5-Cheese Pesto Ravioli

Ingredients:

• Pasta Dough: 2 cups Semolina flour, All-purpose (AP) flour (as needed), 3 Eggs, 2 egg yolks, 1 teaspoon salt and 2 Tablespoons olive oil

• Egg Wash: 1 egg, a dash of water

• Ravioli Filling: 8oz ricotta cheese, 4oz cream cheese, 1/2 cup mozzarella, 1/2 cup provolone, basil pesto (to taste), 1 egg and 1 1/2 teaspoon dried parsley

Notes: You can use the same pasta dough recipe for other types of pasta. I like to add an extra egg than most other recipes because I find that it makes the texture and color more authentic.

Directions (pasta dough):

1. Whisk semolina flour with salt until well combined.

2. Scramble eggs, egg yolks, and olive oil.

3. Make a well in flour mixture.

4. Slowly incorporate eggs and oil and mix with a fork. Start using your hands once it gets thick.

5. Knead for at least 8-10 minutes!This step is super important because it will help develop the elasticity of the dough.

6. Cover in plastic wrap and let rest outside of the fridge for 45-60 minutes. While the dough is resting, make egg wash and filling (look below)

7. For the filling: whisk ricotta, cream cheese, mozzarella, provolone, pesto (to taste), egg, and dried parsley until well combined. You can omit the pesto if you want to keep it just cheese. (The fifth cheese is the parmesan that is in the pesto and the sprinkle of parmesan on top).

8. For the egg wash: crack one egg, add a 2 teaspoons of water and a small pinch of salt. Set aside

9. Once the pasta dough is rested, cut it into quarters.

10. If you’re using a pasta machine, form ¼ of the dough into a flat rectangle with your hands. Lightly dust with AP flour.

11. Start with the pasta machine on setting one. Feed it through.

12. Fold in half, feed it through setting 1 again.

13. Once it is the width of the machine, feed it through setting 2, then repeat until setting 4 or 5. Ravioli is best on setting 4 or 5. 4 will be a bit thicker and chewier, 5 will be thinner (you’ll also get more ravioli with setting 5). At this point, you can change out the sheeter attachment with a cutter attachment if you want to make another type of pasta.

14. Put the dough on a clean floured surface (with AP flour).

15. For smaller ravioli, spoon about a teaspoon of the filling every 1-1.5 inches (you should have 2 rows) and then lay another sheet of pasta dough on top. Or for larger ravioli, plop filling every 1.5 inches in just one row. And then fold over the pasta sheet.

16. Lightly outline each filling with a thin coat of egg wash.

17. Lightly press the dough around each filling to outline the ravioli

18. Use a pastry cutter or pizza cutter to cut the shapes. Or you can use a cookie cutter for circles.

19. Use a fork to crimp the edges

20. Until you’re ready to cook the pasta, keep the ravioli on a cookie sheet with AP flour so that it doesn’t stick. Once you’re ready to cook, make sure to brush the excess flour off.

21. Bring a pot of water to a boil and cook the ravioli (in intervals!). Because the ravioli is fresh, it will cook in 2-3 minutes. Once it starts floating, you can take one out and try it and cook it to your preference.

22. Serve with whatever sauce you prefer. I like to make a creamy tomato sauce (I toss in the extra ravioli filling into tomato sauce, to add a nice rich flavor)

Directions (ravioli filling)