Country Sausage Collard Greens Ravioli

For the pasta dough:

Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl. Mix the eggs, oil and water together. Pour mixture into the center of the flour and stir into a stiff dough. Knead for 2 minutes in the bowl. Split in half and cover with a damp cloth and let rest for 30 minutes.

While the dough is resting, prepare the filling.

Brown the sausage, crumbling while cooking and drain well.

Mix the ricotta cheese, eggs, parmesan and sausage in a bowl.

Drain the collard greens and reserve.

To build the ravioli (I recommend that you see the related blog post for step-by-step pictures):

In a pasta machine, pass the dough through the flat roller in the widest possible setting four times.

After the fourth pass, roll out on a setting that makes the dough as thick as a knife blade. If the dough wants to tear, place it on an unfloured rolling surface and hand roll so as there are no tears or openings. Cover the ravioli mold with this first layer of pasta dough.

Place the press part of the mold on top of this layer of pasta and press down. Allow it sit for a few minutes for the dough to stretch out a little. You may find it helpful to have brushed some oil on the dough to prevent the press from sticking.

Fill the ravioli with 1 rounded teaspoonful of the cheese-sausage mix and ½ – ¾ teaspoon of the chopped collards greens.

After the raviolis are filled, top with a sheet of pasta. Roll from the center out until the cutting edges have pierced the top sheet. Trim off any remaining dough with a sharp knife.

Turn out the raviolis onto a baking sheet or plate and cover with a damp cloth as you prepare more.

Boil for 6-10 minutes and top with a sauce of your liking. To accent the country flavors in this recipe, I blended 2 parts spaghetti sauce with 1 part ranch dressing. The flavor seemed to have just the right kick.