Meat Stuffed Ravioli with Béchamel

I am starting a new chapter in my culinary adventures at home, fresh pasta. Before I get too far, I must say that pasta has always seemed some what intimidating. I have had numerous attempts at home with varying success. All of my previous creations consisted of thick hand rolled egg noodles, or extruded pasta through the use of my Kitchenaid with the grinder/pasta attachment. Although these dishes were delicious, they lacked refinement and delicacy when it came to the pasta. Don't get me wrong, a rustic chicken noodle soup is still one of my favorite rainy day starters. I have now entered a new era of pasta in the home with the help of my new favorite Kitchenaid toy, the pasta roller and cutting attachments. Now with only two cups of flour, three eggs, and a pinch of salt, the possibilities seem endless. This starting point can give rise to nearly any pasta that you can imagine, and yield more than you could ever believe. After browsing thru one of my most recent book purchases, "The Pasta Bible" by Christian Teubner, Silvio Rizzi, and Tan Lee Leng, I decided to make green pasta dough for my meat ravioli. This dough should not be confused with Spinach pasta dough, even though spinach is used to obtain the color. The process used to obtain the color of this dough is done in such a way that the chlorophyll is extracted without bringing any of the flavors of the spinach. To accomplish this, puree a small batch of fresh spinach with as little water as possible, followed by more batches of fresh spinach. The goal is to obtain the thickest slurry of spinach possible. The next step is to separate the unwanted plant matter from the chlorophyll rich liquid. While over top of a pan to collect the brilliant green liquid, pour the puree into a strainer lined with enough cheesecloth to fold around the pulp mass. Squeeze the cheesecloth until it is free of liquid and discard the solid material. Slowly heat the liquid to 150 degrees Fahrenheit and skim using a small mesh strainer (smaller the better). This precipitate that is collected is the chlorophyll colorant. As it is collected, force it through the fine mesh using a spatula into the well of the flour with the eggs. Force the pulp through the mesh to insure that the pasta has an even smooth color. After this is complete, roll the pasta into workable size sheets and stuff with the meat mixture. I also tried squash stuffed ravioli in order to practice on my vegetarian cookery (due to my inspiring vegetarian mother). In the end, the béchamel was a wonderful pairing for these meat/squash stuffed raviolis.