Vegetable Ravioli with Pink Sauce

As long as I can remember one of my absolute favorite foods has been ravioli. Wonderful little pasta pockets stuffed with filling and covered with sauce. It doesn't matter if they are filled with meat, cheese, lobster, veggies, it's all good.  As many things as I have cooked over the years I have never made ravioli, mostly because until a few months ago I had never made fresh pasta.  Once I got my Atlas Marcato, I knew it was only a matter of time.

The Atlas Marcato is not a fancy super automated pasta machine, it is a simple pasta roller that comes with a variety of attachments to cut the pasta into shapes.  The main purpose of the machine is to roll it out, which basically kneads the dough and delivers nice flat sheets.  You start on the widest setting and send the dough through a number of times until is has a nice silky texture.  Then you set the dial higher and higher to start thinning the sheets to the desired thickness. As far as the actual dough creation is concerned, I like to use my food processor to combine the ingredients.  It's fast and efficient.

Now really I thought my first experience with ravioli making would be cheese ravioli, but I've been on this veggie kick lately and thought it would be great to do a veggie filling. Something lighter with less calories. Plus I had the veggies in the refrigerator, if I wanted some ricotta I would have had to go to the grocery store.

If you don't  have a pasta roller you can still make this, you would just need to roll the dough out by hand. Yes, even I am rolling my eyes at that one.  Okay no pasta roller, you could use won ton wrappers and skip the dough making step, but of course you would be missing all the fun.

Vegetable Ravioli

Filling:
2 teaspoons olive oil
1/2 red bell pepper
1/2 small red onion, diced
1 portabello mushrooms, diced
1/2 large zucchini, diced
2 cloves garlic, pressed
2-3 handfuls spinach, chopped fine
2 tablespoons parmesan cheese, shredded
1/2 cup mozzarella, shredded
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Pasta:
1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups semolina flour
4 eggs
1 tablespoon Kosher salt
olive oil
water

Start with the filling, rub a little olive oil on the outside of the pepper and roast it in a 425 degree oven for 15 minutes. Chop fine.

In a saute pan heat the olive oil over medium high heat and cook onion until soft. Add the mushrooms and cook for about 4-5 minutes, add the bell pepper, zucchini, garlic and spinach and cook 4-5 minutes longer.  Remove from heat and let cool.  Add the parmesan, mozzarella, salt and pepper. Refrigerate until needed.

To make the pasta, put the two types of flour and the salt in the bowl of a food processor with the chopping blade. Mix, adding one egg at a time until all the eggs are incorporated.  Add about 1 teaspoon each of olive oil and water, continuing to mix until a dough ball forms, adding a bit more olive oil and water as necessary, the ball should be pliable but not wet. If the dough is too wet add a little flour.

Divide the ball into 4 smaller balls and cover with a damp paper towel to keep dough from drying out.  Working with one ball at a time and using a pasta roller such as the Atlas Marcato set on "0", send the dough through the machine a dozen or so times until the dough has a silky texture  Store the sheet on a piece of parchment paper while you work on the other balls.  Once you have turned the four balls into four thick sheets of pasta, let the sheets rest about 10 minutes, covered with parchment paper.

After the past has rested, cut each sheet in half and working one piece at a time send them through the pasta roller increasing the dial until it is set at "4". When you are finished you will have 8 sheets.  Keep the sheets covered when not working with them.  Take one sheet and spoon 8-10 centers of filling spaced evenly in two rows across the sheet. Lay another sheet on top and press lightly around each spot of filling to shape a mound.  Use a ravioli cutter or pizza cutter the cut the raviolis into squares.  Use a fork to press the edges of each ravioli closed. Make three more sheets of ravioli.  Set the raviolis uncovered on parchment paper to dry for about an hour, turn the raviolis over to let the other side dry.

Cook in boiling water for 7-8 minutes. Serve with desired sauce. I made a quick pink sauce using coconut milk, see the recipe below.

Pink Sauce

1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, pressed
1/4 red wine
28 ounces canned crushed tomatoes
1 teaspoon kosher slat
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 sugar
14 ounce can coconut milk

4-5 fresh basil leaves slivered


In a saute pan over medium high heat, saute the onion in oil until soft.  Add the garlic and saute 30 seconds or so more.  Add the red wine and cook 1 minute then add the tomatoes, salt, pepper and sugar.  Simmer on low for about 15 minutes, then add the coconut oil and basil.  Heat through.