Time For Yummy!

Lately I find myself watching the local Italian station, with seems to have nothing but cooking shows about pasta dishes. I grew up making pasta. My father was of Italian descent and the weekly ritual of making pasta was one our favourite activities. It took me years to master making the pasta with the right texture because a fair bit of muscle is involved to get the right amount of white flour worked into dough. From there we could make all kinds of tasty dishes spagehetti, ravioli, cannaloni and even specialty desserts. Homemade sauces were also mandatory. But that was then and this is now. I have not made pasta in years because I want whole grain pasta now and earlier attempts to make it were not to my liking. However, while I still like the taste of a good white flour pasta – I know it does not satisfy my body and I end up being hungry sooner. It is not easy to find whole grain pasta when it comes to the fancier dishes, still best made by hand.

So, after much longing for the days of the past, I decided to re-visit making my own whole grain pasta. My choice was spelt ravioli with ricotta-parsley filling and a mushroom cream sauce. Yummy! The key to ravioli is very thin pasta so that it cooks nice and light. The ricotta also makes a light filling. The hard part was choosing the spelt as the flour. As a soft flour, more similar to cake and pastry flour, it is not the best for pasta. To make it stiffer and have more texture and flexibility like white wheat flour. I decide to add ground white chia. This adds more soluble fibre to absorb more of the egg wetness and helps keep it pliable. The result was good. The dough was extremely stiff and rolled very thin without breaking and had no stickiness to the touch. However, it took longer to cook than homemade pasta usually does. So the next round I added some extra water. The recipe I posted on my website is “round two” with the extra water. Remember paper-thin is the key and if you have a pasta rolling machine, it is a little easier on the arms. Otherwise, put your weight into it and give your muscles a work out.

Please note: If you want to go in baby steps towards whole grain, try a 50/50 blend of all-purpose unbleached wheat flour, preferably organic. The goal is to create a pasta that requires some chewing so you eat it slower and gives you the ability to sustain your energy and your feeling of being satisfied longer. Remember, feeling satisfied is not the same as feeling full. These are two different things. If you have eaten the right combination of food and taken the right amount of time to do so, you will not feel full or stuffed - just satisfied and the feeling will last for several hours. Using the chia even with the white flour will also aid in this because of the fibre it contains. Enjoy!

Mushroom Ricotta Ravioli Recipe