No matter how bad a rap carbs get, I'm still a staunch advocate for the stuff. How anyone could go on a diet deliberately eschewing the stuff is a mystery to me. Although for the sake of your hips, I do know how the formidable temptation of starch can be too much to bear. And sometimes under the weight of that incredible urge you give in. All the way.
I'm going through a pasta phase right now. And I've had it almost everyday this past week. If there ever was a fixation in my life right now, aside from the shopping thing of course, which probably is more gender-based than anything else, this pasta thing is probably it.
The Italians really knew how to do carbs- with their beautiful breads and pasta, they really knew how to throw a carb party. I know that there's some contention concerning the true the origins of pasta, but it's without myth or lore that the Italians were the ones who made pasta their own art form. Turning this dough of wheat and eggs into a myriad of shapes and forms. If there is an Italian nearby, I suggest you go and give them a kiss.
But enough with public displays of affection; did I mention I have also fostered an addiction to Eumundi Smokehouse sausages. I've mentioned it before, how I go ga-ga over their range of gourmet sausages and not to mention their chorizo. And although a kilo of the Russian Farmer's sausages will set you back over $30; it must be all that Vodka in it, there's no price you should put on good taste.
And you know a good thing when you smell it, as you enter their small shop in Dulwich Hill, you are hit by the aroma of spices and a curtain of smoked meat hanging from a bar suspended above the counter. Everywhere you look it's meat. And there's something to be admired about a butcher who doesn't hold back with the spices and the booze. I say the more the merrier.
Their products are all made of natural ingredients and contain no preservatives. So it's best to eat them as soon as you buy them, which is really nothing to complain about. The sausages I used for this pasta were their lamb merguez sausages, a combination of lamb, red wine, coriander, parsley, pepper, mint and chilli. When fried, it exudes a perfume that rouses the palate and gets any carnivore's attention.
And why not put the two loves together, pasta and sausages. It's simple gourmet, and I'm sure country folk everywhere tending to pasturelands in the back of nowhere have been enjoying the staple of pasta and sausages for a long time wouldn't even bat an eyelid at this dish, but it's classics like these that never go wrong. I'm not sure if an Italian would call this dish a real classic, but it's simple enough with pasta, sausages, tomatoes and a splash of white wine thrown in for good measure.
I can't think of a better way to relieve those autumn cravings for comfort than with a classic pasta dish. You can use pretty much any shape you want, I like slurping my way through it, so linguine was the way to go, but if you prefer the pasta without the loud, sloppy sucking then penne or rigatoni would do just as well.
EUMUNDI SMOKEHOUSE
402 New Canterbury Road,
Dulwich Hill, NSW
Phone: (02) 95690205
Opening Hours: Thur-Fri 11am to 6pm; Sat 7am to 2pm
Their products are also available at a number of gourmet farmers markets and gourmet food stores. Contact Eumundi for more stockists.
Sausage and Capsicum Linguine
Serves 4
Adapted from Australian Gourmet Traveller
6 (750g) sausages, skins removed and chopped into 4cm slices
1 red capsicum
3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 small red chilli, finely chopped
50g (1⁄4 cup) tomato paste
50ml dry white wine
1 can (400g) crushed tomatoes
sea salt
½ cup coarsely chopped flat-leaf parsley
500g dried linguine
freshly grated parmesan, to serve
Roast the capsicum in a preheated oven at 220ºC for 20 minutes.
Remove from oven and peel skin off.
Deseed and cut capsicum into 2cm-wide strips.
Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan, add sausages and cook over medium heat, turning, for 5 minutes or until golden. Transfer sausages to a bowl.
Add onion and garlic and sauté over low-medium heat for 3 minutes or until softened, add chilli and sauté for another 2 minutes.
Add tomato paste and stir for 5 minutes or until sauce thickens, then add sausage, capsicum and white wine and cook for 2 minutes, stirring to coat sausages and reducing liquid by half.
Add tomatoes, season to taste with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, then simmer for 10 minutes or until sauce is thick.
Stir through parsley.
Meanwhile, cook linguine in a large saucepan of boiling salted water until al dente.
Drain and transfer linguine to the frying pan and combine with sauce.
Divide sauced linguine among plates and top with any remaining sauce from frying pan and serve with parmesan.
