Guys Love Cooking weekend recipe: Homemade ricotta & mushroom ravioli

In this week's collaboration with Guys Love Cooking, the guys bring us an excellent recipe for homemade ricotta & mushroom ravioli. But first, a short stroll down memory lane.

We like homemade food, a lot. Years ago I lived in the UK, and food over there was not as it is now. I recall dreadful trips to the supermarket where fresh food was nowhere to be seen. Local markets were not that appealing, and "organic" or "fresh" produce were words most people could not understand. Things have drastically changed there: people are more conscious about what they eat and how they cook it. Food in general has gotten much, much better. Tomatoes now look red and not pale orange, although you can still find those, too!

Years ago, I worked for a company that made kitchen appliances, like water kettles and toasters. All of the sudden, the items we sold most frequently were bread makers. It seemed as if the whole country got into a making-bread-at-home frenzy. Of course that made my boss very happy! We always make our own bread, and on our blog you can find a few recipes of our own. Check it out!

One of the common misconceptions is that making make food from scratch takes a great deal of time. That can be true, but for most recipes it is not the case. Yesterday we made an absolute classic of the Italian modern cuisine: Homemade ricotta and mushroom ravioli. The way I see homemade pasta is that it usually requires a little dressing. For this one, we used part of the filling and some double cream. However, you could just add some butter and a couple of sage leaves instead.

Homemade ricotta & mushroom ravioli

Prep Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes Cook Time: 5 minutes Total Time: 1 hour, 35 minutes Yield: Serves 6

Ingredients

• Dough
• Flour: 300g (11 oz)
• Eggs: 3
• Salt: a pinch
• Water (warm): 1 tbsp

• Ricotta: 300g (11oz)
• Mushroom: 600g (21oz)
• Eggs: 2
• Nutmeg: a pinch
• Salt: a pinch
• Pepper: a dash

• Double cream: 200 ml (4/5 cups)

Method

Sift the flour and place it on a board. Make a well in the center of the flour. Drop the eggs into the flour well, and using a fork, break the yolks and beat eggs slightly. Mix well, then continue to knead for at least ten minutes. The dough should be smooth and elastic. Make the dough into a ball, wrap it in a cling film, let it rest for about an hour.

Clean the Mushrooms. Cook them for a few minutes, and then drain, squeezing them in your hands. Finely chop them. At this point add the ricotta, eggs, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Mix well together until creamy and smooth.

When both the dough and the filling are ready we can make our ravioli. Divide the dough into four pieces, and with the aid of a pasta machine (or rolling pin) roll each strip into a very thin sheet (1/8 inch or 3 mm). Drop one teaspoon of filling about 4 cm or 1.5 inch apart all along the dough. When the sheet is fully dotted with filling mixture, cover with another sheet of dough of the same size. Using your fingers, gently press dough between each dab of filling to seal it. Cut ravioli into the shape you like with a zig-zag edged pastry cutter. Put a pot of salted water to boil, dip the ravioli and cook a few minutes until they rise to the surface.