Los Angeles has a strange food and diet culture.

I have friends who won’t eat carbs after 11am and cousins that don’t consume anything white after 4pm. There are raw-food dieters, macro-biotic believers, weekly cleansers and monthly fasters. I know girls who drink only green tea for three days before photo shoots, Olympians who drinks gallons of muscle milk, and thespians who mix cayenne pepper and grade b maple syrup for a whole week before big movie auditions. I mean, the list of strangeness is infinite, and while not unique to LA, it definitely occurs in large proportions.

I don’t personally stick to any food rituals, but tend to aim for a low cal diet. I like to think that I feed my body with all sorts of nutrients and antioxidants (thank you red wine and dark chocolate benefits) but I’d be lying if I told you I wasn’t brainwashed by Dr. Atkins. He totally got to my head, and unless I’m having a really skinny day, running a marathon, or babysitting my mac n’ cheese loving nephews, I avoid the carbs: specifically from pasta.

Despite my admittedly manipulated thinking, I was ecstatic for the starches portion of cooking class. I mean, we were going to learn how to make HOMEMADE ravioli, fettuccine and gnocchi! Skilllllllllz.

Even though you can spend $3 on whole-wheat-low-cal pasta from Whole Foods I highly encourage everyone to make homemade pasta at some point. It’s surprisingly simple and inexpensive (if you have a mixer and pasta maker).

How to after the jump…

How to: Cheese Ravioli with Sage Brown Butter

For the pasta dough you will need:
1 1/2 cups semolina flour
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 egg yolk
4 eggs
2 Tbs. olive oil
1 Tbs. salt

For the ravioli filling and brown butter you will need:
1 ground ground chicken, cooked
1 Tbs. Chopped fresh sage
1 Tbs. minced fresh garlic
1/4 cup shredded Parmesan
Salt and pepper to taste
3/4 cups unsalted butter
lemon zest to taste

1. Combine all of your pasta dough ingredients in a large bowl and run through a mixer.

2. Remove dough, sprinkle with a bit of flour and knead until smooth. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and let the dough rest for 1 hour before you begin to shape.

3. Chop sage and mince garlic.

4. Place ground chicken, garlic and sage in a pan and cook until brown, stirring occasionally.

5. Place chicken, parmesan, butter, lemon zest and salt and pepper in a food processor, blend into a paste. Add chicken stock, milk or cream as needed to moisten. Set aside.

6. Divide your pasta dough into fourths. Sprinkle each fourth with flour and flatten.

7. Roll each quarter through your pasta maker starting on setting number seven. Roll dough twice through setting seven, twice through setting six and twice through each setting down to two (this will all make perfect sense when you have the contraption in front of you, promise) until you have a long thin sheet about 25″ x 5″. You could also roll the dough out by hand if you so choose.

8. Sprinkle a bit of flour on each sheet and lay flat.

9. Take one of your sheets and place 1 or 2 tsp. of filling about 1 inch apart.

10. Brush water on edges and between fillings to act as a glue.

11. Place another sheet of dough on top and press to seal. Cut out ravioli. Stamp edges with a fork.

12. Let pasta dry at least 10 minutes. Once dry, cook in boiling water for 10 minutes.

13. Put butter in a cold skillet and place over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally to prevent it from burning, until it stops foaming and browns evenly 3 to 4 minutes. Add the sage leaves and cook briefly until they crisp in the hot butter. Season with salt and pepper.

14. Add ravioli to butter top with cheese and serve: