Episode 1: Croxetti (Pasta Coins) with Pine Nut-Butter Sauce

We learned how to make Croxetti, this coin-shaped pasta at Giandriale, one of the first farms we visited on our agritourismo trip. The style of cooking here was very rustic and family style. The mother of the family, Lucia, ran the kitchen. She's not a gourmet chef, but a very good cook. Croxetti are a good example of how she cooks: delicious but not fussy—she lets the ingredients speak for themselves.

You put 3-1/4 cups of all-purpose flour in a pile on your work surface. Then make a well in the center and crack 4 eggs into the well. Then with a fork, you beat the eggs and start gradually pulling some of the flour into the well, incorporating it into the eggs gradually until they flour and eggs are completely combined. Knead the dough until it becomes smooth and elastic. Then cover the dough with a towel and let it rest for about 20 minutes.

To roll out your dough, you can use either a hand-cranked pasta machine or a pasta attachment for your stand mixer. Cut the dough into 6 pieces, and cover the ones you're not working on with a towel. Set the pasta machine on the widest setting and pass the dough through. Then fold the dough in thirds, and pass it through again.

A lot of pasta recipes in America will tell you to do this roll-and-fold thing three times but we noticed all over Italy they'd do it again and again until the dough was really smooth and satiny. So once you have the texture you like, start adjusting the rollers down a notch each time you roll—at this point you don't fold it, you just pass it through on thinner and thinner settings, to the second-thinnest settings. Then you just do the exact same thing for your other five pieces of dough.

Once the pasta is rolled out, you use a small round cookie cutter to stamp out the coins—about the size of silver dollars. Actually in Liguria there are these special stamps that imprint an elaborate design into the coins, but it can be hard to find these here in the states. Once you've stamped out all of the coins, dust them with flour until you're ready to cook them.

Bring 6 quarts of water to a boil and salt it well.

Meanwhile begin making the sauce. You start by melting 4 Tbs. of unsalted butter. And then in a blender, you put 1 cup of pine nuts, 2 cloves of garlic, 1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil, 1/4 cup of whole milk, and 2 Tbs. of chopped marjoram. Blend everything until it's smooth. And then once your butter is melted, you add it gradually to the blender while the motor's running.

Now add the pasta to the boiling water. These cook so quickly—just 2 or 3 minutes, so keep a close eye on them. When your pasta's cooked, reserve a 1/4 cup of the cooking water and drain the pasta really well. Add the 1/4 cup of cooking water to the sauce, and then toss it back with the pasta. Finally, grate a little Parmigiano over the whole dish before serving.

Video Length: 9:12
Produced by Sarah Breckenridge. Videography by Gary Junken and Mike Dobsevage. Edited by Mike Dobsevage. Food styling by Safaya Tork.

More Homemade Pasta Recipes

Potato Gnocchi	Goat Cheese Ravioli with Asparagus and Brown Butter	Basic Orecchiette Pasta
Sausage & Broccoli Raab Ravioli with Roasted Tomato Sauce	Handkerchief Pasta with Inlaid Herbs	Spinach & Ricotta Lasagne

Episode 2: Butternut Squash Gnocchi

Butternut squash gnocchi are a very traditional dish in the region of Friuli. But they're not at all what you'd expect when you think of potato gnocchi... in fact, they're a lot easier to make. It's a soft, wet dough made from roasted, mashed butternut squash that you pipe from a pastry bag into your cooking water. In this episode, you'll learn how to make the dough, cook the dumplings, and serve them in their simple sauce of sage butter and smoked mozzarella, a perfect balance against the sweet squash gnocchi.

We learned this recipe at Perusini, an agritourismo in Friuli, up in the northeast corner of Italy near Slovenia and Austria. The owner, Teresa Perusini manages a major vineyard as well as the inn and a trattoria on the estate. Teresa comes from a long line of cooks: her grandmother write a cookbook that's considered the bible on Friulian cooking, and Teresa likes to keep the menu at the trattoria very true to the region. This butternut squash gnocchi is a great example of the traditional food served there.

