Suzy Homemaker, The Baking Edition

My mother's birthday was yesterday, and as tradition I made her dinner (well, her, me, and my dad).  I decided to try something I had never done before:  I attempted to make ravioli from scratch.  Pumpkin ravioli to be more specific.  My mother also requested a Pear Gruyere Pie (recipe here), which I had made last on Mother's Day.  I have never made pasta from scratch before, so I ordered a pasta roller just for this occasion, though I know it will be getting much more uses than just today.  When I was searching for a recipe for the pumpkin ravioli and sauce, I found about 11 very different recipes.  So, I picked and chose what sounded good from each and made my own recipe.  It turned out pretty good, though the pasta recipe needed some tweaking.    Here we go:

I would make the pasta up first because it needs to sit for about 30 minutes

2 1/2 Cups Flour

(The recipe I was using called for semolina, but that must be too fancy for my Kroger's to carry)

3 eggs

1 TBSP Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Salt

Sift the flour and salt in a bowl.  Make a well in the middle.  In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs and olive oil together.  Pour the eggs into the well and slowly incorporate the flour. 

Flour your working surface and knead the dough for about 4 minutes.  Put mixture back in bowl and let sit for 30 minutes. 

After the 30 minutes, flour the dough lightly, knead a few times and then split in half.  Pass the dough through the largest setting of the pasta roller (though you could easily use a rolling pin too).  Continue to pass dough through roller, on successively smaller settings until it is 1/8inch thick.  Make sure to keep your surface floured.  Your two pasta strips should be relatively even in length and width. (I was sort of rubbish with taking pictures of the rest of assembling the ravioli from here on.)

Pumpkin Mixture:

2 carrots, thinly sliced

1/4 C butter

Sage

2 TBSP real maple syrup

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 C shredded parmesan

13 oz 100% pumpkin Puree (my pumpkin can was 15 oz, and I added the remaining pumpkin to the sauce)

1 egg yolk

Ricotta Cheese

Melt the butter in a pan and saute the carrots until soft.  Cut the sage into small pieces and add to the carrots.  Also add the maple syrup, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg.  In a separate bowl, mix the pumpkin, ricotta cheese, Parmesan cheese, and egg yolk.  Add the carrot and spice mixture to the pumpkin mixture and run through the food processor. 

Assembling:

On one strip of pasta, scoop a small amount of pumpkin mixture in two rows.  I made sure my pumpkin mixture scoops were about an inch apart from each other, and at least 5/8 inch away from the edge.  Whisk one egg together and use a baster to spread it on the pasta dough in between each pumpkin scoop as the "glue".  Place the other pasta strip on top and press down slight on the edges and in between each ravioli.  I used a crimper roller to make the final seal and separation of the ravioli, though any cutting tool I think would work.  I had enough to make 21 raviolis, and much more pumpkin mixture to make even more.  Bring a large pot of water to a boil.  Add the ravioli.  It is done cooking when the ravioli float to the top.

While the water is boiling/cooking the ravioli, make the sauce.

Sauce Recipe:

1 C Heavy Whipping Cream

1/2 C Butter

1/2 C Parmesan cheese

1/2 C Sweet Wine

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp fresh ginger

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1 TBSP flour

Salt

Remaining pumpkin

Melt the butter in a sauce pan.  Add the flour and whisk quickly.  Add the cream, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and remaining pumpkin.  Bring to a boil.  Add  the wine and cheese.  Allow to simmer until ready to serve. 

I forgot to take a proper picture of the ravioli and sauce until I was half way through eating, but here is a very messy picture of what it sort of looked like.

Also during this time, I was making a Pear Gruyere Pie.  Oh Pushing Daisies, how I miss thee so much.  I still mourn your adorableness that we lost.  I believe, super duper delectable(I wish you were real) Piemaker Ned and lovely charming (you make me have wardrobe jealousy) Chuck, this is the very best pie you created.  The only thing I adjusted from the recipe I linked in the beginning was that I used about 5 or 6 oz of Gruyere cheese instead of 3 and I used red pears instead of Bartlett Pears.  I really like the nuttiness of the flavor with the pears.  I kind of went mad during this process of trying to make two separate things during the same time.  I spent 6 hours baking today and was super duper tired at the end, but here is a picture tour of said pie making:

(I sliced my lovely finger while cutting the pears.  Lovely)

(The only love of my life)

I really must try to convince sweet baby Dexter that he is not really helpful to me sleeping under foot while I'm baking.  It truly is not convenient and I continually accidentally step on him and then feel horrid for the rest of the day.  But it is lovely to know he will always be my little faithful companion, even when I'm baking human food. 

 

Pendleton 60's Men Shirt: Estate Sale

Mother's Day

Just thought I should do a quick post about Mother's Day.  My dad's side of the family all live within 20 miles of each other, so we have a lot of family dinners, and Mother's Day was no exception.  I was definitely in an ambitious baking mode on Sunday, so I did make that pear pie with Gruyere cheese  crust I was talking about.  The recipe I used is this one.  I don't even know why I made a pie.  I don't even like pie.  I'm one of those people that will take chocolate over fruity filling pastries any day, but Pushing Daisies ruined that habit right quick.  How can you not love pie while watching that show?  Well, I can't anyways.  I did have some problems with the crust, though.  My butter was more room temp than chilled like it should have been, so my crust dough was way too soft and I had to add about a 1/2 cup more flour than it said, and we didn't have any port wine for the sauce.  However, our neighbors saved us with a delicious berry liquor to use instead.  Believe me when I say it was probably the best thing I've ever had alcohol wise, and me and my dad stole a sip straight out of the measuring cup...shhh!  The crust turned out to be like a light and flaky cheese cracker, and the pears were just perfect.

I wasn't sure how it was going to go over with my family because it is such a different type of pie, but they shocked me.  I think almost everyone had a piece, and sadly, this

very sad and pathetic amount was all that was left.  I guess it was a hit after all.

And then, after dinner, we took my grandmother's present to their house.  Despite it being Mother's Day, and me not be a mother at all, I still got a present too.  She gave me a pair of kid skin gloves. 

They are absolutely the softest thing I have ever felt.  They stretch very slowly as you put them on and literally fit like a glove.  Ha ha.  That was bad.  Sorry.  But anyways, I was so happy to get these, but then she continued to tell me stories of all of these designer hats my great-grandmother used to have but she gave away in a church rummage sale some time ago.  And then I was sad.