In the Land of the Giants

Paul and I decided to have a "date night" making homemade ravioli with my new pasta machine. I have always wanted to make my own pasta dough, so I cranked up some music and we got the ingredients ready. Oh, a special shout out to Bed Bath and Beyond for selling a machine that had already been used with pieces of hard dough stuck in all the crevices! After cleaning the hard-as-cement dough out, we began.
I was surprised that you only need 4 eggs, 3 to 3 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour, and a teaspoon of olive oil to make this dough. If you try this recipe, go easy on the flour because our first attempt was too much and would not form a dough. First make a "well" with your mound of flour, making sure it is wide enough to fit all four eggs. Crack the eggs into the well, beating each one gently with a fork. Add the oil and mix together in the well. The next part was tricky. With your fork start incorporating the flour into the well from the bottom. Don't worry if you don't get it perfect, mine was a big mess that involved eggs running down the countertop onto my feet! Eventually it turned into a dough. Once you get it into a ball shape, start kneading, whacking and rolling the dough around with your hands. After a few minutes, it will get very smooth and velvety, letting you know it is ready to rest. Wrap in plastic wrap and let sit for 30 minutes at room temp. For the filling, I used roasted acorn squash, cremini mushrooms and leeks. It was a tasty combo, but I think we needed to run the dough through the machine more, because it came out a little thick and HUGE. Behold the giant-sized raviolis.