You start out by roasting your squash, but the trick here is to keep it really moist. If you were just roasting it for a side dish, you might want to dry it out and get it nice and browned, but here the moisture is important for tender gnocchi. So you add a 1/2 cup of water to the sheet pan, and roast it at 425°F until it's completely tender, about 45 minutes. Then let the squash cool completely.

When the squash is cool, mash it and mix in an egg, 1-1/4 cups of flour, 1/4 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg, 1/2 cup of grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, and a little kosher salt. This is where it's important to have cooled your squash all the way: Working hot squash in with the flour will cook the flour and make it gummy. At this point the dough will be pretty loose—it's not at all kneading consistency. Cover it with plastic wrap and let it rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

When you're ready to cook the gnocchi, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Spoon the dough into a pastry bag and snip off a small hole at the tip. Squeeze the dough out of the bag, and as you squeeze, use a butter knife to cut off the dough every half-inch so it falls into the water. You want to cook about 20 gnocchi at a time; any more than that and it will bring down the temperature of the cooking water. Cook them until they rise to the surface, about 2 to 3 minutes, and then scoop them out and shock them in a bowl of ice water. After this first cooking, you can store them on a sheet tray lined with a dishtowel until you're ready to serve them.

When you're ready to serve the gnocchi, melt 5 Tbs. unsalted butter in a sauté pan. When it's melted, add 2 Tbs. chopped fresh sage, along with the gnocchi, and cook until the gnocchi are totally warmed through, about 2 or 3 minutes. Season with a little salt and pepper. The last step is to grate some smoked mozzarella over the top. The smokiness is an important element: it contrasts with the sweet squash and really balances all the flavors of the dish.

Video Length: 7:15
Produced by Sarah Breckenridge. Videography by Gary Junken and Mike Dobsevage. Edited by Mike Dobsevage. Food styling by Safaya Tork.

More Homemade Pasta Recipes

Potato Gnocchi	Goat Cheese Ravioli with Asparagus and Brown Butter	Basic Orecchiette Pasta
Sausage & Broccoli Raab Ravioli with Roasted Tomato Sauce	Handkerchief Pasta with Inlaid Herbs	Spinach & Ricotta Lasagne

Episode 3: Spinach Malfatti (Dumplings)

The spinach and ricotta dumplings called "Malfatti" translate to "poorly made" in Italian, a reference to their large, rustic shape. They're from the Lombardy region, where they're even more common than potato gnocchi. They're even easier to make, too. In this episode, you'll learn how the dough comes together and how to cut them into the irregular shapes that give malfatti their name—but as soon as you taste them, you'll never again think they're poorly made.

We learned to make these Malfatti at a farm called Macesina in Lombardy. The kitchen there is run by two twin sisters whose family have owned the farm for generations. This was their family recipe that came from their mother.

The dumplings start out with a pound of spinach, which you blanch in boiling water and then finely chop. It's really important to get all the excess water out of the spinach, so be sure to squeeze it really well in a dishtowel.

Then combine it with 8 oz of ricotta, a cup of breadcrumbs, a teaspoon of grated nutmeg, and a 1/2 cup of grated grana padano cheese, and 2 eggs.

Flour your work surface, and divide the dough into 4 pieces. Then you roll each piece into a log, about an inch thick. Cut each log into dumplings about an inch wide.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Once the water's boiling, add the dumplings and cook until they float to the top, about 2 to 3 minutes. Before you drain them, reserve 1/4 cup of the cooking water.

The malfatti are served in a sage-butter sauce that's really easy to make. You just melt 1 stick of butter in a sauté pan over medium heat. Add 2 Tbs. of chopped fresh sage, and cook until the butter just begins to brown. Then whisk in that pasta cooking water you save—gradually so it emulsifies with the butter. Next add your drained malfatti to the butter and toss to coat. Just before you serve them, grate a little more grana padano cheese over the top.

