Three Cheese Ravioli with Walnuts, Fried Sage and Truffle Oil

[saansaturday]

I knew ravioli wouldn't be easy to make but even so, they were more difficult than expected. I found it nearly impossible to get them all the same size and the sheets of pasta kept coming out of my pasta machine with extremely angled ends. In the end all was good--I managed to make about eight servings of ravioli in two hours. I froze half of them, so next time I want to eat homemade ravioli it'll be easy.

I filled them with a combination of ricotta, buffalo mozzarella and parmesan. The sauce was toasted walnuts, fresh sage fried in olive oil and butter and a bit of salt and pepper. I garnished with parmesan shavings and truffle oil.





For the ravioli filling, combine a container of ricotta, one round of mozzarella torn into small pieces (first drain it on paper towels so doesn't make the filling too wet), about 1/3 cup fresh grated parmesan and one egg. Add salt, pepper and fresh grated nutmeg to taste.

Make pasta sheets at your pasta machine's thinnest setting. Put the filling by the teaspoon along one side of the pasta, with spaces of about an inch and a half between. Use your fingers to lightly wet in-between the mounds of cheese and along the edge of the pasta, then fold over and seal in the filling, working from one side to the other and being sure not to trap in any air. Cut into individual ravioli. I'm sure that you can find better ravioli-making instructions than mine somewhere. :)

The sauce takes barely any time to cook, as do the ravioli, so do both at the same time. The water for the ravioli should be gently boiling (not a rolling boil) to help keep them from breaking.

For the sauce, toast some walnuts in a dry pan over med-low. When they smell and taste toasty, remove them from the pan, scraping out all the little bits. Return the pan to the heat, raise it to medium high and add olive oil and butter. When the oil is hot, add a handful of fresh sage and fry it for about 30 seconds or until crisp. Remove the pan from the heat and add the walnuts, salt and pepper. Add the drained pasta and some of its cooking water and toss gently. Maybe add a bit more butter.

Garnish the plated pasta with shaved parmesan and white truffle oil.