Sasha's Kitchen: Goat Cheese-Roasted Pepper Ravioli

I love making my own ravioli so here's my latest batch.  I made this for Valentine's Day so I made it the pasta dough a lovely shade of pink using tomato paste.  The newest, latest and greatest ravioli flavor I came up was goat cheese, roasted pepper ravioli which was just a lovely food combination.  As usual, I produced these en masse and made six dozen so plenty went into the freezer for no-cooking nights. This is a great romantic meal that is worth the effort that goes into it.  My husband absolutely loved these!

Pink Tomato Ravioli Dough (from Mario Batali's Molto Italiano)
3 1/2 cups flour
5 eggs
2 T tomato paste

Sasha's Goat Cheese-Roasted Pepper Ravioli
11/4 cups roasted red, yellow and orange peppers, pureed in a food processor
10.5 oz goat cheese
15 oz part skim milk ricotta cheese
1/3 tsp red pepper flakes

To make the dough, put the eggs in your stand mixer and beat for a minute to scramble.  Then add all the flour and tomato paste at once and mix into a dough.  Divide into four balls and wrap in plastic wrap.  Allow to rest for an hour before using.

Roll the dough to 6 or 7 thinness using your pasta machine.  Using a ravioli press, press into ravioli.  This recipe should make about six dozen as each sheet makes 12 at once.  Allow to dry for about an hour on a drying rack before placing the drying rack in a freezer.  Once they are frozen you can put them in freezer bags.  To cook place in salted boiling water and cook about five minutes.

Sasha's Roasted Red Pepper Tomato Sauce
2 cans organic whole tomatoes or San Marzano tomatoes
2 red, orange or yellow peppers, diced
1 onion, diced
four cloves of garlic, minced
fresh thyme to taste (I used about 5 branches)
fresh oregano to taste (I used about a tablespoon)
salt and pepper to taste
1 T balsamic vinegar

Dice the onions, pepper and add the herbs and garlic and saute in three tablespoons of olive oil for a few minutes.  Add the tomato puree and bring to a boil, stirring, then simmer for a half an hour.  When the simmering has concluded, stir in the balsamic vinegar and season with salt and pepper.

Sasha's Kitchen: Southern Pimento Deviled Eggs

I made these southern-style deviled eggs a couple weeks ago as an appetizer for some southern roasted peanut soup (which was amazing, I might add).  The pimento was a lovely touch.  I used this snazzy gadget that one of my co-workers got me a few months ago as part of a secret santa to determine when they eggs were hard boiled (it also tells you when they are soft boiled and medium boiled as well).  At any rate, I absolutely love peppadew (pimento) peppers and love using them in different recipes from these deviled eggs to mac and cheese.

Sasha's Pimento Deviled Eggs
6 large organic eggs, hard boiled
1 tsp dijon mustard
1/8 tsp of cayenne pepper
1 T chopped scallions
1/4 cup lowfat mayonnaise
8 sliced peppadew peppers

To make these deviled eggs, hard boil the eggs and allow to cool.  Peel the shells (which I always find tricky and not so much fun) and slice lengthwise.  Scoop out the yolks.  Combine the yolks with the mayonnaise, mustard, scallions and cayenne, and season with salt and pepper.  Using a fluted pastry tip (the same kind you would use to pipe cupcake icing) pipe the mixture back into the center of each egg white.  Top with sliced peppadew peppers.