Video Length: 6:21
Produced by Sarah Breckenridge. Videography by Gary Junken and Mike Dobsevage. Edited by Mike Dobsevage. Food styling by Safaya Tork.

More Homemade Pasta Recipes

Potato Gnocchi	Goat Cheese Ravioli with Asparagus and Brown Butter	Basic Orecchiette Pasta
Sausage & Broccoli Raab Ravioli with Roasted Tomato Sauce	Handkerchief Pasta with Inlaid Herbs	Spinach & Ricotta Lasagne

Episode 4: Bergamo-Style Ravioli

These crescent-shaped ravioli in this video, also known as casoncelli, are considered Bergamo-style because they're both sweet and savory. Bergamo is a town in Lombardy and those crumbly amaretti cookies are an important part of the cuisine, so this is what gives the filling that sweet element. They're served in a sauce of pancetta, butter and sage leaves, so you have the sweet-and-salty thing going on. In this episode, you'll learn to make and shape and cook these Bergamo-style ravioli, and when your guests taste them see if they can guess what's in the filling.

We learned these ravioli at Casa Clelia, which is 10 minutes outside the town of Bergamo. The restaurant at the farm was open to the public, unlike a lot of the agritourismi, and the kitchen is a busy one, helmed by a professional chef. Because of that we watched and learned rather than jumping in and working, but luckily these ravioli are pretty simple to make.

You start the filling by sautéing 1 diced yellow onion and a sliced garlic clove in 2 Tbs. of butter until the onion is tender. Next add 12. oz of ground beef and 8 oz. of ground pork, season with salt and pepper, and cook, until the meat is browned. Then add 1-1/2 cups of red wine and cook slowly over medium-low heat until the liquid has evaporated. Next, add 1 oz. of crumbled amaretti cookies and 1 Tbs. grated lemon zest, and stir to combine.

In a separate bowl, combine 1 cup bread crumbs and 2 Tbs. raisins, and stir in 3 Tbs whole milk to moisten the crumbs. Add this to the meat mixture and stir together. Transfer this mixture to a food processor and pulse it until everything is uniformly combined. Stir in 1/4 cup grated Grana Padano or Parmigiano.

For the dough, use our basic fresh pasta recipe. Cut the sheets of fresh dough into 3 inch circles with a cookie cutter. Place a spoonful of filling—about 1/2 tsp.—in the center, and then fold the dough over the filling to make a half moon shape. Be sure to press out any air pockets in the dough or the filling. When the half moon is sealed, press down on the flat side to form a notch in the center.

When the ravioli are shaped, make your sauce: Sauté 4 oz. of cubed pancetta over medium heat, just until it has rendered some its fat, but it hasn't yet started to get crispy. Drain some of the fat, if necessary, so you have 1 Tbs. remaining in the pan, and add 3 Tbs. unsalted butter. As soon as the butter begins to foam, add 1 Tbs. chopped sage.

When you've finished shaping the ravioli and brought your pasta water to a boil, drop the ravioli in the water and cook until they begin to float to the top and are tender, about 2 to 3 minutes. Drain the ravioli and add them to the pan with the pancetta and sage butter. Toss to coat and season with salt and pepper, and you're ready to serve.

Video Length: 7:42
Produced by Sarah Breckenridge. Videography by Gary Junken and Mike Dobsevage. Edited by Mike Dobsevage. Food styling by Safaya Tork.