For the most part I never knew what a ragu was for a very long time. All my life in fact. When I heard the term ragu, my mind would usually conceive a visual image of something more along the lines of beef tripe, or something exotic and mildly freakish like ox tongue stew. But it wasn't until I made this pasta dish for a friend that they mentioned this concoction was in fact like a ragu. I gave her a blank stare, as if she had just spoken to me in Elvish or something.
Although traditionally made with ground beef a rugu is essentially a rich tomato based sauce made for pasta that is cooked slowly over low heat. The name is derived from the French ragoûter, which means to revive or stimulate the taste of. So I guess essentially this pasta sauce has the basic attributes of an Italian ragu, just without the meat.
I made this dish on a lazy day-off that I spent doing menial chores. And of all chores I hate doing, laundry is probably the one I detest most. It's not the washing part that annoys me, it's more the hanging the clothes part that is the bore. And because I want to stay eco-friendly, I always like to use the sun whenever possible. So it makes it even more a task having to put all the clothes into a basket, go outside and proceed to hang each item one peg at a time.
I've been known to leave the damp clothes in the laundry basket for hours while I try to force the most minuscule amount of motivation to bring myself to put those clothes on the line. It's a struggle every time. And then there's the part where you have to take the clothes off the line, and it all seems redundant in the end. But I guess clean clothes are a necessity in life.
But I later found out that if there was anything that would motivate me to get out and take the time to hang my laundry out on the line, it would have to be this ragu. I guess with any sort of chore, I could get through it with this ragu. See, you can start with the vacuuming, then with the dishes, then with the laundry and just before it's time to take the ragu off the stove, all you need to do is go outside and put those clothes on the line. And by that time you will be smelling the aroma of thick tomato sauce, basil and sweet eggplants bubbling away from the outside. You will have no choice but to make haste back into your house. I know it worked for me. I 've nver hung clothes with that much determination to finish.
Next time it comes around to housework, I know what will jolt me into action to get through the most mundane of tasks. With this simple pasta dish waiting at the end of your labour, I don't know what better reward there could be.
If you want you can substitute the eggplant with some shredded or ground meat or if you want the dish to stay vegetarian, then perhaps use zucchini or pumpkin instead.
And if you need more ideas to get you started with pasta dishes why not head over to Presto Pasta Nights at Once Upon a Feast. There's a bevy of pasta recipes that could keep you going for a year. Enjoy!
Serves 8
1 small brown onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, crushed
5 anchovies sea salt
6 medium sized eggplants (aubergines), peeled and diced
50g Portobello mushrooms, diced
2 x 400g canned tomatoes
fresh basil leaves
500g orecchiette
extra virgin olive oil
cracked black pepper
Over medium heat, in a large saucepan heat about 2 tablespoons of olive oil.
Add the onions and fry until onions become translucent.
Add the garlic and anchovies and stir until the anchovies dissolve.
Add sea salt to season, mix for about 2 minutes.
Add the chopped eggplants and mushrooms and cook for about 5 more minutes or until the eggplant begins to soften.
Pour in the canned tomatoes and grab a small handful of fresh basil leaves and add to the mixture, stir to combine.
Leave to simmer over low heat for 30-40 minutes.
While ragu is simmering, boil 1 litre of water in a pot.
When water comes to a rolling boil, add a generous amount of sea salt.
Add the orecchiette and cook for the amount of time specified on the package.
Drain and drizzle with a little extra virgin olive oil before topping with ragu.
Season with cracked black pepper and more sea salt to taste.
They used to be about $4 a bunch but I saw them being sold for 69 cents a bundle at a roadside market one afternoon. I was driving by and almost crashed into a median strip. I did manage to steer myself away from a near miss, but I was in too much shock to stop to buy any. Yes, cheap produce has quite an effect on me.
Even though that asparagus wasn't worth losing my life for, I did manage to get a few bundles at the Pyrmont Grower's Markets. Pristine, and just newly-picked from the farm, those gleaming emerald batons were calling out to be bought. And what can I say, I'm a sucker for anything fresh. And what to do with them, there are so many choices- stir fried, in a tart, perfectly seared on a char-grill or baked and wrapped in prosciutto? Talk about possibilities- endless, right?
And then there was the growing stack of cheeses in my fridge. Did they just reproduce themselves or was that just me going a little fromage crazy? After a trip to the Hunter Valley and a stint at the markets, my fridge was brimming with mouldy dairy. This is what was sitting in my fridge, a wedge of brie, a Pokolbin soft rind, a wedge of Hunter Valley blue, a tub of mascarpone, a few morsels of Danish Blue and some Midnight Moon. Call me a cheese hoarder- I definitely am guilty of that.
