Sunday, 13 April 2014

Further adventures in pasta making.

After a few goes at fettucine and spaghetti, I decided it was time to try my hand at ravioli.  I had been given a  kitchencraft ravioli cutter for my birthday (just like the ones they have on MasterChef) and so started researching recipes and thinking what to do first.  The ideal recipe sprang from the pages of my MasterChef cookbook - another birthday present - the classic ricotta, spinach and lemon ravioli, with walnut pesto and a basil and cream sauce.

I made the pasta as before, using my usual recipe, rather than the one in the book containing ten extra egg yolks (I thought that was a trifle excessive!) and after the rolling and thinning process used the cutter to cut out the squares of pasta - see below.


The filling was a mixture of spinach wilted in butter and then squeezed to get as much of the water out as possible, ricotta, lemon zest and seasoning. It was important to firstly get the right amount of filling so as not to let it escape, and secondly to not get air inside because then they burst during the cooking stage. The edges were brushed with water and firmly pressed together.

 
 
 
So far so good.  The next stage was the pesto.  This was made by mixing toasted walnuts, basil leaves, garlic, grated parmesan cheese and seasoning in a pestle and mortar, adding enough olive oil to loosen to my desired consistency.  The sauce was sautéed shallot, with cream, chopped basil stalks, lemon juice and seasoning. 
 
The ravioli was cooked in boiling water for about 5 minutes (and it didn't split) and served with the sauce and pesto spooned over.  I forgot to take a photo of the finished dish, but it looked gratifyingly like the photo in the book, though obviously square ravioli instead of round!
 
 
 
 
I would definitely make ravioli again, though it is a bit fiddly, you need a day off work and no distractions to do it properly, I need some good ideas though so if you have any, please leave a comment below!  What's your favourite ravioli filling?
 
On another note, it was the hospital Easter bake off again last week, and this time there were a lot more entries - 23!  I made vanilla cupcakes with Cadbury's mini eggs on top and in the middle, plus hot cross buns; however I didn't win anything as the standard was very high.  I was very pleased with the results though, and so were the people who bought and ate them, so that was the important thing.  Next time...
 
Thank you for reading, more very soon, I've entered the wonderful world of meringue making!
 
Caroline :-)


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