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Potato Gnocchi	Goat Cheese Ravioli with Asparagus and Brown Butter	Basic Orecchiette Pasta
Sausage & Broccoli Raab Ravioli with Roasted Tomato Sauce	Handkerchief Pasta with Inlaid Herbs	Spinach & Ricotta Lasagne

Episode 5: Bigoli with Duck Ragu

In the Veneto region, near Venice, cooks make a thick, dense, whole-wheat noodle known as bigoli. They're served in a duck ragu, which is simmered with vegetables, hers, tomatoes, and marsala, so it has an amazingly rich flavor. Traditionally bigoli are made with a special machine called a bigolaro, which extrudes the dough through fat holes, but in this episode you'll learn how to get similar results with a meat grinder that attaches right to your stand mixer.

The sauce is a little more involved than most in this series, so you'll want to start it before you make your pasta. Begin by roasting a whole duck for the ragu: Season the duck with salt and pepper, tuck sprigs of thyme, rosemary, and bay leaves into the cavity, and tie the legs. Then prick the duck all over with a fork, and put it in a roasting pan. Roast the duck at 450°F, giving it a turn every 30 minutes or so, until the meat is fully cooked, about 1-1/2 hours.

While the duck is cooling, sauté 1 diced onion, 1 diced stalk of celery, and 1 diced carrot in olive oil until tender. Add 1 lb. ground duck breast, and cook until the meat is browned. Add 1/2 cup Marsala wine to the pan and cook until the liquid is almost all evaporated.

When the duck is cool enough to handle, pull the meat from the carcass and shred it into small pieces. You can throw away the skin. Add the duck meat to the pan with the ground duck. Add some white wine and a can of plum tomatoes that you've chopped, along with their juices. Cook until the liquid is reduced by half. Season the ragu with 1 tsp. cinnamon, plus salt and pepper to taste, and then set it aside.

While the sauce simmers, you can start pasta. Just like regular pasta dough, it begins by cracking your eggs into your flour, but this time it's whole-wheat flour. After beating the eggs with a fork, add 3 Tbs. melted unsalted butter and 1/2 cup warm whole milk, plus a pinch of salt, and start working the flour into the liquids. Knead the dough until it's smooth and elastic and not at all sticky. It's important to get the texture just right on this dough because if it's too wet, it gets stuck in the grinder. Cover the dough and let it rest for at least 30 minutes.

After the dough has rested, divide it into 8 equal pieces. Knead each piece with a little extra flour. You want to set up your stand mixer with a meat grinder attachment, or you can use a manual meat grinder if you have one. No matter what you use, choose the grinding plate with the smallest holes. Put the dough through the grinder, on low speed. As the pasta comes out, cut the strands with scissors or a sharp knife every 6 inches. Put the pasta on a sheet pan dusted with flour.

When you're ready to cook your bigoli, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Drop the bigoli in the water, stir to make sure they don't clump together, and return to a boil. Because these noodles are so dense, they take a little longer to cook than most fresh pastas—about 5 to 7 minutes. Meanwhile, reheat the duck ragu. When the bigoli is tender, drain it and toss immediately with the ragu. Garnish each serving with a little chopped parsley.

Video Length: 11:32
Produced by Sarah Breckenridge. Videography by Gary Junken and Mike Dobsevage. Edited by Mike Dobsevage. Food styling by Safaya Tork.

More Homemade Pasta Recipes

Potato Gnocchi	Goat Cheese Ravioli with Asparagus and Brown Butter	Basic Orecchiette Pasta
Sausage & Broccoli Raab Ravioli with Roasted Tomato Sauce	Handkerchief Pasta with Inlaid Herbs	Spinach & Ricotta Lasagne

Episode 6: Pasta imbottita

In Emilia-Romagna, many cooks still use rolling pins rather than pasta machines to roll out their pasta dough. Pasta imbottita, or these tiny cheese-filled ravioli in broth, are one type of pasta they make with the hand-rolled dough. In each bite you have an explosion of lemon-scented cheese, and just a hint of nutmeg. In some ways, they're easier than your usual ravioli because you don't shape them one by one. But there are a few tricks to getting them just right, which we'll show you in this episode.

