Easy Recipes for the Grill & Cucina – Paggi Pazzo

We start our homemade sausage and mushroom ravioli recipe by making the dough and creating a flour like volcano with eggs nestled in the middle (use Antico Molino Caputo tipo 00 and Moretti Semolina flour for best results). Slowly beat the eggs while piercing the flour and continue until the pasta dough starts to firm. Once it begins to solidify, kneed the dough for at least 10 minutes and then put under a bowl to rest for another 30. In the meantime, add garlic to a pan and heat for a few minutes before adding the sausage meat (removed from the casing). Let the sausage begin to cook and then add the mushrooms (chopped) and saute for close to 10-15 minutes or until the sausage meat is cooked throughout, then place in a bowl to cool. After about 10 more minutes, add chopped fresh mozzarella into the bowl and mix before putting into the fridge to chill….WORD!

As I’ve mentioned in my previous post of making homemade lobster ravioli, having a pasta machine will make this process a whole lot easier (I should know since I still haven’t bought one). If you don’t, slice the dough in half and flatten with a dough roller for about 15 minutes or until the dough is very thin but if you do have a pasta machine, start from the highest setting until you get the dough extremely thin to the lowest setting. Once the dough is thin enough, lightly dress with olive oil and place the dough over the ravioli maker and pocket the dough so the sausage and mushroom filling can be pressed in firmly. Take your ravioli maker and turn it over so the sausage and mushroom ravioli are flat and use a pizza or pasta cutter to get your square ravioli shapes, then use a fork to close the edges (for best use, freeze the ravioli for at least 3 hours but preferably overnight). True story, I let the dough rest for maybe an hour and 15 minutes (far too long for all natural purpose flour) and when I finally was able to roll enough of the dough for one sheet of ravioli, my son who is just learning to walk approached the dough and accidentally knocked it into the kitchen sink and dirty pots. It was my fault for leaving it where he could reach it, but that was deflating nonetheless – so don’t do what I did. But I digress…back to the recipe, shall we?

Now for the sausage, mushroom, and fresh mozzarella ravioli sauce, heat garlic in pan with olive oil and mushrooms, adding white wine after 5 minutes or so when the mushrooms begin to turn soft (I prefer Orvieto but Pinot Grigio will work just fine). Slowly cook the sauce for 15-20 minutes and in another pot, boil water for the ravioli and keep in mind they will cook quickly so once they float to the top, gently add them to the white wine sauce and cook for a few more minutes before serving with a sprinkle of Pecorino Romano (for added taste) and dried parsley (for garnish). So good you’ll want to invade others personal space for seconds! There you have it, Paggi Pazzo’s Homemade Fresh Sausage, Mushroom, and Fresh Mozzarella Ravioli, buon appetito!

Fresh Homemade Sausage, Mushroom and Fresh Mozzarella Ravioli in a White Wine Sauce Recipe

Prep time: 1 hour 15 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 1 hour 45 min
Yield: 8 servings

Ingredients

• 3 sweet Italian sausages
• 1 3/4 cups Antico Molino Caputo flour tipo 00
• 1 3/4 cups Moretti Semolina flour
• 4 eggs
• 6 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoons pepper
• 4 ounces fresh mozzarella
• 1 tablespoon dried parsley
• 4 garlic cloves
• 1/2 cup grated Pecorino Romano
• 1/4 cup white wine (Orvieto or Pinot Grigio)
• 1 cup white mushrooms

Cooking Directions

1. To make pasta dough, place 3 1/2 cups of flour on cutting board or counter and shape into a volcano with an opening in the middle. Crack eggs into middle of flour (removing shells) and add 4 tablespoons of olive oil and 1 teaspoon of salt
2. Slowly beat and stir eggs in a circular motion while slowly including flour into egg mix. After several minutes, egg and flour will come together creating greater consistency and become soft like dough mixture. Once thicker, use hands to press remaining flour into dough and push, flatten, and kneed until ready (add water to mixture if necessary)
3. Take pasta dough and cover with large bowl for 30 minutes
4. To prepare filling, chop 2 garlic cloves and 3/4 of a cup of mushrooms finely (save some mushrooms for the sauce) then add tablespoon of olive oil to pan. Add chopped garlic and remove casing from sausages, and add sausage meat to pan. Add salt, pepper and then after a few minutes of the sausage meat starting to brown, add mushrooms. Cook for 15-20 minutes at medium heat until sausage is cooked
5. Remove sausage and mushroom filling from pan and place into a bowl and let cool down for 10 minutes
6. Add chopped fresh mozzarella to sausage and meat filling, stir and then place in fridge until ravioli dough is ready to be filled
7. To make ravioli, take pasta dough and flour on both sides, then use hands to flatten (if using a pasta machine, add dough to machine at highest level of 10 and continue to put pasta back in machine until pasta thins to level 2). Cut dough in half and use dough roller to flatten both pieces of pasta repeatedly turning pasta over (and flouring lightly) on both sides until pasta is almost paper thin (this will require 10-15 minutes)
8. Using a ravioli maker, place one sheet of dough on top and pocket dough firmly to create space for filling. Add sausage and mushroom filling using a full tablespoon or ice-cream scooper then add second sheet of pasta on top of ravioli maker, pressing doughs together to keep sausage and mushroom filling firmly inside and then turn over. Lightly brush the outside edges of the ravioli with olive oil and using a fork, press against the edges. Add flour to cooking sheet pan and add ravioli on top to freeze for at least 3 hours
9. To make sauce, chop remaining garlic finely, add to pan with a two tablespoons of olive oil. Let simmer for 2 minutes then add remaining mushrooms with a dash of salt and pepper. After the mushrooms begin to soften, add white wine and let cook for 15-20 minutes with pan covered at low heat
10. Boil water and when ready, add ravioli to pot. When ravioli rises, remove and add to pan of sauce
11. Saute gently for several minutes, then add grated Pecorino Romano over sausage and mushroom ravioli
12. Serve with a little more grated Pecorino Romano and a dash of dried parsley for garnish