Inside My Mid-life Crisis

I decided yesterday to dust off my Atlas Pasta Machine (wedding gift used about 6 times in almost 20 years) and take on some fresh pasta. The Internet is rife with dough recipes and opinions..salt-no salt;egg-no egg etc. I decided to go with Food Network star Tyler Florence Pasta Dough for Ravioli recipe:
2 C All-Purpose Flour-plus more for dusting
1 t salt
3 large eggs-plus one for egg wash
2 T Olive Oil (approximately!)
Cornmeal for dusting

This is an "equipment-centric" endeavor as I used my Kichenaid mixer for the dough, my mini chop for tapenade and the pasta machine.

Drizzle in olive oil a little at a time until all the flour comes together in a ball.
Sprinkle some flour on your work surface (I used my silpat) knead and fold dough until elastic & smooth (5-10 minutes). Brush the surface with olive oil and wrap in plastic wrap;let dough rest for about 30 minutes to relax the gluten.
Make your filling while the dough rests-I went with 1lb mild Italian sausage and 2 C ricotta cheese with 1 t Tuscan Sunset (Italian herb blend from Penzys-my favorite)
Brown the sausage and drain and rinse if needed-my sausage was pretty lean as it came from the 4H side of pork purchased last fall.
Mix in the ricotta and the seasoning-taste it add salt & pepper if needed (I didn't need any)
Refrigerate until ready to use-note the 1T portioner-easy and consistent.
Cut your dough in half or thirds
 feed through the Pasta machine several times larger to smaller
 until you have a very thin sheet-you can almost see through it
Dust the sheet with flour as needed, I used a piece of butcher paper lightly floured to ease cleanup. lay your sheet out, egg wash the sheet edges.
Portion your filling about 2 inches apart leaving space to accommodate folding the sheet over to form the top. **this was easier then making a top sheet-I tried it both ways**
Fold the dough over (careful!) and gently section off your raviolis, press the filling down a bit to get the air out.
Cut your ravs apart ( I used a paring knife-it was easier then the little rav wheel I had) and press the edges closed with a fork.
Dust a sheet pan with cornmeal and lay your ravs out to dry a bit.
**LEARNING CURVE: Don't separate layers with plastic wrap and refrigerate-they will get sticky and fall apart. Don't layer them and let them dry out a bit or leave on teh sheet and freeze right way-place in zip bag once frozen** (salvaged by careful lifting and more flour dusting)

When ready to cook:
Bring your salted water to a boil- drop ravs in (I did about 6 at a time) they will float when ready.
I served with a light sauce of yellow-red-orange bell peppers, garlic,onion, mushrooms and a can of tomatoes lightly sauteed and simmered with a bit of olive oil.

Delizioso !

I made 2 batches of dough-one batch yielded 24 raviolis and with the second batch I made an additional 6 raviolis, I also made some "won-ton style" with goat cheese and sun dried tomato tapande (yuk, they were awful)

 and some fettuccine (cool)

All in with clean up I spent about 3 hours making this pasta so not too bad for time and well worth it for product quality. I froze half of my rav's and once the fet is dry will also freeze that for future use (soon!!)