My cookie ravioli fiasco left me staring at the mold and wondering if that impulse buy was going to sit in a drawer neglected for eternity months. No, that could not possibly happen. To counteract the bad taste in my mouth, I jumped on another crazy adventure right away: making ravioli from scratch, but adding a little twist to the whole thing. The pasta dough would have two colors. I’ve made pasta from scratch a few times, it is a messy process but quite gratifying. I am overjoyed to report that my mental sanity was not badly affected and we had a very delicious dinner that Saturday night…

BICOLOR RAVIOLI WITH MUSHROOM-ALMOND FILLING
(from The Bewitching Kitchen, filling inspired by this post)

white dough:
125g all-purpose flour
75g semolina flour
2 eggs
pinch of salt

red dough:
125g all-purpose flour
75g semolina flour
50g cooked beets (I used canned, slivered)
2 tsp paprika
2 eggs

for the filling:
8 ounces (226g) mushrooms, finely chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup (142g) almonds
½ cup (112g) water
1 teaspoon (6g) sea salt
1 teaspoon lemon juice

The day before you want to make ravioli, prepare the filling.

Fill a medium sized saucepan with 1 cup (142g) of almonds and enough water to cover the almonds. Turn the heat to high. Once it starts to boil, turn the heat down, boil the almonds for 15 minutes, then pour the almonds and water into a colander. Rinse them well. Sauté chopped mushrooms in 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil until all the liquid has cooked out. 

Blend the boiled almonds, salt, lemon juice and water in a blender or food processor until a paste forms. Add the mushrooms and blend a few more times so that they are in very small pieces. Transfer the filling to a colander sitting on a bowl and let it drain for several hours in the fridge, then cover and store it in the fridge until needed. You can do this a couple of days in advance. 

Make the white pasta. Add both flours and salt to the food processor, mix for a few seconds. Add the 2 eggs and process until a dough ball forms. If too dry, add water. If too loose, add flour. Remove the dough from the processor, form into a disc, wrap in plastic and let it rest at room temperature for 1 hour.

Make the red dough. Add the eggs, beets and paprika to the food processor and process until smooth. Add the flours and salt, process until a dough ball forms. You will probably need to add more flour to this dough. Reserve at room temperature like you did for the white dough.

Cut the pasta dough in three equal parts, and roll them several times in the widest setting of your roller. Try to go for a nice rectangle shape. Do the same for the colored dough. Cut stripes in both colors or just one if you prefer to use the second method. Carefully roll the bicolor dough to the desired level, I stopped at setting #3. Lay the pasta on the mold, add the filling and close the ravioli. Once they are made, sprinkle a little flour and freeze until cooking time.

Simmer them gently for about 4 minutes then add the sauce of your choice to serve. I used just a little olive oil, lemon, parsley and water from cooking the ravioli. Serve immediately.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: These are the tips I consider most important. First, make the filling one day before, so that it is super cold and you do take the time to cook most of the moisture out. That will avoid minimize risks of failure when you form and cook the ravioli. Second, be ready to either cook the ravioli right after you make it, or freeze them right away with a light coating of flour. Considering that making pasta from scratch it is a bit of a messy process, I rather make them earlier in the day, clean the kitchen, and cook them later.

There are two different ways to make the striped pattern. You can roll the pasta through the widest setting of your roller, then cut strips and join them side by side. That is shown in the photo below, to the left. The problem with that method, is that sometimes the strands will not join tightly enough and when you pass the sheet through the roller to make it thinner, they will separate. It is maddening. It worked well on the first set I made, but the second one was almost totally ruined. I had enough pasta dough to try one more time, and used the second method. In this case, one sheet of pasta is kept whole, and the other used to make stripes, that are laid on top of the first. It is shown below, on the right side of the panel.

I really favor the second method, which is also nice to make other patterns. Think polka dots, stars, squares… So many possibilities! Once you have the striped sheet ready, it will go through the thinner settings of the roller. You should end up with a beautiful concoction waiting for the filling… I was afraid to roll it too thin and have it burst with the filling, maybe next time I can take it through one more setting.

The mold worked super well to fill and form the ravioli…

The ravioli must be cooked in water that is brought to a full boil but kept simmering because fresh pasta is so delicate…

For my next adventure, my goal is to get a darker red pasta, so I will use more beets and maybe also add beet powder. Or maybe I will go for green with spinach, black with charcoal powder. Whatever color combination, I intend to make the strips thinner so that I will have more stripes per ravioli. Stay tuned! 

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