Week 18 - Ravioli
#vegetarian #pasta #Italian #homemadepasta
You'll get a great bicep workout making this fresh pasta! There's a nice choice of two fillings.
Basic ingredients
'OO' flour (100g per person)
1 egg (per person)
Olive oil
Fresh basil
Garlic (fresh/jar/tube)
Bunch of spring onions
Fresh chilli
Choice of fillings:
Tomato, walnut & feta: 3 vine tomatoes, feta, smokey paprika, 50g walnuts
Ricotta, pine nuts & spinach: small pot of ricotta, small bag of spinach
Selection of pictures from the cooking class
PREP
Measure 100g '00' flour per person. Make a well and put in 1 egg per person and 1tsp olive oil per person.
Use a fork to gently mix the eggs and oil together. Then use your finger tips to mix the flour and eggs together until you get a scrambled egg texture.
Now, start bringing everything together. Put some music on and enjoy your 10 minute workout while you kneed your pasta baby.
Have faith, this weird scraggy mess will become a soft, pliable dough.
Wrap you pasta in cling film for 30 minutes to rest at room temperature (this will allow the gluten to form better).
Grind most of the walnuts in a blender, reserve some for the garnish.
COOK
Make a sauce while the dough rests.
Saute 4 chopped spring onions in some olive oil for 2 mins, add 2 gloves of minced garlic and cook for another minute. Next, throw in some chilli to preference and 1tsp of smokey paprika.
1. Walnut, feta and tomato sauce
Add your chopped tomatoes and sizzle for a few seconds, then add a sprinkle of sugar, a few dashes of water and a splodge of tomato puree. Leave to simmer on very low heat.
When simmered down (~5mins), add in the ground walnut, mix, then crumble in your feta. Set aside to cool down.
2. Spinach, pine nuts and ricotta
Throw in 2 handfuls of sliced spinach and melt down. Add lots of fresh pepper.
Take off the heat and mix with ricotta until you get a creamy texture (taste as you go along), then stir in most of the pine nuts (save some for the garnish). Set aside to cool down.
Paste time!
Lightly flour the surface and start rolling out your dough. Make sure to turn the dough every few rolls to stop it sticking.
Roll until it's so thin that you can see your hands through it.
Now, add your filling in balls along the dough and then fold over the sheet.
Cup your hands together to squeeze out as much air as possible, then cut around each filling and use a fork to press the pasta together.
Alternatively, you can use a cookie cutter to cut out squares/circles, fill the pasta and press each one with a fork but this takes longer.
Hint: It's okay to keep the ravioli uncovered for up to about 10mins before cooking as this dries it out a little and stops it sticking to each other in the pan. Any more than that, cover with a tea towel.
Heat a big pan of salted boiling water and carefully drop your ravioli in. Depending on the thickness of you pasta, it will cook between 5-7minutes.
Save the leftover scraps, roll out while the pasta is cooking and cut into thin strips (linguine). Hang this to dry out overnight and then you can have a nice pasta lunch/starter the following day!
GARNISH
Dress your fresh pasta with olive oil, the reserved nuts, a little grated cheese and fresh basil.
The star of your show here is your handmade pasta and the filling so don't cover it in sauce.
Bon appetito!
Join us for a future Tuesday cooking class.
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