Eric here – I cook, too.  Tonight, I made cheese ravioli.

Step one: mix one cup of high-protein flour (bread flour, for example) with 1/2 teaspoon of olive oil, one large egg, and a pinch of salt.  I use a food processor to mix it all together, but you could just as easily use a stand mixer, or do it the old fashioned way.  Once a nice, smooth dough forms, wrap it in plastic and rest for 10-20 minutes.  During the rest, you can make the filling.

I used a mixture of eight ounces of ricotta cheese, four ounces of cottage cheese, one large egg, about 1/2 ounce of grated parmigiano-reggiano, 1/4 cup of shredded mozzarella, and some dried basil and oregano.  (Yes, fresh would be better, but the dried herbs will do fine here – they’ll have plenty of time to soak up moisture while we’re working the noodle dough.)

I stuck the filling in the refrigerator to tighten up a bit, and started to work the dough.

I use my stand mixer with the pasta roller attachment to roll out the dough into sheets.

Then, spread out little mounds of filling on one of the sheets, brush the noodle with water (to help the pasta sheets stick together and seal), and cover with the top sheet.  As you press the top sheet down, make sure to press all the air out of the areas around the filling – you don’t want the ravioli to explode while they’re boiling.

I used to do this part with a knife and fork (cut with the knife, and make the pattern around the ravioli with the fork), and make square ravioli.  This little stamper/cutter makes the process much more enjoyable, and works much better.

Kids can use it too.  Easy-peasy.

Once they’re all stamped out, pop them into boiling water for about a minute.  When they float, they’re pretty much done; I like to let them go another 15 seconds or so.  Sauce with whatever you like – melted butter, with or without herbs cooked in it (I like to fry sage leaves in butter), or tomato sauce, or béchamel, etc.  We used a red pepper sauce and a béchamel tonight.

Enjoy!

I love chickpeas. I love hummus, I love them roasted, and I love them in bean salad. As of tonight, I love them as the star of their own salad, backed up by capers and roasted red peppers.

The cast of characters: a can of chickpeas, capers, jarred roasted reds, olive oil, salt, lemon (for juice), and a really good parmesan cheese. (Eric would want me to point out that this parmesan is two years old, got from a wonderful Italian deli locally. Fabulous.)

I used the whole can of chickpeas, two tablespoons of capers, and about six of the little red peppers, chopped (they vary in size; the nutritional info here assumes about 90 grams of peppers). Make sure to drain and rinse those chickpeas and capers; it’s probably not a huge deal, but I don’t know what “disodium EDTA” is, and I don’t think the salad needs extra added.

To the veggies, add about a tablespoon of fresh lemon juice, a half a tablespoon of olive oil, and a dash of salt.

Say cheese – to the tune of about a quarter cup.

Then gently stir to combine all the ingredients…and that’s it! You can serve it right away, or, as I did, pop it in the fridge so it gets nice and chilled first.

Serves 6. Per serving – Fat: 3.5g; Carbohydrates: 16.1g; Calories:116.4; Protein: 5.4g.