Ravioli Is Sooooo Easy!!! Part 1 of 2

If the thought of canned ravioli makes you shudder then make your own - I did it a couple of weeks ago and it was just so darn simple and easy. Here's the basic dough recipe:

• 3 cups unbleached white flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup water

Just mix the flour and salt and then add the (beaten) eggs and water and mix until just-mixed:

Knead (adding water if it does not form a cohesive dough) about 5 minutes and then form into a ball then form into a flat disc and put in the frig. while you...


...grate up your vegetables of choice and...


...mix into the vegetables something to hold them together. I used cottage cheese, feta cheese, olive oil and lemon juice, basil and garlic. Don't worry about how much - just mix things together until you get a paste-like consistency. Extra filling can be spread on bread and toasted for a quick snack.


Roll the dough out on a floured surface:


Once you've rolled the dough out pretty thin, cut it in half:


Put dollops of filling, evenly spaced, on one half of the dough:


Brush some beaten egg between the dollops (this is supposed to help seal the dough when you boil the ravioli, however I've made this a second time and didn't use the egg and it worked just fine that way too):

Plop the other half of the dough on top of the filling side and carefully push down between each filling dollop so that they are sealed all-around (try not to have air pockets w/in the ravioli):


Cut them out with a sharp knife and lay out on floured plates making sure that all edges are sealed:


Drop them in a pan of boiling water. When they float they are done (takes about 5 minues):


Next time: the sauce!