Matt: These tiny ravioli come from Le Occare, in Emilia Romagna. This was the farm of a pretty wealthy family that had owned the land for generations.

Melissa: you could see it in the farmhouse: it was full of beautiful antiques, and while lots of the farms had kids running around, this was more formal, especially in the dining room, where you ate on linen tablecloths, with antique silverware.

Matt: But at the same time, it still felt homey, not stuffy. The kitchen was run by the wife, Christina, and she was a really great cook. She'd learned this ravioli recipe from her mother, and her husband said that whenever they go to his mother-in-law's for dinner, he requested this pasta.

Melissa: I guess he thinks she makes it better than Christina?

Matt: So we'll start with the filling. It's a combination of several cheeses: you have 3-1/2 oz of ricotta, 2 oz. of grated Parmigiano, and then 3-1/2 oz of stracchino, which is a regional soft and creamy cheese. It can be hard to find here, so you can use mascarpone or quark—both of those are good substitutes. Also you grate just a pinch of fresh nutmeg, and a tablespoon of lemon zest, and an egg to bring it all together.

Melissa: Now we'll roll out the dough. I like to use TK kind of rolling pin, but you can use whatever helps you roll evenly. Roll it as thinly and evenly as you can into a circle 18 inches in diameter. If you prefer, you can use a pasta machine.

Matt: Now spread the filling evenly over half of the circle. This is less exacting than regular ravioli where you space dollops of filling all over the dough.

Melissa: But you do have to get the thickness of the filling just right—it should be about TK of an inch.

Matt: Now we fold the other half of the dough over the filling, and use a fluted pastry wheel to cut it into half-inch strips in this direction...and then cut every 1/4 inch in this direction to create rectangles.

Melissa: The pastry cutter is basically sealing the dough around the cheese. So this is where the thickness of the filling comes in—if you spread it too thick it won't seal and the filling will burst out. But if it's not thick enough, you won't have enough cheese flavor.

Matt: Put all the little ravioli on a floured sheet pan and put them in the freezer for at least an hour before you cook them (why freeze them first? Does it help them keep from sticking in the broth?)

Melissa: Finishing this pasta is really simple: they're served right in the broth they're cooked in. Because this dish is so simple, using good broth is really important here—if you have homemade broth on hand, this is the time to use it.

Matt: In Italy, they actually don't eat a whole lot of chicken; the chickens are mostly raised for their eggs, so when the chickens are finally slaughtered, they tend to be older hens and they make for a really flavorful broth.

Melisa: We're just bringing this up to a boil over TK heat. Since this is homemade broth and it hasn't been salted, I'm going to add about 2 Tbs. of kosher salt, but if you're using canned broth, season it to taste. Drop the pasta into the broth, and simmer it gently until the ravioli are tender all the way through—it'll take about TK minutes.

Matt: When the ravioli are done, ladle the soup into shallow bowls and sprinkle with a little grated Parmigiano and freshly ground pepper.

Video Length: 7:29
Produced by Sarah Breckenridge. Videography by Gary Junken and Mike Dobsevage. Edited by Mike Dobsevage. Food styling by Safaya Tork.

More Homemade Pasta Recipes

Potato Gnocchi	Goat Cheese Ravioli with Asparagus and Brown Butter	Basic Orecchiette Pasta
Sausage & Broccoli Raab Ravioli with Roasted Tomato Sauce	Handkerchief Pasta with Inlaid Herbs	Spinach & Ricotta Lasagne

Episode 7: Goat Cheese Gnocchi

One of our favorite farms we visited in writing our book was Les Ecureils in the Valle d'Aosta. The family raises goats, so everything you eat comes from them: goat butter, fresh spreadable goat cheese, goat yogurt, even goat gelato. These goat cheese gnocchi are really typical of the food there.

