Braised Beef Ravioli with Butter and Sage

I started by making the Beef Braised in Wine: Brown large pieces of chuck roast, dusted in flour, in butter and olive oil. Remove the meat and cook finely minced carrot, celery, onion and garlic for about 6 minutes. Return the meat to the pan, add a bottle of red wine (I used a merlot) and a cup of finely chopped tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper and simmer for about 3 1/2 hours. I braise the meat in the oven instead of the stove top to conserve fuel. Our stove uses CNG (compressed natural gas) tanks, they're expensive and a pain to haul on the boat, so I use the oven whenever I can.

While the meat was braising, and smelling oh so good, I made the pasta dough for the ravioli. I have to share the credit for this beautiful, silky dough with my son-in-law, he supplied me with the imported 00 flour - thanks Jeff!

When the meat was nice and tender, I shredded some of it into small pieces, added some of the cooking sauce, an egg and grated parmigian0 for the ravioli filling. I rolled out the pasta (using the pasta roller attachment on my Kitchen Aid) into long thin sheets:

Then spooned mounds of the filling onto the sheet:Placed another sheet of pasta on top of the filling, pressing around the filling firmly to remove air bubbles and seal: then cut into rounds pressing again to seal:I cut the scraps into stracciatelle (little rags) to freeze and use later:

Time to eat! Boil the ravioli for about 2 to 3 minutes. While the pasta is cooking, melt butter in a large skillet until it foams, add fresh shredded sage leaves and cook for about 30 seconds. Drain the pasta and put in the skillet with some parmiagiano. Serve at once with more parmiagiano.

We started the meal with a caprese salad - fresh tomatoes from Pete's garden, the small tomatoes and basil were from the Farmer's Market and the disappointing cheese was from the grocery. I need to find a source for good, fresh mozzarella. I drizzled the salad with olive oil and basalmic vinegar:

I served the ravioli with some of the braised beef: John said these were the best ravioli he had ever eaten! Wow!!