Ravioli Fun

Someone please tell me why I decided to attempt to make pasta without a machine!  “It is very easy to make your own fresh pasta at home, even without a pasta machine”, states one disobedient website “You can make it without a machine!  It’s very simple!” says another…erm simple my arse!  I found it about as simple as it is trying to get up for my gym classes at 5am!

Apparently all the Italian Momma’s use only their trusty rolling pins to obtain their perfect pasta so I had thought I would give it a shot, regardless of my weedy arms.

I found a Jamie Oliver recipe for fresh pasta and sieved 600g “00” type flour onto my work top, made a well in the centre and then cracked 6 eggs into the middle of it.  I then used a fork to mix up the flour and eggs with a dash of Olive Oil into breadcrumbs and began to knead together with my hands.   I wouldn’t call myself a physically strong woman- I get achy arms from carrying the bins out and have to admit I am a bit of a wimp (I will literally wail if you pinch me!) so this kneading process was a bit of a challenge for me!

Nether-the-less, I punched, smacked, pushed and pulled that dough about to develop the gluten in the flour and obtain the desired elasticity…it helped to imagine the dough was the hairdresser I recently used who told me I had crap hair and that I looked aged for twenty five!

I wrapped the dough in cling film once I was satisfied with the consistency, popped it in the fridge and then plonked myself in front of the film “Love Actually” so I could rest my throbbing limbs for an hour or so!

Pasta is one of my favourite foods in the world and I would give my right arm to be able to make it easily from scratch.  I am so desperate to visit stunning Italy and dine at all the secret little eateries in the authentic villages where they have families cooking up traditional, inherited recipes in the rustic kitchens! 

I adore ravioli and had come across too many delicious looking recipes recently encouraging me to give it a whirl.  I don’t think anything can top homemade silky, soft fresh pasta!

After refrigerating my dough for an hour, I removed it from the cling film and was really pleased with the consistency so spilt it into quarters and began to roll out one onto a floured surface with my giant rolling pin.

This procedure seemed to take forever!  I rolled and rolled but the mischievous dough seemed to keep springing back to its original state- it’s no wonder a lot of the Italian women are built like brick houses as this certainly was a trial for my little muscle-less limbs.

Once I felt I had an even thinness and could almost see through it when holding it to the light, I set it aside and began to roll out another quarter of the dough to match the first.

I had pre-made my filling earlier in the day and was extremely happy with the taste.  I had roasted some peeled pumpkin wedges in Olive Oil, Nutmeg and seasoning in the oven and once cooked had mashed them in a large bowl with a fork.  I then added some crushed, toasted pine nuts, fresh breadcrumbs, ground sage, more nutmeg, salt and pepper, 1 egg yolk, ricotta cheese and grated parmesan and mixed it all together until combined.

 I spooned generous sized balls of the filling onto one of my pasta sheets leaving a big enough gap between them and then topped with the second pasta sheet.   I pressed around the filling to seal and to ensure all the air was pressed out and then used a glass to cut out my ravioli- I would not recommend using such an object but I could not find a nice cutter to use anywhere.

I confess I cracked up on looking at my plump, dense ravioli- NOT the result I was hoping for after working up such a sweat on it- it seemed that even though both my pasta sheets were thin, once sealed together, they absolutely weren’t!  

This meant I had to attempt to roll out the last two quarters of pasta dough even thinner so I roped my poor boyfriend into the practice since he had the bigger guns of us both and I was beginning to get weepy!  I did have to order him back into the lounge when he proceeded to “throw” my filling onto the pasta sheets though!  You don’t mess with me when I’m cooking or you will feel my wrath! 

Even though his arms would of no doubt endured more pain than mine, the second lot of ravioli still came out looking chubby so I guess all that was left was to cook it and hope for the best!

I cooked about six ravioli at a time in a large saucepan of salted boiling water to ensure they would cook well and not stick together.  I watched them like a hawk and found that the usual 2-3 minute cooking time for fresh pasta did not apply for my beastly creations…they needed 10 minutes to be cooked Aldente which was slightly worrying!  After a chomp, I decided to cut around the edges of the ravioli to serve since the rim seemed to be the thickest part meaning they didn’t look as beautiful as I had hoped but would hopefully taste a bit lighter.

I arranged the ravioli on large white plates with more of the spare filling in the middle (since I was so impressed with it!) and made a herb butter sauce by melting butter in a frying pan over a medium heat and adding crushed garlic, chopped fresh parsley, ground sage, dried mint and seasoning which I then poured around the pasta to serve.

I really enjoyed the flavours of the dish and think that if the pasta was a lot thinner and softer, then the dish would be a real winner!

Overall I have learnt a valuable lesson, don’t ever attempt ravioli without a pasta machine again unless you have arms like Frank Bruno!  Next time, I’ll use a pasta machine!