Siberian Pelmeni

OK, I think I'm going to put the pasta attachment for KitchenAid mixers on my birthday and Christmas wish lists! I love the taste of the homemade pasta I made for tonight's dish, but would have loved to make it nice and thin. All in all though, I did a decent job rolling out the dough for these ravioli by hand.

The original pelmeni recipe says to make a half recipe of noodle dough, but didn't provide that recipe. So, I found this one for egg noodles and it worked well. Also, I didn't assemble tiny ravioli like the original cook(s) must have, since they said the recipe would yield 48 pelmeni!

The half-recipe of dough gave me enough pasta for 10 large ravioli, but I ended up with extra filling. Ten ravioli are plenty for our two-person household, but if you're feeding more people, make the full dough recipe and use all the filling.

Honestly, the ravioli are tasty but not very exciting on their own. It's the condiments that make this dish special. Instead of serving the ravioli in bowls of beef broth, which is an alternate preparation described in the original recipe, we opted for the second suggestion and enjoyed our pelmeni drizzled with a little melted butter and malt vinegar and dipped in mustard and low-fat sour cream. Now, that's unique! And, absolutely delicious.

Here's how I made them:

Pasta
1¼ cups flour
1 egg, beaten
½ Tbsp butter, melted
¼ cup milk
Pinch of salt

Blend the ingredients together, adding extra milk a teaspoon at a time, if needed. Knead the dough for a few minutes until smooth, then set it aside and let it sit for about 10 minutes while you prepare the filling.

Filling

Oil/butter/margarine

1 onion, finely diced

2 garlic cloves, minced

½ lb ground meatloaf mix

Salt and freshly cracked black pepper, to taste

1 tsp hot sauce

Sauté the onion and garlic in the oil over medium-high heat till they're soft and golden. Add the meat and seasonings and par-cook only slightly, just to ensure the filling will be completely cooked.

Roll out the dough as thinly as you can, preferably to about an eighth of an inch. Cut out the ravioli using a 3" diameter cookie cutter (or juice glass). Add about a tablespoon of filling to the center of one circle and top it with another, then crimp the edges using a fork to seal them. Once they're all assembled, cook the ravioli in boiling water till al dente. Serve as described above, and enjoy!

Cook's Note: Since I rarely use fresh pasta, I wasn't sure how long to cook these ravioli. So, I boiled a couple scraps of the pasta dough with them. That way, I could fish them out for a taste test. Worked like a charm!