Simple Sauce, originally uploaded by thephotomill.

This was yet another labor of love! Homemade ravioli with home made ricotta. The ricotta was easy, really but worth it. Even though I didn’t have access to raw milk, this worked wonderfully:

1/2 Gallon Organic Whole Milk

1.5 to 3 Tablespoons White Vinegar

Heat milk until it hits around 180F. Add vinegar and stir. Small curds should start to form immediately. Turn off heat and add salt to taste. Strain curds through a kitchen towel. I strained mine for about 2 hours. This brought it to a consistency that I seemed appropriate for filling ravioli.

Draining Complete, originally uploaded by thephotomill.

Once the ricotta was ready, I added ground Sage and Guanciale. This was the finished filling for the pasta. The pasta itself was the standard Batali recipe of flour, egg, and olive oil. I still have yet to get this down but it was at least pretty good – not amazing.

Next was laying out the cheese on to the sheets of pasta. I used the bike as the guide and went to town.

The Difficult Part, originally uploaded by thephotomill.

The task at hand is almost complete.

Home Made Ravioli, originally uploaded by thephotomill.

Now, time to boil them up and eat. Because they were hand made, they only needed to be gently boiled for about three minutes. To top it off, I made a very simple sauce that you see in the first photo of this post. It consisted of butter, sauteed shallots, a few tomatoes that were peeled and seeded, a bit of red wine, salt, and a splash of balsamic vinegar. Very simple and very tasty.

Ravioli with Ricotta, Sage, & Guanciale, originally uploaded by thephotomill.

See the whole Flickr Pasta set here!