EGGLESS HOME MADE RAVIOLI

Last month I had bought a hand cranked pasta machine and was too excited to make pasta of multigrain flour.  Since fusilli, spaghetti, fettuccine, lasagna pasta are available easily, I wanted to make ravioli at home with some spicy filling.  I did not want to use eggs in making the dough due to health reasons.  This kind of pasta was quite popular during the World War II when eggs were scarce.

I made pasta dough with semolina and multigrain flour.  Semolina adds body to the dough whether you use all purpose white flour or wheat flour along with it.  In fact use of semolina works well if you are making shaped pasta or pasta with some stuffing, like ravioli.
I served this pasta with Alfredo and fresh tomato sauce which was loved by my family.

 

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Ingredients for dough:
1 cup semolina, 1 cup multi grain flour, ¼ tsp salt, ¾ cup of water, 1 tsp olive oil

Method:
Combine all the ingredients and make elastic but little sticky dough.  Leave it covered for 15 to 20 minutes on a room temperature.  Now dust your work area with flour and knead the dough again for 3 minutes.   Now pasta can be rolled with a pin or it can be shaped into flat sheet with the machine. It should not be more than 2 cm thick. Spread the flat dough sheet on a cutting board. Put a spoonful of filling on this sheet with an inch apart.  You may put filling even closer depending on the size of the ravioli you want. With the basting brush spread some olive oil on the edges.  Cover the ravioli with another section of dough sheet. Seal the ravioli on the edges. Cut into squares with the ravioli cutter, starting in the center of the sheet and working outward.  Now gently remove the ravioli. Place the ravioli in a large dish sprinkled with flour.  If you want to freeze some of it use parchment or wax paper between the layers in an airtight container.  Repeat with remaining dough and filling. Chill in refrigerator until ready to cook.

To cook, simply drop in boiling water with salt and a ½ tsp of oil.  Fresh ravioli is cooked in 3 to 4 minutes.  Once water is drained, put the boiled ravioli in a flat dish.  Warm up a tsp of olive oil in a pan, put ¼ tsp of oregano in the oil and pour this on the warm ravioli. In the meanwhile keep Alfredo and fresh tomato sauce ready.  Serve in the plate by pouring Alfredo sauce on the top of ravioli and tomato sauce on the side of the plate.  Sprinkle some Parmesan cheese and fresh black pepper. Bon appetit.

For Cheese filling:

 
Make your filling ready before you roll out pasta sheets to make ravioli.

Ingredients:
1 liter milk, 1 tbsp lemon juice or white vinegar, 1 onion diced finely, 1 small green pepper cut into small pieces, ¼ tsp lemon pepper, ¼ tsp cumin seeds, and salt to taste.

Method:
Boil milk in a big pan. When it starts boiling, add lemon juice or vinegar to curdle the milk. Turn off the flame. When it cools off, pass through this curdled milk through a cheese cloth to let all whey drain out.  Hang it on a kitchen sink tap for two hours. Once water drains out, mash the cheese in a bowl between your fingers.
Take a skillet, warm a tsp of oil, put cumin seeds, diced onion, green pepper and saute for two minutes.  Add salt, lemon pepper and the then mashed cheese. Mix everything well and turn off the flame.  Let it cool off completely.  Your filling for the ravioli is ready. 
You may use vegetables like spinach, mushrooms and even butternut squash as a filling.

For Alfredo and Fresh Tomato Sauce:
Make these sauces ready when your ravioli is cooked as freshness of the sauce is the key 

ingredient.

 Alfredo sauce Ingredients:

1 tbsp butter, ½ cup cream, ¼ cup milk, ½ cup grated white cheddar cheese, 1/8 tsp black pepper.
Method:

Warm up butter, add cream, milk and cheddar cheese.  Stir it for a few seconds, add black pepper and pour over the freshly cooked ravioli just before serving.

Tomato sauce Ingredients:

3 medium size tomatoes, 2 cloves of garlic chopped, 1 medium onion cut into small pieces, ¼ tsp garlic salt, ½ tsp dry basil, ½ tsp chives, ¼ tsp sugar, 2 tsp olive oil

Method:
In a skillet sauté onion, garlic till they become tender. Let this mix cool off.  Put this with chopped tomatoes in a food processor and pulse it for a minute. Pout this mix in the same skillet over medium flame.  When it starts to boil, add garlic salt, basil, chives and sugar and mix well. Pour this fresh tomato sauce on the side of the ravioli in the same plate.

SWEET AND SPICY LEMON JAM

In August our lemon tree in the front yard is laden with juicy, shiny yellow lemons.  This year I did not want to make Lemonade or digestive lemon pickle.  I decided to make either lemon chutney or lemon jam.  As we all know that lemon juice, rind and zest are used in a variety of ways.  Every part of lemon has a nutritional value.  For example lemon has no saturated fat, has a few calories and packed with vitamin C and essential minerals.  Lemon juice, rind and zest are used in variety of ways in cooking and baking all over the world.  I used the whole lemon to make this spicy and sweet jam.

This chutney or jam can be eaten with your food to spice up.  You can even use as a spread on crackers or toast.  It is better to eat this jam or chutney after three or four days otherwise it might taste bitter as skin of the lemons is boiled as well. The lemony taste of this jam along with the spices gives it a tingling kick on the palate.

This recipe is very simple but you will be satisfied with the end result and guests will be impressed by your culinary skills?  It is less time consuming than usual pickle making.

Ingredients:

18 small and medium lemons with thin skin, 2 ½ cups of sugar, 2 tsp of salt,  ½  tsp roasted and powdered fenugreek seeds, ½  tsp brown mustard seeds powdered, 1/8 tsp asafetida, ¼  tsp dry ginger powder

Method:

Extract juice of 6 lemons and keep it aside.  Cut 12 lemons into small pieces and take out the pits.  Put all the cut pieces into a pressure cooker and cook it for either three whistles or five to seven minutes till the skin is very tender.  When it cools off, open the pressure cooker put these boiled pieces in the food processor and pulse it for 30 seconds.  Now pour all this mix and lemon juice in a pan.  You might have small pieces of lemon in it which is okay.  Cook it on a medium flame.  Add salt and spices. Mix well. Let a boil come then add sugar. After two boils, let it simmer till it begins to thicken. Take a spoonful, cool it and taste it to check sugar and salt.  If you are a connoisseur of sweets, you might need more sugar. So adjust sugar or salt as per your taste. When it cools off completely, bottle the jam and refrigerate it.