Ravioli made three ways, or how to waste your day making pasta

So today as I was eating a delicious lunch of sauteed zucchini, onions, white beans, with fresh oregano and parsley, I looked down at my plate and realized I’m not eating any carbohydrates.

And you know what that means.  PASTA for dinner. So I had some feta cheese to use and some ground beef in the refrigerator and after a little consulting with my favorite Greek cook (well, she’s the only one I know, but she’s so gosh darn good at cooking Greek-style that I’m not exactly looking to replace her), I came up with an idea for a Greek-inspired ravioli filling.  Let’s just get that recipe out of the way:

Greek-Inspired White bean Filling (makes filling for 1 serving)

1/2 cup great northern beans
1 heaping T chopped parsley
2 t feta crumbles

Pulse in food processor.  This is really very tasty.

It was a beautiful day here and I as I sat in the kitchen with the windows open at my kitchen table making my ravioli, I decided to fold these little guys up in every way possible to see which method was the best.  All this for you, readers, because this decision turned a 15 minute pasta stuffing blitz into a 45 minute pasta judging event.

So, I’ve got three methods for you.  Here is a link to my partially whole wheat pasta dough.

First up: Sandwich Style

The name implies the method.  Roll out your pasta dough and cut into identical squares.  Plop the filling on one square, brush the other with water and lay on top of filling.  Crimp.  Move along.

This is the most time consuming method.  And the results were basically the same as with the following quicker methods.

Second up: Bivalve Method

In this method, you place filling on one half of pasta rectangle, moisten pasta sides, and fold ravioli over.  You crimp three sides.  Or four, if you are anal.

This is a pretty quick method.  It was easier than the following method, which will be reviewed below.

Third up: Assembly Line

Using the assembly line method, you roll out one very long pasta sheet, cut it in half.  You dollop filling in equal increments along the bottom sheet.  You top the entire ensemble with a second, pre-moistened pasta sheet.  From here, you cut squares and crimp from bottom up as you go.

Neverfear.  Meat for demonstration purposes only.  No meat was consumed in the filming of this entry.

The reason this method was slightly more difficult that the second one was that you were left blind-cutting.  After placing the second pasta sheet ontop of the assembly line, you could not see exactly where the ravioli filling ended for one square and began for the next.

I prefer method 2.  No, I don’t know which method tastes better.  Don’t be silly.