To overcome this self-induced cheese infestation I had to combine as many cheeses into a dish without going overboard. That's where this three cheese pasta was born, from a necessity to make use of this surfeit of cheese. The 3 cheeses I decided to use was the Hunter Valley Blue, the Midnight Moon, which is an aged chevre and mascarpone. The blue, for its saltiness and pungency, the aged chevre for it's slight sweetness and the mascarpone for its creaminess. It was a triple threat. The pasta had just the right balance of flavours.
I can just hear the collective sound of tsk tsk tsk and the heads of a thousand dieticians shaking in dismay- the words three cheese and pasta just don't call out diet to me. But the fortunate thing is that I'm not on a diet and if you were on a diet, after this pasta you won't be. Goodbye diet and hello gym.
But just because this pasta may be a little rich, doesn't mean you have to throw the towel in. It might a be little on the creamy side but the asparagus and the mushrooms rein it all in. Just as Simon Marchmont of Posh Nosh says, "Pure and balanced; like a nun on a tightrope".
Check out the round up of other great pasta dishes at Ruth's place, for Presto Pasta Night.
Three Cheese and Asparagus Umbricelli
serves 2
1 bundle asparagus
1 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic. chopped
3 anchovies
1 punnet mushrooms, sliced
50g blue cheese, diced
50g aged chevre, diced
100g mascarpone
250g umbricelli pasta (or any spiral shaped pasta)
1 tbsp parsley, chopped
freshly cracked black pepper
Take asparagus and snap the bottom parts and discard.
Chop the asparagus in half.
Bring a pot of salted water to the boil and blanch asparagus for 1 minute. Drain.
Bring another 1-litre pot of salted water to the boil.
Cook the pasta for the specified duration. Drain.
While pasta is cooking, heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat.
Add the garlic and anchovies and cook until the anchovies are dissolved.
Add the mushrooms and cook for 2 minutes.
Then add the blue cheese and aged chevre and stir until the cheese has melted.
Turn heat down to low and add the mascarpone and asparagus.
Add the pasta and mix until the sauce has coated the pasta.
Sprinkle parsley and freshly cracked black pepper on top.
If desired, top with shavings of aged chevre.
No sooner than when I rejoiced over the advent of spring that winter comes back to bite us in the you-know-what. Winter weather has returned and so have the rains. I don’t know if this is Sydney’s way of welcoming the dignitaries arriving for the APEC conference, but it sure hope it doesn’t stick around for too long. I was just enjoying the sunshine and warm weather, and I could smell summer was just around the corner. Now it feels like summer is around the corner and down five more blocks away. What is with this erratic weather?
If you wanted to conjure up what the weather has been like, well it’s the kind that makes you want to stay in your pyjamas all day, the kind that makes you crave something warm for your belly and it’s the kind of weather that forces you indoors. Be that as it may, there is no need to fret. I have something sunny and light to wash away those cold weather blues.
Gnocchi- it probably isn’t the first thing you would think of when you cite being “light” as one of its qualities, it’s more words like stodgy, doughy, indigestible that come to mind. I know because I have never met a gnocchi that I have liked, they have always been too filling, too starchy and it seems like all it does is expand in your stomach after you have eaten just a few morsels. I never order gnocchi at restaurants because I just never see the point, one portion leaves you too stuffed to taste anything else- which for me means no dessert- which I just cannot abide with.
So what say you is the solution to heavy humdrum gnocchi? Add a little ricotta and change it’s colour; that’s what I did and it worked for me.
From dreading gnocchi to actually enjoying it, it was quite a reversal of opinion after tasting these. The key is the ricotta, it allows for a lighter fluffier dough as opposed to a typical gnocchi which is usually made only of flour and potatoes. It's amazing how moreish this gnocchi actually is, I never imagined myself craving another helping.
The recipe yields an enormous amount of gnocchi that I didn't know what to do with it all at first. I digressed from the initial urge to just boil them in a pot, and wanted to try something different. I have seen other ways of cooking gnocchi other than boiling, so here are the two ways that I chose to cook them- pan fired and baked. In both methods, the gnocchi develops a thin crispy outer layer while the inside remains steamy and fluffy.
