Mild Italian Sausage Ravioli in tomato basil sauce

I succeeded in making ravioli this afternoon.  I broke the task into two parts.  Make the ravioli, take a break, make sauce. I had the mild Italian sausage cooked so I cut it into bite size pieces. with that I was going to put caramelized onions. So next I got the onions cooked and started making pasta dough.  

Pasta Dough

2/3 cup flour

1 large egg

Make a well in the flour and drop the egg in.  Use a fork in a circular motion to pick up flour into the egg. Continue until all the flour is taken up.  If needed, wet fingers can add extra moisture the pick up the last bit. Form into a ball and refrigerate for 20 minutes at least.  

Take the larger half of the dough and run it through the roller to get a crumbly sheet.  Sprinkle a little flour over it so it isn't sticky. If the dough is sticky always put flour on it. Sticky dough will stick to itself and ruin everything. Fold the dough and run it through again. It takes a few times folding, running it through, flouring till it is a good texture. Start rolling it thinner, each time dusting with flour on both sides.  I rolled mine to 4 of 8 on the machine dial and it was far too thick so at least 6 next time. 

The pieces of sausage would have pierced thinner pasta so don't use chunks. The caramelized onion were easy to put on each side. I ran a wet finger tip along the rim so the pasta will fuse, it may not be necessary. Then the top sheet

I was using a manual pasta maker till I got the kitchen-aid attachment for Christmas. Needless to say pasta will be fresh much more often.  The powered roller makes it so easy for one person to make pasta. Santa got the roller, spaghetti cutter and fettuccine  cutter online for $118 Cdn.

The sauce was simple. I used the rest of the sausage and onion with some crushed tomatoes canned from the garden.  Two cloves of garlic, sweated in the pan first and a tablespoon of dried basil thrown in the pan before the tomato. Salt to taste and boil it down a bit, sprinkle flour over the top the thicken it a bit.  When the raviolis are cooked toss them in the sauce and serve. Grate fresh parmesan on top and indulge. Absolutely delicious, well worth the trouble, for a few select friends.