Homemade sun-dried tomato and white bean ravioli with tomato and feta sauce

I might have mentioned once or 87 times that Kona’s got me addicted to making homemade pasta. I started with what came out to be a cross between fettuccine and linguine for my pasta with green beans, artichokes and capers. It was delicious, fun, satisfying and all that other good stuff, but my real motivation for making homemade pasta was because I desperately miss raviolis.

Sure, I’d snitch a bite if Keith ordered them from a restaurant, but it’s not the same as enjoying a whole meal of them and it’s very difficult to find wheat-free raviolis. These were my first attempt, based on a Hawaiian recipe which was a little too crazy for my first foray into ravioli-land. I simplified the flavors and made it more traditionally Italian, since that’s what I had been craving for years anyway.

I liked the recipe because I had everything in the house and there was no cheese filling, which my son definitely didn’t need. They got the seal-of-approval from the five-year-old, so the cheese was not missed (though I will be making some cheese-filled ones at some point).

Homemade Sun-Dried Tomato Raviolis

Ingredients:

• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 cup white beans, cooked and drained (I used canned)
• 5 sun-dried tomatoes, re-hydrated
• 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon water from the sun-dried tomatoes reconstituting
• 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon Salt
• ½ teaspoon fresh chopped rosemary
• 1 tablespoon fresh chopped basil

Cook the onion and garlic in a bit of olive oil and then add them to a food processor, along with all the other ingredients. Blend, and add more sun-dried tomato water to get your desired consistency.

Make your pasta dough like Kona did, or try making spelt flour pasta, my favorite! Roll the dough out to your desired consistency, cut into ravioli-sized squares and plop some filling in the center of each square. I just wet the edges with a little water, put another pasta square on top and pinched the raviolis shut.

Toss raviolis into boiling water and cook until they float, which is not very long at all, just a few minutes. Serve with your favorite sauce, or try the one below.

Tomato & Feta Cheese Sauce for White Bean Ravioli

Ingredients:

• 8 ounces diced tomatoes
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1/2 cup packed fresh basil, chopped
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• 2 tablespoons feta cheese
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• 2 tablespoons white wine

Cook onion in the olive oil until tender, then add wine, balsamic vinegar and tomatoes to pan. Cook to reduce slightly then stir in all other ingredients. Serve over raviolis.

The ecstasy of being able to eat raviolis again has been unmatched by any other food experience lately. Oh stuffed pasta, I missed you so … I’m very glad you’re back in my life.

Clacked by Debbie McDuffee
on Mar 23, 2010 @ 10:00 EST5EDT