Pasta is a lot easier to make than most people think and when made fresh- is one of the seven wonders of the world. This recipe can be boiled, baked or fried. Whatever your foodie heart desires.
Me? I chose to do all three... for recipe development purposes of course.
To start making pasta- you do not need a mixer + dough hook, although that is what I like to use so I can spare my forearms all the kneading work. If you are making your dough by hand all you will need is a mixing bowl, a fork, the ingredients required, and your hands. More details on how to do this process in the recipe below.
Featured in this recipe today is one of my favorite ingredients that I think is highly underrated; fennel. Not the seed that you find in the spice aisle- even though that is delicious as well. But the fresh fennel bulb with stalks and leaves that look like dill.
Fennel has long been known as a digestion aid, that's why you see it as an ingredient in sausage, an unusually hard to digest food. It has an impressive amount of fiber, calcium and magnesium. Not like I need to keep talking fennel up, but it also has a delicious licorice smell/taste that really heightens vegetable dishes.
Anyways, moving on from fennel... the shiitakes in the raviolis can be substituted for whatever mushroom you can find. But the bolder the flavor- the better!
The vegetable protein can be any of your favorite brand vegan crumbles- today I used Beyond Meat.
There are 2 pieces of equipment that you need to execute making pasta & ravioli.
A pasta machine, and a pastry wheel or pasta cutters.
If you're really determined you could- in theory, roll out pasta using a rolling pin and you could cut the pasta using a chef's knife. The tools I recommend will ensure that this process is easy for you to complete, an of course result in a better looking end product.
For making the pasta dough, it's best to use a flour known as "00" or double zero flour. It's a super fine consistency and works really well for making pasta. However- all purpose, whole wheat or whatever weird wheat flour you have on hand will work well for this recipe.
I had to use a '7 Grain and Seed' flour blend because that is all my grocery store had in stock. But baby, we made it work!
It's important to let your pasta dough rest after kneading it- allowing the gluten strands to relax. While resting cover it with a damp towel so it doesn't oxidize and begin to dry out.
Now that I've given you plenty of tips... it's time to make pasta!
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