Homemade ravioli filled with ricotta, arugula and lime

Homemade ravioli filled with ricotta, arugula and lime

It did take me some time to get started today and i certainly wasn't all shiny this morning. I mean, i didn't exactly feel the way i did last week, when i wanted to bake those yummie raspberry ricotta scones, because it was a 'family thing' to do on a sunday. To blame was my sweet friend who celebrated her birthday in the centre of Amsterdam last night. (which was really nice, by the way!) And though we had a babysitter at home who really didn't care about the time we'd be back again, you always have to remember there are three children at home, who will wake you at about seven. Or at least, the little one will. Also on sunday's, and also (or especially) when you had some drinks. Which we did.

Lucky me, i got up really early yesterday, which made it automatically Nicolaas' turn today.. Poor him. So i was able to sleep a bit more, but my headache, by the time i got up, wasn't any less. Some aspirines saved me, and i decided to just take it easy today. None of us got out of our pyjama's, and everybody was just really relaxed, doing whatever they liked. Amazingly wonderful! All kids amused themselfs, playing chess (!!), reading some books, surfed a bit on the internet, or in Wolf's case (he's just one year old) made an icredible mess, but again: amused himself to the max, and so i didn't care.

I mean, i really could do anything i liked, and since i wanted to make homemade ravioli today, (which i never did before) i decided to give it a try. It took me two attempts, and ok, a good glass of wine - it's the best remedy they say for a hangover -  to get them right. The stuffing of ricotta and arugula with the zest of lime worked out very well, but the dough had to be thinner than i made them the first time. In the end, they came out lovely and my kids liked them a lot. I made a pesto to go with it, which was nice, but not really necessary. Just a few drops of some good quality extra virgin olive oil and freshly ground pepper, would have done the trick as well.

SEE THE WHOLE RECIPE

Ingredients dough (4 persons)

400 gr durum wheat flour
4 eggs (or 5 when it gets too dry)

Preperation dough

Mound the flour on a clean worksurface, and make a well in the center.
Add the eggs to the well and use a vork to stir in flour to make a paste. 
Continue adding flour from the wall of the well, but be carefull not to make an opening in de wall. 
Knead remaining flour into mixture with your hands to form a dough and wet it a bit with water if it's too dry. 
The dough should be firm, but elastic in 8 to 10 minutes of kneading. 
Wrap it in clingfilm, and let it rest while making the stuffing.

Ingredients stuffing

250 gr ricotta
50 gr. parmesan cheese
zest of half a lime
40 gr of Arugula
1 small onion
1 egg
0,5 tablespoon of salt
2 tbs olive oil
salt and freshly ground pepper
round mold of approximately 10 cm

Preperation stuffing

Add the ricotta and parmesan cheese, in a bowl together
Cut the small onion, and sauté it for a couple of minutes in 2 tbs of olive oil until it starts to soften
Chop the arugula and add to the onion. Sauté for a minute and add it to the ricotta and parmesan.
Add the zest, the egg, salt and pepper en mix it.
Cover the ricotta mix and place in fridge until you are going to use it.

Preperation Ravioli

You can, of course, use a pasta machine, but a rolling pin works quite as well to roll out the dough.

Divide the dough into quarters, cover what you don't use immediately, and place it back in the fridge.

Sprinkle some flour on your worksurface and start rolling out the dough. Keep doing this until it's really thin. 

Use some extra flour when it's too sticky.

Use a mold to cut out evenly round sheets of dough.

Per sheet you drop about 1,5 tbs of filling, fold it, and press the sides with a vork to make sure they won't open in water. (plus it looks good!)

Place the ravioli's on a floured plate, and lay a kitchen towel on top of it, while you make more ravioli with the remaining pasta dough.

In the meantime bring a  pot of salted water to a boil. Add ravioli, carefully stirring to separate, and cook until pasta comes floating on the surface, It should be tender, but be careful because it can go really quickly. 

Transfer with a slotted spoon to a colander. 

Divide the ravioli on the plates, sprinkle some home made pesto on top, (or just some extra virgin olive oil) and some freshly ground pepper.