Pasta making the old fashioned way - Porcini mushroom and cream cheese ravioli step by step photos and video

Home made pasta.

Quick, cheap and easier than you might think

Close up of ravioli cut open

Porcini mushroom and cream cheese ravioli in a creamy tomato sauce.

With step by step photographs

Ingredients:

For the pasta

• Flour (any kind, I had 00 fine flour from a YS purchase), remember though that wholemeal flour will take longer to cook
• Eggs (1 egg per 100gm of flour) beaten

For the filling

• One third of a pack of dried porcini mushrooms rehydrated in boiling water chopped small (keep the liquor, this can be frozen and used as a tasty stock but don't keep the bits of dust at the bottom of your pot)
• One quarter of a pack of basics cream cheese
• Salt and Pepper

Cost analysis

Flour (was YS to £0.19p per 500gm bag) 200gm = £0.04p

Eggs x 2 = £0.30p

Porcini mushrooms £2.00 per 50gm bag (a little goes a long way) £0.66p

Cream cheese from basics range £0.12p

Salt and pepper = £0.02p

Passata, half a basics carton *freeze the other half if not using within the next 2 days*  = £0.22p

Total cost for this meal £1.36 or £0.68p per portion

Click on 'read more' for the step by step photos and a video showing 

how pasta dough should look and react when pressed.

Pasta method

To make pasta weigh out your flour, I use 100gm per person (the dough freezes well if you end up with left overs).  Tip the flour onto a wide work surface and make a well in the centre, like little volcano.

Pour your beaten egg into the well and mix with a fork pulling flour from the walls of the well and mixing as you go, work little by little to create a sticky dough.  If you're using large eggs one per 100gm of flour should be sufficient, however all flours are different so have a spare on hand just in case.  Just when you think you'll never get it off the work surface it should start to come together.  Your dough should end up looking like the photo on the right prior to kneading.

Knead the dough on the work surface for a good ten minutes.  It has to be kneaded very well or it won't be springy enough and your pasta won't have a lovely texture. See video above for the test that the dough is done.

Finished pasta dough

Form the dough into a ball and cover with a clean wet tea towel and rest for 30 minutes which leaves you enough time to make your sauce, if you're having one.  I simply combined half of a basics range carton of passata with one quarter of the pack of cream cheese and warmed through.  This makes a creamy tomato sauce.

Now roll out your dough to the required size.  I do mine  in chunks as it's quite a job to get thin enough. For ravioli you'll need to roll it out so that you can just about see written words on paper through it.

My ravioli contains about one full teaspoon of filling per square, you can make them any size or shape or do a variety. You'll note I'm not a stickler for regulation shape but sizes must be the same so they cook through at the same time.

Bottom of the ravioli marked and stuffed

Wet all around the stuffing and stick down

Make thin indentations with the handle of a knife to guide where each piece will begin and end.

Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil in preparation, pasta dries very quickly.  

Now your ravioli is ready to be stuffed.  Put a fair sized blob of your combined chopped porcine, cream cheese salt and pepper into the centre of your marked square (or disc), then brush water all around the edges and carefully lift the pasta top piece over and seal with your fingers all around each blob of filling.  Using a sharp knife cut the ravioli to separate.  

Carefully place your ravioli into the pot of boiling water and continue to boil for around two and a half minutes.  The ravioli will float to the surface when the pasta has cooked through.

Serve with a sauce, I made with a simple passata and cream cheese sauce but this would also be nice with pesto and garlic bread.

Variations of the fillings could be cream cheese and some smoked salmon trimmings cut small, cheese and tomato, sausage and garlic... the sky's the limit.