One of the special goat cheeses at Les Ecureils is goat milk ricotta. It's drier and more pungent than cow's milk ricotta. You may be able to find it at your local farmer's market, but if not, you can get a similar effect by mixing 1 cup of soft, fresh goat cheese with 3/4 cup of regular ricotta. Add 1 cup of all-purpose flour, and knead until you get a nice, soft dough.

Once your dough is made, roll it out into 1-inch thick ropes and cut them crosswise into 1/4-inch wide dumplings. Classic gnocchi are rolled across a fork to create those ridges that catch the sauce, but we learned a neat variation of that trick at Les Ecureils: take a small handheld cheese grater and you just roll each dumpling against the concave surface (the back), to create a sort of raised cross-hatch pattern on the gnocchi.

To cook the gnocchi, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Drop the gnocchi into the water and cook until they float to the surface, about 1 or 2 minutes. Use a skimmer to scoop the gnocchi out of the water. But before you dump the cooking water, reserve 1/4 cup of it.

For the sauce, melt 6 Tbs. of butter in a sauté pan. When it starts to foam, add 1/3 cup chopped walnuts and 1 Tbs. of chopped thyme. Cook it for a few minutes until the butter begins to brown and the walnuts get toasty. Then whisk in the reserved pasta water and season to taste with salt and pepper. Then toss the cooked gnocchi in the butter sauce, and sprinkle with a little extra thyme to garnish, and you're ready to serve.

Video Length: 5:51
Produced by Sarah Breckenridge. Videography by Gary Junken and Mike Dobsevage. Edited by Mike Dobsevage. Food styling by Safaya Tork.

More Homemade Pasta Recipes

Potato Gnocchi	Goat Cheese Ravioli with Asparagus and Brown Butter	Basic Orecchiette Pasta
Sausage & Broccoli Raab Ravioli with Roasted Tomato Sauce	Handkerchief Pasta with Inlaid Herbs	Spinach & Ricotta Lasagne

Episode 8: Cappelletti with Wild Mushroom Sauce

The classic stuffed pasta of the Romagna region, cappelletti—which translates as "little hats"—are shaped like three-pointed hats, and can be served in a broth or with a sauce. Think of them as inside-out tortellini. At a farm called Fattoria Paradiso, we learned to make cappelletti filled with a blend of four cheeses and served in a wild-mushroom-and-white-wine sauce. We mentioned back in an earlier episode that Emilia Romagna was the one region of Italy where we still saw people rolling out their pasta dough by hand with rolling pins. We saw that again at Fattoria Paradiso: All the pasta there is made fresh each morning by two grandmothers. It's amazing how thin they can roll the dough and how fast they can shape these precise little dumplings.

But unlike pasta imbottita, the dough for these cappelletti must be rolled out very thin, so if you're not as practiced as an Italian grandma, it's best to use your pasta maker to roll out the sheets. Cut the sheets into 2-inch squares.

For the filling, combine 1/2 lb. ricotta, 1/4 lb. teleme or stracchino (in Emilia Romagna, they use a local cheese called squaquerone, but teleme or stracchino are good substitutes), 1 cup freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano, and 1/2 cup grated Pecorino Romano. Add one large egg, a little grated nutmeg, and salt and pepper, and mix it all together.

Put 1 teaspoon of filling in the center of each pasta square. To shape the cappelletti, fold each square into a triangle, seal the edges, and bring the two bottom points of each triangle together to create the three-pointed hat. As you make the cappelletti, put them on a sheet pan dusted with a little flour.

When the cappelletti are shaped, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil to cook them. Meanwhile, start your sauce: Sauté 1 diced shallot in olive oil over medium heat, just until it gets tender. Add 1 lb. sliced mixed wild mushrooms to the sauté pan and cook them until they've released their liquid and collapsed, about 5 to 7 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, then add 1/2 cup white wine, and let this cook down to about 1/4 cup.