Both ways contain mushrooms and Gorgonzola, leftovers from what I didn't put on the pizzas. You might be thinking that I must have wheels and wheels of Gorgonzola lying around as that it has made an appearance in some of the non-dessert items I have made lately. Well, no I don't hoard huge amounts of the stuff, I just know how to make a wedge of Gorgonzola last a really long time. The first version is the pan-friend gnocchi with sage butter, mushrooms and Gorgonzola sauce and the second one is a baked gnocchi with tomato sauce.
For the first batch all you need to do is- heat up a tablespoon of butter in a medium frypan and fry up some sage leaves just enough to infuse the butter with it's aroma. Then shallow fry the gnocchi until it is brown on both sides. Remove gnocchi from frypan and transfer to a paper towel to drain. With the heat still on, add the mushrooms (I used oyster) and fry them up until they are soft, you might want to add a little bit more butter at this point as the mushrooms will soak it up quickly. When the mushrooms are almost cooked, add a few cubes of Gorgonzola and melt. Plate the gnocchi up and place the mushroom sand sauce the gnocchi.
For the baked gnocchi, you will need to prepare a tomato sauce before hand (recipe below). Then preheat an oven at 180°C. Line a baking dish with gnocchi and drizzle with olive oil. Bake for 20 minutes or until the gnocchi begins to brown and form a skin. Then add some chopped mushrooms. Pour the tomato sauce over the gnocchi, ensuring that the whole dish is covered in the sauce. Lodge a few cubes of Gorgonzola into the sauce and return to the oven for another 15 minutes. Remove from oven and serve.
Which way did I prefer? To be honest I couldn't choose between them. The pan fried version with the sage was absolutely divine, the sage and Gorgonzola perfect compliments to each other and the beautifully crusted gnocchi was fun to bite into. While the baked version made for a perfectly smooth and creamy rendition of gnocchi. A far cry from the disasters I have tasted before and exactly what I needed on a dreary day like to day.
Basic Sweet Potato Gnocchi Recipe
Adapted from epicurious.com
2 medium sized sweet potatoes, washed and pierced all over with a fork
250g fresh ricotta cheese
½ cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
½ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
½ tsp sea salt
1 egg
2 cups all purpose flour
Preheat oven to 200°C. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Place sweet potatoes on tray and bake for 45 minutes to an hour; until the skin is browned and the flesh is soft.
Remove sweet potatoes from oven and allow to cool to room temperature.
Cut potatoes in half and use a spoon to scrape out the flesh and mash.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the sweet potato flesh, ricotta, Parmesan, nutmeg, salt, egg and flour.
Combine the ingredients until a soft dough forms.
Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Turn dough out onto floured surface; divide into 6 equal pieces.
Rolling between palms and floured work surface, form each piece into a long rope 2.5cm in diameter, sprinkling with flour as needed if sticky.
Cut each rope into pieces about 1cm wide.
Roll each piece over tines of fork to indent.
Transfer to baking sheet.
Tomato Sauce
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cloves garlic, chopped finely
½ tsp dried chilli flakes
sea salt, to taste
400g can of chopped tomatoes
In a saucepan heat up olive oil over medium heat.
Fry garlic and dried chilli flakes for two minutes, add salt.
Pour in tomatoes and simmer for 30 minutes or until the sauce has thickened and become a deeper red.
As promised, here is the recipe for the mushroom pasta I made yesterday for lunch using the fabulous hunk of cheese I bought at the markets . On a lazy Saturday afternoon, the last thing you want to do is linger too long in the kitchen. Now, this pasta is so simple and so easily modified that I don't even know if I should provide you a recipe. You could almost make it up as you go, I did. But here it goes.
I used the regular swiss brown mushrooms you can find at any supermarket for this dish as that is what I had in the fridge, but really you can use any mushroom you want. If I were to make this again, I am imagining some porcini, chanterelles, oysters, or if you happen to be very lucky or loaded, you can lace the pasta with shavings of fresh truffle. Divine.
You can't tell from the picture above but the sauce becomes a beautiful seafoam green and is quite runny in consistency. The taste is quite strong because of the gorgonzola, and if you don't want such a prominent cheese taste then you can up the cream or better yet, just lessen the cheese. I didn't add any salt as the cheese gave enough saltiness, but if you think it needs a bit of salt you can add a pinch or two, or even add a spoonful of parmesan cheese instead. I decided to sprinkle more gorgonzola crumbs over the pasta so that as you are eating you are surprised by little bursts of cheese.
