ravioli with four cheeses filling

making ravioli
Originally uploaded by kattebelletje.

Once you get the hack of it, making ravioli is not too hard to do. I made a filling of cheeses, inspired by a wonderful creamy blue cheese I had bought at the market. Since cheeses seem to come in four, I added mascarpone, ricotta and grated Parmesan to it, plus an egg yolk, some grated zest of a lemon, salt, pepper and some nutmeg too. Make the dough for the pasta: roughly 1 egg to 100 grams of flour. You can use ordinary flour, or a mixture of semolina and white flour, the more semolina you use, the finer looking the dough will be. Let stand briefly, then roll out in a pasta machine to its smallest setting. Put a sheet of dough on a big surface which you dust with flour. Then add small chunks of the filling in an even pattern on the dough. Cover carefully with a second sheet and press the dough around the filling, until ravioli shapes appear. Cut loose with a small ravioli wheel and put the finished ravioli on a non-stick surface, or a surface covered again with flour. Cook in simmering water for about 3 to 4 minutes and prepare sage butter. Just put fresh sage with a large knob of butter in a saucepan and let it all melt; pour over pasta in warmed plates and thourougly enjoy your meal! Serve with a green salad and chilled white wine.