Here's to You, Chef Boyardee

Who can forget growing up and opening a can of Chef Boyardee Raviolios?  I remember them being a kid-favorite.  For me, at least.  Those tasty "pillows" of pasta stuffed with meat in a red sauce.  I could wipe out a can in no time flat.  From time to time we'll make homemade ravioli.  It is a fun family project.  Since our kids have mostly moved out, Tricia and I tackled the project this time.  Although the boys came in to help us eat them!

I starts with some pasta dough.  It was made with Kamut flour.  Tricia rolled it out into little tortilla-shaped rounds.

We have a little Hamilton Beach Pasta-maker machine that we use to do things like this.  It has settings on it to reduce the thickness of the pasta.  You hand-crank it through the rollers and then adjust the settings and then feed it through again.

Repeated iterations through the machine makes the dough thinner.  And longer...

And even longer!  The raviolis are ready to be assembled...

Tricia, earlier in the day, put together the filling.  It is made with ricotta cheese, Parmesan cheese, mushrooms and salt and pepper.  We begin putting little dollops of filling on the long 'tongues' of pasta dough.

The end closest to the edge of the counter is painted with water to moisten the dough, and then it is folded over to cover the ravioli filling.

We use our fingers to seal the individual raviolis, pushing out any air.

Then we begin cutting the raviolis free from the long strip and the result is a bunch of individual raviolis.  You can see how this is coming together.

Ain't that nice?!  Little pillows of deliciousness almost ready for eating.

Rinse.  Wash.  Repeat.  Finally, we're done.  They are ready to be cooked.

We pick them up one by one off the counter top that was dusted with flour so they don't stick.  They are dropped into a pot of boiling water and allowed to cook for 3 or 4 minutes.  You can accompany these raviolis with any sauce you want.  We've done them with a tomato-based sauce before, but tonight Tricia made up a sauce with butter, garlic and heavy cream.  That is simmering on the back burner.

The cooked raviolis are pulled out of the water and drained.  They are put into a dish and the sauce is poured over them and Parmesan cheese is grated over.

The supper bell didn't need to be rung twice.  We lined up, loaded up our bowls and feasted!  Chef Boyardee or Franco-American Raviolios don't hold a candle to this!