Ravioli dough is simple to make and easy to enjoy. That’s because there are an endless number of fillings for your pasta dumplings, limited only by your creativity. But wait! Before we go creativity crazy, there’s a basic procedure to follow so that you make the best casing for your filling.

Of all the things I took from culinary school many years ago, few have stuck with me as much as making fresh pasta. I’ve used the basic procedure for making red doughs, green doughs, even racing-striped ones. I love making seasonal pastas like Walnut and Butternut Squash in the fall, Beef in the winter, and fresh veggies in the spring. Fresh pasta transcends all seasons.

There are many skills I took from my formal education and used them daily throughout my career. Others, not so much. I’ve never had to make Consommé in all my years as a chef, so that’s not my strength. Making pasta, especially ravioli dough, that’s right in my strike zone.

School children are taught that Marco Polo discovered pasta in China. First of all, if the Chinese were already making pasta for hundreds of years, how did he claim to “discover” it? That argument aside, The Chinese may not have been the first to make these types of doughs.

In the first century, Romans made basic dough of water and flour they called “lagne”. This long flat noodle was baked until dry, not boiled, but the obvious early ancestor of lasagna. Regardless of who gets the credit, this is one of the oldest foods known to man and one of the easiest to make if you know how.

Ravioli dough is easy as 1-2-3-4. The basic formula is 1 cup of Semolina flour and 2 eggs to feed 3 to 4 people. Count from one to four and you can remember the recipe for fresh pasta for the rest of your life.

Semolina flour is used for pasta because it has a different protein structure than white flours. Bread, cake, pastry and all-purpose flours become tougher and chewier when they are mixed with a liquid. Moisture and agitation through mixing develops “gluten”. Gluten is a fibrous web of proteins that makes French bread, pizza crusts, or bagels have that chewy texture we desire in those products.

However, you don’t want chewy ravioli dough. The pasta should be soft, but firm enough that it doesn’t break and let the fillings escape. Avoiding white flours will help with this goal.

After the 1-2-3-4 dough is mixed, it needs to rest in the refrigerator for at least an hour so that it stiffens enough to be rolled into a thin sheet. Once rested, it’s passed through a pasta press multiple times, folding the dough upon itself with each pass. This is called “laminating” the dough since you’re creating multiple layers, giving it pliability so it won’t tear.

Once the dough is smooth and thin enough to use for filling, it’s laid on a ravioli tray, brushed with beaten egg wash for glue, and filled with anything the chef desires. This special tray makes portioning the pasta dumplings very easy because a rolling pin across the tray cuts them all into perfect shapes.

Ravioli dough making is a great activity for the entire family; it takes very little skill, but does demand a bit of practice to do it perfectly. Once you’ve mastered it, then you’ve got endless possibilities for filling ingredients, and dozens of instant dinner ideas for the future. It’s easy as 1-2-3-4.

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