Time To Experiment!

I love trying new things. Tonight I tried my hand at making homemade raviolis. I have had a stainless steel hand crank pasta machine my Grandma gave me that I have never used. Well I cant say that anymore. Now, one of my favorite things to do is watch cooking shows. They are on all the time at my house. With the many episodes I have watched, I applied what I learned to tonights meal. I started out sifting 2 cups of flour, and added 2 pinches of salt. Then, I dumped the flour and salt into a pile on my counter. I formed a hole in the middle of the flour making a flour volcano.

In the hole, I added 4 egg yolks. With a fork I gradually incorporated the egg with the flour slowing adding water until the dough had formed a thick, yet silky texture. I rolled out my dough just enough to put it though the noodle maker. Crazy enough, I was successful!

On my machine, there were multiple levels of thickness I could do. Not really knowing what I was doing, I left it on the eighth level. I ended up running it through two more times eventually getting down to level six.

I then prepared the other ingredients for my dish. I chopped up 4 portabello mushrooms, 4 whole white mushrooms, 1 onion, 3 cloves of garlic, 1 cup of imitation

crab (I know what you are thinking, but we will get to that later), 2 cups of Ricotta cheese, 1/4 cup of shredded asiago cheese, and 1 Tbls of chives.

I mixed together the ricotta cheese, asiago, chives, a dash of salt and the imitation crab meat. I put the mixture in a piping bag, and put dollops on my noodle sheets. I used the left over egg whites to baste around the cheese mixture on the noodles, to use it as a glue to hold the top and lower layer together. I then cut my raviolis into squares, and set them aside.

Then, I got my cast iron skillet warm and added roughly 2 Tbls of butter to the pan. Once it melted I added the chopped onions and allowed them to sauté until they became translucent. Now, it was time to add the garlic, mushrooms, and a strand of rosemary. I allowed them to cook down until they were a beautiful deep brown.

At this point, I decided 'Better Than Bouillon' seasoning and some white wine vinegar would make a great addition to my sauce. I added about 1 Tbls of Better Than Bouillon (roasted chicken flavor), and 1 Tbls of the white wine vinegar. After the mixture cooked for approximately 4 minutes, I added 4 cups of water. Then, I allowed the sauce to simmer and reduce until the flavors became cohesive.

At this point I got the water boiling for the raviolis to cook. Fresh pasta only needs about 3-5 minutes to cook, which is plenty of time for the sauce to reduce and not over cook my ravioli.

I decided to thicken my sauce slightly so I took about 1/4 cup of the sauce and put it in a bowl. Then, I mixed 1Tbls of corn starch mixing them together, then added the mixer to the pan giving my sauce the perfect smooth texture I wanted. I put my sauce on low, and dropped the raviolis in the pot of water to boil for 3 minutes. When finished, I introduced

them to the sauce and dinner was ready to be served!

Ok, now, let's address the imitation crab. This dish was awesome except for that addition. The next time I make this, that will 100% be left out. The flavor over powered the dish, and let's be honest, it tastes nothing like real crab. I had never bought it before, and probably will not again. If I do it with crab again, it will be when I can splurge and get the real deal. Overall, this was a great meal. I learned a lot, and look forward to applying what I learned to other meals. I am now exhausted, so be blessed, and have fun getting creative in the kitchen.