When the pasta water is boiling, drop the cappelletti in. They're finished cooking when they float to the surface. Scoop the cappelletti out with a wire skimmer, then toss them in the sauté pan with the mushroom sauce. Finally, sprinkle with about 1/2 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley, and serve the pasta in shallow bowls.

Video Length: 6:30
Produced by Sarah Breckenridge. Videography by Gary Junken and Mike Dobsevage. Edited by Mike Dobsevage. Food styling by Safaya Tork.

More Homemade Pasta Recipes

Potato Gnocchi	Goat Cheese Ravioli with Asparagus and Brown Butter	Basic Orecchiette Pasta
Sausage & Broccoli Raab Ravioli with Roasted Tomato Sauce	Handkerchief Pasta with Inlaid Herbs	Spinach & Ricotta Lasagne

Episode 9: Raviolo Bergese (Egg Yolk Raviolo with Spinach-Ricotta Filling)

A giant raviolo, with a soft runny egg-yolk filling that mingles with the butter and parmigiano sauce when you cut into it, is a showstopping way to start off a dinner party. This dish comes from a farm called Ca'Ville in Piemonte. Ca'Villa was another one of those farms that had a professional chef and kitchen crew. The chef, Franco Piumatti was interested in molecular gastronomy and had all sorts of high-tech toys, but he still had a lot of respect for traditional classics.

The egg yolk ravioli are a traditional part of Piemont's cuisine. The addition of a spinach ricotta filling actually makes it a little easier to keep the egg yolk intact while you're shaping the ravioli.

To make the ravioli, you start out with this spinach-ricotta filling: Stem and wash 6 oz of spinach. Melt 2 Tbs. of butter in a wide sauté pan, add the spinach, and cover it, just until the spinach wilts. Then take off the cover and let the liquid cook off a bit, and season with 1/2 tsp. kosher salt and 1/4 tsp. pepper.

Put the spinach in a food processor, along with 8 oz. ricotta, 1/4 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano, 1/4 tsp. grated nutmeg, 1 tsp. lemon zest, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Puree all of this until it's smooth, and then put it in a pastry bag fitted with a round tip.

For the pasta, we're using our basic pasta dough that we used for the cappelletti and the bergamo ravioli. After you've rolled out the sheets, keep them covered with a towel while you assemble the ravioli.

Take one sheet of dough and pipe 6 circles of the ricotta mixture onto it. They should each be about 1 inch wide and 1/2 inch high. Put one jumbo egg yolk into each circle of filling.

Brush some of the leftover egg white onto the dough around the ricotta filling using a pastry brush. Drape a second sheet of dough over the first, and press the dough together around each circle.

When cooking these ravioli, you want to use a pot that has a lot of capacity but isn't so deep. And you want to bring the water to a boil, but not as hard a boil as you would for most pastas.

Cook about 3 or 4 of the ravioli at a time, so you don't crowd the pan or cause the water temperature to drop. You want these to cook until the pasta is tender, but the egg yolk is still soft and runny—it'll take about 3 minutes. Remove the ravioli with a slotted spoon and transfer them directly to individual plates or shallow bowls. When you've cooked all the ravioli, reserve 1/4 cup of the cooking water.

These ravioli get the simplest sauce of them all. Just melt 8 Tbs. of butter in a small saucepan. When it begins to foam, whisk in the reserved pasta water and cook until it's emulsified. Place one raviolo in each plate or bowl, drizzle with the butter sauce, and sprinkle with grated Parmigiano.

Video Length: 7:25
Produced by Sarah Breckenridge. Videography by Gary Junken and Mike Dobsevage. Edited by Mike Dobsevage. Food styling by Safaya Tork.

More Homemade Pasta Recipes

Potato Gnocchi	Goat Cheese Ravioli with Asparagus and Brown Butter	Basic Orecchiette Pasta
Sausage & Broccoli Raab Ravioli with Roasted Tomato Sauce	Handkerchief Pasta with Inlaid Herbs	Spinach & Ricotta Lasagne