Home & Lifestyle, Food

Chez Panisse Cooking: Ravioli

Lesson time 15:48 min

Learn to make an egg pasta dough that can be used to make any shape of pasta. Then, use your dough to make Chez Panisse’s ricotta ravioli with chanterelle mushrooms.

Students give MasterClass an average rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars

Topics include: Simple Ricotta Filling • Make Your Pasta Dough by Hand • Roll Out the Dough • Fill and Assemble Your Ravioli • Cook the Ravioli and Sauce • Taste and Adjust

Alice Waters

Teaches the Art of Home Cooking

In 16+ lessons, learn to cook beautiful, seasonal meals at home from the James Beard Award-winning founder of Chez Panisse.

Preview

ALICE WATERS: This is Brian Bligh, our longtime cafe chef. Brian has spent time in Italy studying the finer points of pasta making, which will become very evident when you watch him practice his craft. The ingredients for this filling are very simple-- ricotta cheese, olive oil, salt, pepper, green garlic, and thyme. We get these big, beautiful rounds of sheep's milk ricotta from Bellwether Farms. You can also make your own ricotta with cow's milk. And I'll tell you how in your workbook, as well as offer other ideas for filling of different kinds of cheeses to use as well. Brian is filling a piping bag here because we make a very large quantity of ravioli. But at home, you can just use a spoon. Our base recipe for pasta is 1 cup of flour to 1 egg and 2 egg yolks. Here, Brian is making a double batch. Brian is using mostly all-purpose organic white flour with about 1/8 of durum flour. The all-purpose flour helps with elasticity so that the dough stretches. The durum flour helps the dough hold together. Add salt and make a well in the center of the flour mixture for the eggs. Then add the yolks. Then you carefully whisk with a fork, pulling in a bit of flour from the edges and adding olive oil. Then using a scraper, work towards the center, continuing to mix and cut. Once the dough starts to come together, use your hands to press the dough together and knead it for a few minutes. This develops the gluten and fully hydrates all of the flour. Once you learn the feel of the dough, you will know it if it feels too dry or wet. We like it on the dry side, so he is adding a bit more flour while kneading using the scraper to work in the little bits of dough. Wrap the dough and let it rest for about 30 minutes. Keep in mind, the dough will continue to moisten as it sits. Most people who are new to making fresh pasta dough make it too moist, which makes dough that is hard to work with. Lightly flour the dough on your work surface. Roll the dough out evenly with a rolling pin, just enough so it fits in the widest setting of the pasta machine. The pasta machine Brian is using is a home size Atlas hand crank. It has two rollers that flatten the dough and six thickness adjustments. The dough should be dry enough that you aren't concerned with the dough sticking to the rollers. If it is too dry, you can let it rest between roller reductions or spritz it lightly with water. When you fold the dough again, narrow enough to fit through the rollers, it's called laminate. This process continues to develop the texture of the dough. It's amazing how much pasta you can make with just a few cups of flour and a few eggs. This pasta is the right texture so Brian doesn't need to keep adding flour. You can tell because it's easy to handle and not too stretchy. Once you have a pasta dough texture you want, you can switch to rice flour because it doesn't get absorbed into the dough. This piece is getting quite long. If that happens, it...

About the Instructor

Alice Waters started America’s farm-to-table revolution. When she founded the iconic restaurant Chez Panisse, her local, organic ingredients sparked a movement and earned her the James Beard Award for Outstanding Chef. In her first-ever online cooking class, Alice opens the doors of her home kitchen to teach you how to pick seasonal ingredients, create healthy and beautiful meals, and change your life by changing the food you make at home.

Featured MasterClass Instructor

Alice Waters

In 16+ lessons, learn to cook beautiful, seasonal meals at home from the James Beard Award-winning founder of Chez Panisse.

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