homemade pasta {cheesy ravioli}

Hub was itching to cook up something good, something different on Saturday. While I was busy doing various projects around the house (feeling frustrated, feeling like I was doing a lot but not fully accomplishing much of anything), his suggestion to make pasta from scratch pulled me right in beside him...it's something I'd always wanted to try making.

Hub followed Lidia's recipe for the dough and I got involved at the point of helping him knead the life out of it. It seemed really tough but "knuckling" it was kinda fun. Then, we let the dough rest for an hour...which provided me ample time to immerse myself back into my non-productive projects. When the dough was ready, I rolled it out as thin as I could... ...meanwhile, Hub was getting busy working on a homemade spaghetti sauce using our homegrown tomatoes and herbs. (Yep...we're still attempting to use up our tomatoes.) He cooked down a bunch of tomatoes in olive oil with fresh oregano, basil, diced onions, garlic, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes. Oh, and a bit of sugar too. I think he simmered this sauce for a good hour or more? (Note: His homemade sauce may have been the best part of the whole meal, although the pasta was pretty good too...but the sauce sure made it!) Hub also came up with the filling for our ravioli: ricotta, asiago, parmesan, fresh oregano and parsley, and some diced chanterelle mushrooms. (He reconstituted some dried mushroooms and then sauteed them in butter and a bit of salt first.)Putting together the ravioli was very much a joint venture. We both took a turn at filling the pasta, wetting around the filling with water, sealing shut, and then cutting into squares with a pizza cutter. Assembly is always the fun part of cooking to me. We boiled them in water for 6-8 minutes or so (our dough may have been just a tad bit too thick...next time I'd roll it even thinner if possible) and then laid them out in a low baking dish, topped with Hub's special spaghetti sauce and grated mozzarella. He then baked the whole thing for another 10 minutes or so...the last couple minutes under the broiler. And we both partook in eating these delicious squares...another joint venture! Next on our pasta-cooking agenda? We'd like to try making these again but with a butternut squash filling instead...mmm!