I can't speak Italian

I can't read Italian either.  So I was a little bummed when I finally pulled out the old pasta machine my dad gave me out, only to find that the instructions printed on the box were in Italian. And that's it.  Luckily, it's three pieces so it was pretty easy to figure out.  It wasn't easy.  I don't why I said that.  But I DID figure it out.

I wanted to use my pasta machine to make ravioli after making a giant batch of homemade spagehetti sauce on Monday from some farmer's market leftovers (recipe for spaghetti sauce to come!).  I also had about 1/4 of a container of goat cheese sitting in my fridge and about a handful of spinach.  Small enough quantities that I couldn't do anything with them.  And that's when ravioli popped into my head.  I've had this whole wheat pasta recipe saved on my phone for awhile now and today I had just enough guts to try it.  Making homemade pasta, to me, sounds like something real savy kitchen are capable of, but not me.  But I've never let that stop me before.  I've also never let throwing away really disgusting food I've made, deter me from cooking the next day.  Pasta dough is 4 ingredients, so I kinda figured, if it goes bad, I haven't lost much.

The other great thing about attempting ravioli and busting out the pasta machine was this:

Look at those guys.  They were so into it!  Forget successful pasta dough.  They were so excited to play with this thing.  Oh my gosh they're so cute.  Ok - this is supposed to be about ravioli.

First, let me say you don't need a pasta machine to make pasta.  You can just roll it out.  Just make sure you get it reasonably thin. You've seen pasta before.  Make it look like that!

Here we go.

Whole Wheat Spinach and Goat Cheese Ravioli

For the dough:
- 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
- 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 tsp salt

For the filling:
- 1/4 cup goat cheese
- 1/4 cup grated parmesan
- 1 cup spinach, chopped or torn

In a glass bowl, mix together flours and salt.  Make a well in the center.  Whisk together the eggs and water in a seperate bowl and pour into the well.  Stir until well mixed and a dough forms.  Knead dough about 20 turns.  Wrap dough in wax paper and let rest for about 30 minutes.  Divde dough into 3 or 4 balls and roll out or run through a pasta machine.

Mix together cheese and spinach.  Cut dough into rectangles with a pizza cutter and spoon the cheese spinach mixture on the lower half of the rectangle.  Fold the top half over and rub a little bit of water on the edges of the dough to help form a tight seal.  Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and drop in raviolis.  Let them cook for 1-2 minutes and then drain.

Serve with spagehtti sauce, alfredo sauce, or just eat them plain!  They're awesome, regardless.