Chicken Ravioli

  Jake and I planned to spend the day and try to make ravioli. This was my bright idea. I told Jake I would make the filling if he made the dough. Of course, I would take the easy part. This can be done in short time but since we have never made this before we decided to try, and start early. We started this at about noon.

  I took 1 skinless chicken breast, seasoned it with salt, pepper, basil, and oregano. I then placed it a pan covered with foil. Then I placed it in a 350 degree oven for about 40 minutes, the last 5 minutes I uncovered it to brown it. I then cooked a few pieces of bacon.

  Meanwhile Jake made the dough. 3 cups of flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 2 eggs, and 1/2 cup warm water. Mix the flour and salt together, place the flour mixture on a board (we used the kitchen table), make a well in the center of the table. Drop eggs into the well, using your hand or fork, break the yolks and beat slightly. Combine the eggs and flour together, gradually  adding enough warm water to make the dough stiff. Knead the dough, until smooth, cover the dough and let rest for at least 15 minutes. We did for longer, until my filling was done.

  For the filling I shredded the chicken (after it had cooled), then added 1- 8 oz container of onion and chive cream cheese, 2 cloves of garlic grated, 1/4 of an onion grated, the 2 slices of cooked bacon chopped, and 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese.

  Then, Jake rolled out the dough (he had cut it into 4 even sections), I placed a teaspoon of filling in on the dough, then he cut them into squares. We then folded them into a triangle and crimped them with a fork. We let them sit on a cookie sheet to dry. After an hour we flipped them to let the other side to dry.

  Jake wanted to make the sauce. He took 2 slices of bacon and cooked until done (not crisp), then added some butter to the deep skillet. Then he added 1/2 of a chopped onion, 1 chopped carrot, 1 chopped stalk of celery, and 4 large gloves of garlic chopped. When the veggies were tender he deglazed the pan with about 1/2 cup red wine, then added 2 cans ( 15 oz) tomato sauce, 2 tbs tomato paste, and 1 15 oz can diced tomatoes. He then seasoned it with basil, oregano, thyme, rosemary, saffron, salt, and pepper. He let that simmer to let the flavors marry (his words). Meanwhile we had a large pot of water boiling and a loaf of garlic bread in the oven. When he was ready he dropped the ravioli (about 6 at a time) in the boiling salted water. He let them cook about 7 minutes. We had them with some grated parm.

                                                         This is the cooked ravioli