Just Call me Giada

De Laurentis, that is.  Why?  Because I am an official homemade ravioli maker.

Upon perusing the world of food blogs, I came across A Cozy Kitchen and pretty much squealed with delight when the I found a recipe for homemade sweet potato ravioli.  I think we all know about my intense love for these.

At first I thought, I can’t make my own ravioli, it would just be wayyy too hard.  I read through the Adrianna and Caroline’s instructions and the list of ingredients and added sweet potatoes to my grocery list and “Sweet Pot. Ravioli” to my list of meals for the week (can you tell I like making lists?) but was really only half serious about actually trying the recipe.

Come Sunday night, I handed Joey our meal list and he suggested we go for the ravioli.  The only concern he had was with how long it would take, seeing as it was already 6 PM.  I read the instructions again and was shocked at how easy and fast it sounded.  Suddenly I was excited.

To the kitchen we went.

For a step-by-step guide, check out A Cozy Kitchen.  It was dark when we made it so process pictures were a no go.  Next time, my friends.  I promise.

Aren’t they cute?

I’ll give you the gist of it.

• Mix flour and water to make dough — No, really that’s all you need and if you are in need of a dose of fiber go for the whole wheat flour instead of the white, although this definitely gives the raviolis a different taste.  Heavier I would say.
• Cook 1 peeled sweet potato, mash and mix with what have you.  The recipe calls for parmesan and breadcrumbs but we went with cinnamon and a tiny bit of maple syrup.  Reminiscent of my sweet potato casserole, I’d say.
• Separate dough into two balls and roll both out, making one slightly larger than the other.
• Distribute sweet potato mixture in small spoonfuls across one piece of dough then cover with the other.
• Seal ends and use a cookie cutter, pasta cutter or hey, just a glass to cut the raviolis out — we used pilsner glasses and they were the perfect size.
• Bring raviolis and water to a boil in a pot then drain, allow to dry and serve with whatever you’d like on top.

I tried to make a sauce out of coconut butter and dried basil.

Notice I said tried.

Coconut butter hates me and refuses to melt.  Might I suggest using the brown butter and sage sauce that the recipe calls for?  Believe me, I would have made it if I hadn’t thrown my sage out earlier this week.

The inside is sweet, creamy and delicious.  I could see us getting creative with what we stuff these with.

The recipe makes about 25 ravioli.  Boy was it nice to wake up and have lunch already made.  Especially since I had to leave early to get to class.

It has been snowing since last night and although it hasn’t accumulated much, it’s pretty slick and any snow makes public transportation a complete nightmare.

I know, I really know how to capture the beauty of nature, right?  It figures the only picture I’d take of the snow would be as I was walking to the bus stop.

I don’t know how I fit in a work out this morning but I did 🙂  30 minutes on the stationary bike while reading isn’t so bad.

I have a bunch of leftover pancakes in my fridge but all I wanted when I got back inside was hot oats.

I restocked on dried cranberries.  They are oh so plump and delicious.  I swear I could eat them by the handful and by could I mean I do.

Does scraping the ice of your car for 15 minutes count as an arm workout?  I say yes.

Have a good one!