True.
I have a raviolo maker that I picked up in a small store in Amsterdam. I just make them, one at a time.
When I am done, it looks like the photo here.
So, here is the recipe, you just need to find the time. It takes two days to make, and you need to eat a tri-tip about a week in advance.
Be sure to check out the photos.
For the stuffing:
Tri-tip
Barbeque a tri-tip and have it for dinner one night. Save aside the leftovers. If you are like me, you will need to set aside the leftovers first, then eat what is left. I try to have about 2-4 slices, half inch thick, left over.
Take these slices, put them in a container of some sort (I use a glass storage container) and cover them with the juices and drippings from the tri-tip. If that does not cover the meat, add red wine until the meat is just covered.
Cover the container and put in the refrigerator for 3-7 days.
(*note: I like the "Wild Turkey" marinated tri-tip from Safeway.)
PART 2 (OPTIONAL)
This is to color your pasta a nice bright red. You could color it green (spinach), yellow (saffron or lemon), orange (paprika, peppers, tomato, or carrot), or black (squid ink) or... Google it!
Beets
Olive oil
Cut the greens and root off the beets. Wash.
Place the beets in a cooking dish, and drizzle some olive oil over them.
Place in an oven at 350 degrees and bake for an hour or hour and a half, until they are tender all the way through.
After they cool, chop up and put in a food processor or grinder or blender of some sort. Whiz them until you get a wet, red, beet paste.
PART 3: THE PASTA
You can use any pasta recipe you like. Here is one I like:
2C Flour
2 Eggs
5T Water
2T Olive Oil
1½t Salt
4T Beet Paste (part 2 above)
Put the flour in a bowl. Make a crater in the middle of the flour, add the egg, oil, water, salt and beet paste. Use a fork to mix it up, until a ball forms. (If you want it more or less red in color, adjust the amount of beet paste and flour as you mix.) Turn out onto a floured counter top or board and knead about five minutes until smooth.
The dryer (less sticky) you can keep it, the better it will turn out.
Cover and rest dough for 45 minutes.
Cut pasta dough into half or fourths. Roll out, dusting with flour, till thin. Let it stand another half hour. Jump to PART 5.
PART 4: MAKE THE RAVIOLI STUFFING
This is my favorite mix of stuff:
mushrooms
4-5 slices thick bacon
tri-tip (above)
olive oil or butter
red wine
Cut up the bacon and fry it. Set aside.
Slice the mushrooms and put them in the bacon drippings. Add some red wine, say a cup. Saute the mushrooms as the drippings and wine boil down. When the mushrooms look good (kind of shrunken and glazed - taste one to see if it is good!) set them aside.
Put the tri-tip and wine-dripping marinade (part 1) into the same pan, add a little butter or oil if needed. Cook on low heat and reduce the marinade until thick and syrupy.
Set aside the tri-tip, save the marinade.
Crumble the bacon, chop up the tri-tip, and throw it all plus the mushrooms into the marinade. Stir it all up and coat it as much as possible with the sauce.
That's the stuffing.
PART 4A: OTHER STUFFINGS
I have used the following things, and all have been pretty good.
Gail likes ricotta and spinach.
Pine nuts with blue cheese is pretty damn good. Add bacon to it to add the right touch.
Garlic cloves (baked in the oven like the beets above) with sausage and/or blue cheese.
Really, I made up this tri-tip, bacon and mushroom recipe that I am telling you about, and like it so much I keep making that. So my experimenting has kind of come to a halt. Maybe sometime I will update this section of the recipe.
PART 5: MAKE THE RAVIOLI
Pasta (part 3)
Stuffing (part 4)
Flour
Parsley leaves
I re-roll out the pasta dough pretty thin on a floured counter top. Then use the raviolo maker to cut out a circle the correct size. The pasta dough will shrink a bit. I cut out about 5-10 circles at a time.
Take the pasta circle and roll it a little again to stretch it out. Dust the raviolo maker with flour. Place the pasta circle on the raviolo maker.
Put a spoonful of the stuffing in the indented middle.
Get your finger wet, and use it to moisten the outside edge of the pasta to help it seal.
Flip the raviolo maker shut, press, and out pops one!
I dip a parsley leaf in water, and paste it right on the raviolo just to look nice, or perhaps to designate vegetarian vs. meat lover's ravioli.
Place the ravioli on a rack or waxed paper and let dry for 24 hours (about). I do this out o the counter, then put them in the refrigerator. After a day they are more firm and ready to cook.
When you want to cook them, drop into boiling water for about 5-10 minutes.
PART 6: SAUCE
I like to make an Aurora Sauce. Here is a fast, simple way to make one. Try this, then start experimenting on your own, and make a homemade sauce instead!
1 Jar Pasta Sauce (Like "Newman's Own" or "Ragu")
4 T butter
2¼ T flour
1¼ C milk
Melt the butter, add the flour and cook on medium heat until bubbly. Add milk and whisk until thick. Add the sauce, about a cup or cup and a half.
Salt and pepper to taste.
See the photos for ravioli served without sauce!