball again and knead it again. Keep kneading in this forward motion until the dough becomes silky smooth. The dough is ready when you can pull your finger through it and the dough wants to snap back into place. The kneading process can take from 10 to 15 minutes.
Even if you think you are finished kneading, knead it for an extra 10 minutes; you cannot overknead this dough. It is important to work the dough long enough to pass the pull test; otherwise, when it rests, it will collapse.
Double-wrap the dough in plastic wrap to ensure that it does not dry out. Let the dough rest for at least 30 minutes and up to 1 hour before rolling it through a pasta machine. The dough can be made a day ahead, wrapped and refrigerated; bring to room temperature before proceeding.
