for the dough
4 cups all purpose flour
3 large eggs
1 pinch of salt
1 cup warm water (use as much as is needed, add water until you create a nice firm dough)
for the filling
2 large eggs
1 tbs mint
4 cups of cheese (600gr finely grated ricotta and 200gr finely grated feta)
anari cheese (or parmesan) for sprinkling purposes over the cooked ravioli
1. Add a pinch of salt to the flour and stir together.
2. On a flat surface, pour your flour mixture. Shape it into a circle and flatten the center to make a dip. Break your eggs and add them to the dip, like the picture below. 3. With a fork, begin to beat the eggs with the flour, so that the flour absorbs the eggs. Add as much of your 1 cup of warm water as is necessary to create a firm dough. Knead for about ten minutes until the dough becomes elastic and smooth.
4. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and a tea towel and let it rest for 45 minutes.
5. Make the filling. Stir together the cheese, mint and eggs. Add salt to taste, though the feta cheese is quite salty so we didn’t add any salt.
6. After 45 minutes, begin to roll out the dough. If you have a pasta maker, place it on setting 1 and gradually roll the dough out until you reach setting 4. On setting 4, roll the dough twice to form a long rectangle. If you have a rolling pin, simply roll the dough out into a thin rectangle shape (see pictures 3 & 4 below).7. If making ravioli by hand, add dollops of cheese mixture (1 tsp) in the center of a rectangular piece of dough, about 10cm apart. With a brush, paint a little water on one side of the cheese mixture (as in picture 3 above) and fold the dough over covering the cheese mixture (as in picture 4 above). Press around the ravioli with your hands and cut semi-circular shapes out with a sharp knife or pizza cutter.
8. If making ravioli with a ravioli maker, place the rectangular piece of dough on top of your ravioli maker. Add dollops of cheese mixture (1 tsp) into the center of each ravioli. Fold the dough over top and press down with the ravioli maker. (See steps 3 & 4 below.) Separate each piece of ravioli with a sharp knife.
9. If you have any leftover dough, use a sharp knife to cut long thin strands of pasta to form fettuccine. Of, if you have a pasta maker, place it on the fettuccine setting. To enjoy the fettuccine immediately, cook in chicken broth for about 5 minutes and enjoy. Or, let it air dry and enjoy as and when.
10. To enjoy the ravioli immediately, add to hot chicken broth. It will take less than 5 minutes to cook. Sprinkle grated cheese on top (anari if you have it and want a Cyprus flavour, otherwise any cheese such as parmesan will taste great). Freeze the rest to enjoy as and when!
Difficulty level 5/5?? oh no! Is it really hard?
They are easy but really time consuming because you have to roll, scoop and cut! Totally worth it though because you will have home-made ravioli in your freezer, which is pretty fantastic (and healthy) winter-meal option!