Make Ravioli from Scratch - Check!

I have many friends who more than know their way around the kitchen, a few of whom are truly culinary artists. So don't take what I'm about to tell you lightly: my friend Kirsty is the best cook I know. Not only does she use fresh herbs and is amazingly quick, she makes the most amazing things by sheer will without a cookbook. She understands the relationship between different flavors and spices, as well as the rules of how to cook myriad items, and plays with them to create the most delectable dishes.

So when she mentions she would be in to cook ravioli from scratch, my response was a resounding, "YES, please!"

This item on my list stemmed from some old ravioli plates I picked up at a garage sale many moons ago that have just been wasting away in my cupboard, begging to be used. Kirsty did some prep work before I got there to save time, and we settled in to make four different kinds of ravioli - Italian sausage and cheese ravioli, pumpkin ravioli, 5 cheese ravioli, and artichoke/sun dried tomato ravioli. Topped with red sauce or brown butter and sage sauce. All from scratch.

Ravioli has always been an enigma to me. Well, really all pasta. I had no idea how it was made. The pasta fairy, maybe? Apparently it all starts with flour and eggs, and perhaps some spices and oil. Something like this:

And then it becomes a ball of possibilities - will it be spaghetti? Tortellini? Ravioli?

Fate decided, it gets pressed thinner and thinner, until it reaches optimum thinness for filling.

We used the plates only on the first pass, as doing it by hand seemed easier (the ravioli plates didn't seal and cut very well).

Then, after being boiled for just a few minutes, it reaches its highest and best purpose: dinner.

Yum.

Great food, great friends, great times! Thanks, Kirsty (and Juan) for a truly unforgettable experience!