Shrimp Ravioli

Ok so the Shrimp Ravioli was a success. Henry, my husband, said they were delicious and I enjoyed them as well. not really too much work and you could modify these so easily.

I took 6 16-20 shrimp and sauteed them with a tablespoon of butter, a few crushed cloves of garlic, a dash of cajun seasoning, a squeeze of lemon juice, and I thinly sliced one leek and cooked them all together. I them transferred them to the food processor to chop it all up together. While that was cooling in bowl I combined about a third of a cup of ricotta cheese, Parmesan cheese, one egg, a dash of nutmeg, and  salt and pepper to taste. I mixed that together and then mixed in the shrimp mixture.

So now comes in the elbow grease. I made my pasta earlier in the day so it would have time to rest and become more elastic. I use a very simple pasta recipe 6 large eggs(Extra large I would probably use 4) and 4 cups of flour. I put it in my kitchen aid and mix it together until it starts to bind together. I have done this by hand as well by pouring the flour on the cutting board and making the well in the center and mix with a fork until all of the flour is incorporated but honestly I found the same results with the mixer. Anyway, I take the dough and start kneading it for 3-4 minutes. I wrap it in plastic wrap and let it sit at room temperature until I need it that day. If I am not using it that day, then I don't make it that day. I understand I could put it in the refrigerator overnight, but I did that once and there was a black hew to the dough and I ended up not using it. I don't really know if that is ok but I have never tempted the fates with it. Make sure to give yourself at least 30 minutes of rest time for the dough, I like at least an hour, it makes it much lighter of a pasta if you let it sit at room temperature for an hour or two. So now I'm ready to roll out my raviolis. I do not own a pasta roller and have to do this by hand (I am however taking donations to purchase the kitchen aid pasta attachment if you would like to contribute). This is where the workout comes in. I roll out my dough as thin as I can and then I cut out square that are about 1 inch by 1 inch. I then take those squares and roll them out so they are paper thin. This is a lot of work, but it is where you can put the most amount of love into them. I find it kind of therapeutic and actually enjoy doing them, as long as I don't have a time constraint, lol. I then take a dab of the filling and place it on a paper thin square that I rolled out, place another paper thin square on top of it and press around the sides. I take a fork and press around the sides as well to help make a stronger seal. I take the Ravioli and drop them in boiling water with a little bit of salt and cook them for about 4 minutes or so. They float to the top and look more white, I use a slotted spoon to remove them from the water and put them in the sauce I prepared.

So the sauce I prepared is super easy and really complimented the ravioli. I took a few tablespoons of butter, about a third of a cup of white wine( I had chardonnay so that's what I used, but really I think any white wine would work) a squeeze of lemon juice, fresh Italian parsley,  fresh ground pepper, and grated parmesan cheese. I sauteed it all together until it was hot and let it simmer as I added the ravioli's to it. tossed them in the sauce to coat and served.

Yum yum! I didn't take any pictures of this but I will from here on out. I learned my lesson! Lol!