Journal # 9: Pass that Pasta!

My first post for February! Yey! Enough celebration, let's talk food! :)

Ever since I had the time to cook, I've always wanted fresh everything. Freshly made pizza, bread, cookies, fresh everything! I've always wondered about how to make fresh pasta. I've watched Masterchef US people do it and it didn't seem difficult. I love pasta, BTW! 

Pasta is one of the best gifts the Italian people shared with the world! So here I am, going to share with you a recipe that I have tried and love! 

Here's a teaser first:

After maybe 1 1/2 hours of prep and cooking here's the result:

Looks good, right?

Okay, before I tell you what's inside those magical ravioli. Let's talk about how I made them.

Making the Ravioli
Once again, I used Laura Vitale's Pasta Dough recipe! I love watching her vids, it's really helpful and entertaining! Be sure to check out that link. 

Some helpful tips for newbies out there:

1. Be resourceful
Laura's recipe requires a food processor, however I don't have one and maybe I'm not planning on getting one. SO I just mixed them manually by hand, I just made sure the eggs were beaten prior to me mixing them. Mix until the ingredients are well distributed. 

Remember, you don't have to have all the fancy equipments those Chefs have, you just have to know what they do and you can try and copy that to your recipe. 

2. Be Patient. 
You have to chill it in the fridge for 30mins. So prepare the other ingredients for the filling and the sauce. 

To tell you it wasn't as EASY as I thought it would be. Flattening the dough without a pasta roller is tiring! It takes A LOT of time too!I am an impatient girl, so this was tough for me and I was getting hungry. LOL

I started with a rolling pin and just laid it on my counter like I would any other dough. So I rolled it out until it was maybe 1cm thick (about 10pcs of bond paper stacked). It took me literally 15 minutes to get it right. It was tough for me, cause the dough kept sticking on the rolling pin. So make sure you FLOUR it from time to time. If you over-flour it, the pasta will become really tough.

Then I used a dough cutter to get the shapes I wanted. I made a square and a round one. For your ease, you can use a set of cookie cutters for great looking ravioli. 

3. Well...actually...you should...Yeah, there's supposed to be a number 3, but I can't think of another one. Ha-ha! Hope those two suffice. 

Moving on to our recipe.

Filling the ravioli
I prepared 3 kinds of cheeses for my ravioli and some basil, spinach, garlic, and meat to go with it. 

Popeye's favorite:
1. 1/2 c. of Cottage Cheese: if they come in tubs, make sure to drain them prior to usage, so that the pasta won't be too wet. It would be difficult to seal them.
2. 1-2 tsps. of Fried Garlic Bits: You can buy them from the store or make them on your own, just don't burn them.
3. 10 pcs. Spinach Leaves: Now you see why Popeye likes this! :) Fresh and rinsed. You could alternate basil with these.
4. 1/2 tsp. White Pepper: 

Mighty Meat-y:
1. 1/2 c. cooked ground beef (seasoned with salt and pepper)
2. Goat's cheese: I love its mild flavor. :)


To make 10 Ravioli (Good for 2 persons)
You need: 1/3 of the Pasta dough recipe + One of the filling recipes above.
Cook the ravioli in boiling water with salt and oil for about 8-10 minutes. Check the consistency of the pasta at 8mins. (cooking time depends on the thickness of the pasta you made.)

It's NOW time to make the dressing/sauce for it.

It was undeniably delicious!

For my family, I made some fresh pesto (from the basil and spinach leftovers) and some tomato sauce.

This picture really makes me hungry. Don't tell me that you didn't salivate over that because I know you did!

Use your favorite red sauce recipe, the one that you normally use for spaghetti.

Here's what the fresh pesto with ravioli looks like.

Vegetarian version: Pesto dressing and Spinach filled Ravioli

This pesto is just olive oil, basil, spinach and a bit of salt. Just use a hand held blender and mix em up until you get the right consistency and flavor. Don't over blend it. It might become paste. :))

Over all, my family and boyfriend, oh and my sister's "friend" enjoyed the wonderful meal!


Fresh pasta really tastes different from the ready made ones. I don't know, maybe it's just psychological but so what! It's better cause it was made by me with lots o love and nothing beats that! Ha ha!

Hope you enjoyed reading! God bless! :)

Journal #3: Basic Dinner Rolls

I was highly interested in making dinner rolls or bread but I had a problem: all the supermarkets around my area don't have ACTIVE DRY YEAST. So, all that I could buy was INSTANT DRY YEAST. 

The Back story:
My sister has been trying for quite some time now in making soft bread. Every single time she tried, she ends up non-rising bread. We still bake them and they end up as a good pizza crust. I realized then that something else may be wrong.

I, then, searched for recipes online for dinner rolls. I tried to find the easiest ones and so I did. I then began making the bread and followed the instructions very carefully. The part where I had to let my batter sit out to rise or double in size did not happen! I was really frustrated. I did not know what went wrong. So then I read the recipe again. Checked my ingredients if they were still good. Then, I read the label for my yeast. It says "Instant Dry Yeast", I looked at the recipe and it said "Active Dry Yeast."

*FacePalm*

I finally figured out what went wrong. My tip to you new bakers would be to make sure the ingredients that are asked would be the ones you would use, just to avoid disasters. LOL And that you'd READ the entire recipe first before doing it. Make sure you understand what you have to do.

So yeah, I changed the recipe that I was using and searched for recipes that called for the use of Instant Dry yeast. And I found the one called "Perfect Basic Dinner Rolls" by StressBake7 from Yummly.com.

The recipe was very easy and I tried it. My Rolls turned out really great! Although I did some minor alterations by adding herbs to my dough, more flavor for the bread itself etc. 

Oops, where'd the other pesto roll go? *burp*

 The first alteration I did was adding freshly made pesto to the rolled out bread. I baked it at 360 Farenheit for about 15 minutes. It had a good color and aroma. 

You may also use ready made pesto that's available on any store. :)

It tasted really fresh and good. Oh, and before I forget, I reduced the amount of salt in the recipe coz' I found it a bit too salty. 

Eat me! Pestolicioius!

 Based on the picture on the left, You can see that my rolls weren't sealed. I forgot to add water to the side to seal it. LOL. So, to avoid that next time, I plan to re-check every step that I do.

That's really good bread!

The second alteration I did was add some sesame seeds on the bread. At first, without thinking, I placed the sesame seeds on top right after I floured the dough, this is wrong. The sesame seeds fell coz' it had nothing to stick to. So, on the next try, add the sesame seeds on top before flouring the dough and shaping it. Or maybe butter could help. If you forget to add the sesame before you flour, you could finish all the steps first then just butter the top then put the sesame seeds on 'em.

The baking time for these regular rolls are 17minutes. A little more and the bottoms would turn black.

Hmm. Chocolate Bread.

The final alteration I did was add chocolate chips in the dough. Who doesn't love chocolate on their bread, right? I loved it! I added about 6-7 large chip in the middle then sealed the bread. When I tasted it, It seemed that the chocolate was too little. I guess next time I'd add more for more flavor. 

I baked these for 17 minutes too. Their sizes were the same as the the regular rolls. 

 So yeah, here are the products of my perseverance and creativity-ish. I'm not really good at conceptualizing things and creating one-of-a-kind dishes. I'm here to deal with what I have in the kitchen and produce what I think would be best for everybody. :)

I just love baking food, don't you feel the same way?