Ravioli Dough

Ingredients

250 grams unbleached plain flour
50 grams semolina,
1 dl warm water

Method

Sift flour and semolina together. Place on bench. Make a well and put the water in the middle, gradually move the flour in. The dough should be nice and soft. The dough for this ravioli should not be too hard. When it is hard it is easy to feed through the pasta machine but more likely to break when you cook it.

When you make the dough, you really have to press hard. It is quite physical. And there is a secret, you have to use your wrists and push the dough away from you with the full pressure of your body weight. You cannot just use your fingers, but all your hands and the weight of your arms from shoulders down is transmitted through your wrists. If you just push away, the pasta will never mix properly. You have to 'attack' it with the base of your hand. Put all your weight into it.

The dough should then rest covered to prevent air drying it out.. Leave about 20 minutes or more.

Making the Ravioli

Put the dough through the pasta machine and lay flat on bench.

Make ravioli quite close together because otherwise air will enter and they will break when they cook. Each one should be filled with a good heaped spoon (bigger than a teaspoon, not as big as a dessertspoon). Put quite close and put another sheet over it and use your hand to make a division for a home made look. Press down between each ravioli, use your right hand to press down and finger to keep separating. Or, even better, use a piece of wood and press in between each ravioli, that helps to seal them..

Use a serrated edge cutter (size 5x5 centimetres) to divide. Press edges together and then press again with the cutter.