Making Homemade Ravioli with the Imperia SP150 Pasta Machine

"Santa is on his way to your house." said the cheerful email I got from my mother-in-law a couple of weeks before Christmas. She lives in San Antonio, Texas and we live in Georgia, so we often have to settle for phone calls and emails to keep in touch. I could tell my husband's mom was very excited about the gift she was sending us from Williams-Sonoma, which turned out to be an Imperia SP150 Pasta Machine.

My husband Bill and I were delighted with the gift, even though it had never occurred to us to buy a pasta machine for ourselves. We had always been satisfied with the dry pasta we always bought at the store. Last night, we tried out our new machine for the very first time. Bill's original plan was to make fettuccine, since the pasta machine is officially able to make lasagna, fettuccine, and tagliatelle. But I came up with the bright idea to make ravioli instead. Here's how we did it.

First, we made the pasta...

Using a basic recipe from my battered copy of The Joy of Cooking, we prepared homemade pasta. On a clean countertop, we poured 3 and 1/2 cups of unbleached all purpose flour into a mound. We made a small well at the top of the mound, then, one by one, we added five large eggs, one teaspoon of salt, and a teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil. We beat the eggs lightly with a fork, gradually drawing in some of the flour until the eggs were mixed and slightly thickened.

Next, it was time to turn the egg and flour mixture into dough. We blended more of the flour into the eggs until we had a smooth, supple dough. If you try this and the dough is too crumbly, you can add water until the consistency is smoother. If you prefer to use a food processor or a stand mixer, you can add the ingredients and mix just long enough for the dough to blend and form.

We kneaded the dough until it was smooth, satiny, and very elastic, then divided it into four sections. We wrapped the dough in plastic wrap and let it sit for about a half an hour.

Using the machine

After the dough had its half hour rest, it was time to roll it out. We set the machine's rollers to their widest setting, then lightly sprinkled the four lumps of dough with flour. We passed each section of dough through the machine's rollers three times. Each time the dough passed through the machine, we folded it in half and passed it through the machine again, adding more flour whenever the dough became sticky. As each section of dough was pressed, we handled it carefully to ensure that the dough wasn't broken or punctured by our fingers. Setting the rollers closer together, we repeated the process until the dough was just the right thickness and very smooth and satiny.

Making the filling

The filling we used for our ravioli was a very basic vegetable cheese filling, consisting of ricotta cheese, fresh spinach, Parmesan cheese, and a touch of salt. First, we washed, trimmed, and dried the fresh spinach, then chopped it very finely. Next, we heated the spinach in a skillet over medium high heat with a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil. We stirred in one clove of minced garlic and cooked for about a half a minute, then removed the greens from the stovetop. In a separate bowl, we mixed one cup of ricotta cheese, 3/4 cup of Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper to taste, and one large, slightly beaten egg. We added the spinach and garlic to that mixture until it was well blended with the cheese. This mixture can be covered and kept in a refrigerator for up to two days. You can also dress it up with a little minced prosciutto or pancetta.

Making the ravioli

Bill was a little leery about making ravioli, since the machine wasn't specifically meant for that purpose. But I reminded him that it's easy to make ravioli, even if you don't have special attachments for your pasta machine. All you have to do is cut your pasta dough into even squares, then spoon a bit of the cheese mixture on top of alternating squares. Once you've done that, take the pieces of dough that don't have mixture on them and place them on top of the ones that do, as if you were making sandwiches. Using the tines of a fork, seal the sides by crimping them. Now your raviolis are ready to boil!

Cooking the ravioli

Bring five cups of water to a rolling boil, then slowly add your raviolis to cook. Fresh pasta only takes a minute or two to cook before it's ready. Watch for it to float on top of the water; then it should be done. Remove each piece carefully; you don't want to damage that pasta you worked so hard to create!

Serving the ravioli

The process to make this fresh pasta took a couple of hours, so we didn't feel like trying to make a homemade sauce. Instead, we dressed our pasta with a little Bertoli garlic and tomato sauce. I topped mine with fresh Parmesan and a little fresh mozzarella. We enjoyed our meal with a piece of garlic bread and a very nice Chianti. I have to admit, that meal was one of the more interesting and delicious ones we've had lately.

Overall

Homemade pasta is a real treat and the Imperia SP150 pasta machine was surprisingly easy to use. You can bet we'll be experimenting more with our new toy in the years to come!

Sources

www.williams-sonoma.com

Rombauer, I., Rombauer, M., and Becker, E. The Joy of Cooking NewYork: Scribner Books, 1991. Print. 302-304, 314.