Help!

Has anybody else successfully used an Imperia Ravioli maker? Chris has got very good at pasta making and has now decided to advance to ravioli making. We’ve had the gadget for years and never used it and saw that they cost 70 Euros in the posh kitchen shop in Cognac. It fits onto the pasta machine and you sit the hopper on top, put in your folded sheet of pasta, put filling in, wind the handle and out should come perfectly formed ravioli Anyway, the first attempt was pretty disastrous and had to be chucked. I suspect his pasta dough was too soft, he’d put olive oil in the mix and maybe the filling was a bit too wet??? Would it have helped if we’d chilled the pasta and filling…All advice gratefully received.

This is very special tomato paste… http://www.esperya.com/Esperya/Prodotto.do?link=oln903.redirect&cond1352=28 ! The mozzarella you might find in a good Italian deli but not in a supermarket… http://www.esperya.com/Esperya/Prodotto.do?link=oln901.redirect&cond1352=29 . Lucky you having two Italian delis… I’m jealous!

Thanks: I’ve got friends in Le Marche, and may have them pick up a few bags of this when they visit. Fresh mozz and tomato paste I can get at the supermarket or the fromagerie. We’ve also got a couple of decent épiceries italiens here in Montpellier.

Hm. This could be a good project for the winter…

Ecco! http://www.madeleinemarket.com/epicerie-fine/epicerie/farines-cereales-graines/69 there are on or two other sites that sell it but this on’es cheapest. We also use Esperya for an annual pasta order, they do fresh mozzarella, lovely tomato paste and other goodies all the way from italy…Yum!

On, that sounds good. What is it and where’d you get it? I haven’t been making pasta recently, but I’ve got the little tray thingy and good French eggs, so I’m ready to rock!

The flour is italian bought on the internet it already has the semolina flour mixed in with the OO.

I’m also wondering about the olive oil in the dough. That’s really a no-no. Flour, eggs, water. Also what kind of flour is crucial. You really need Italia 00 grade, which is hard to find outside of Italy.

Thanks Ed, will persist for a while with the contraption then concede defeat and buy the tray thing!

The answer is simple: most of those machines don’t work. What you need is a thing that looks like an ice tray. You lay a sheet of pasta over the holes, push them in, fill them up, then put another sheet over that, use the mini-roller that comes with the thing, and your pasta seals and serrates, ready to be broken up. Simple is better. The machine is a help in making the dough, nothing more.