Also, you can even replace the pasta with penne or macaroni. It just so happened that I had this rotini in the pantry just ready to be cooked. Rotini is just the fancy Italian name for the spiral-shaped pasta.
Mushroom and Gorgonzola Rotini
serves 4
500g pack Spiral Pasta
olive oil
200g swiss brown mushrooms, sliced lenthways
1 tsp thyme, dried or fresh
1 clove garlic, chopped roughly
100g gorgonzola cheese, cubed (you can leave some extra to sprinkle over)
125ml pouring (single) cream
freshly grated nutmeg
salt for boiling
pepper to taste
salt or parmesan cheese if required
Boil a litre of water in a large pot and add salt when the water comes to a rolling boil.
Cook the pasta al dente, according to package instructions.
Drain
TO PREPARE THE SAUCE
Heat a large saucepan over medium heat and add the olive oil.
Add the mushrooms and thyme and cook for 30 seconds, then add the garlic.
When the mushrooms have softened, reduce the heat and add the cheese and stir until melted.
Add the cream and continue to stir until the sauce thickens.
Remove from heat and add the pasta and mix through the sauce.
Grate some fresh nutmeg over the top.
Add salt or parmesan cheese if needed
(Optional- sprinkle some crumbled gorgonzola over the pasta)
Add freshly ground black pepper before serving.
Still giddy from all the foodie merriment we engaged in over the past weeks, I needed some respite from the overload of gastronomic pursuits and preoccupations to be had during Good Food Month. Yes, believe it or not, it is possible to have too much food or moreso food events on your plate. You know you need sound rest when deciding the fate of recently purchased asparagus becomes all too much. Whichever part of my brain it is that’s responsible for processing gastronomic functions like spawning recipe ideas or devising flavour combinations, i've somehow worn it out through an excess of culinary stimulation.
It’s only been a week and a half of GFM and my brain is fried, I’m such a lightweight. Whichever part of my brain that is, I’m sorry for working you too hard. I realise that in order for me to last this month of good food, I require the endurance of a marathon runner. And to think I still have a bread class, an ice cream class, sugar hits, outdoor festivities and not to mention Tetsuya’s before the end of this month, I really need to pace myself. I will not forgive myself for over-exhaustion during the month of October, it’s just not allowed. It would be like Santa getting sick during Christmas, it would be utterly catastrophic.
So in order to wisely control my over zealous food-related mania, a pause is required; a selah from the frezied mess that is my mind. I needed some time to just recline into a sort of thoughtlessness and not think about what to cook or where to eat nest. So I decidedly went through my photo archives to find some recipes that I have accidentally failed to post. Here is a pasta experiment conducted a few weeks ago when I had an overabundance of sage in my usually meagre herb stockpile. I had by accident bought one too many bunches of sage and didn’t know what to do with it all. So I have learned that when endowed with lots of sage and lots of time, make yourself some Sage Pasta.
Sage Pasta Recipe
250g “00” Italian pasta flour
2 large, free-range eggs
1 egg yolk (reserve the white, just in case dough is a little dry)
1 tablespoon sage, finely chopped
Using a mezzaluna, chop the sage leaves into fine pieces.
Place flour, eggs, yolk and sage into a food processor and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse grains.
Using a spatula, scoop out the mixture onto a lightly floured surface and knead until the dough comes together in a smooth ball. Continue to knead for another 2-3 minutes.
Shape dough into a ball and wrap in clear plastic and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
When dough has been chilled shape pasta into desired shapes, either using a pasta machine or a sharp knife or pizza cutter.
NOTE: I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again it is crucial to use the freshest eggs, preferably organic free-range, as this will affect the overall taste and texture of your pasta. Also if possible, use “00” flour as they are especially milled for pastas and contain the proper amount of gluten to attain the desired dexterity for your dough.
To cook the pasta:
Bring 2 litres of salted water to a rolling boil and drop pasta carefully into the water.
Cook for 1-2minutes, depending on how thick your pasta is.
Be careful not to overcook pasta. Fresh pasta cooks almost immediately.
Drain pasta through a strainer.
Add sauce.
NOTE: I found that once cooked the flecks of sage throughout the pasta looked duller, although you will still be able to taste it.
Zucchini and Burnt Sage Butter Sauce
2 zucchinis, diced
1 tbsp unsalted butter, plus 50g unsalted butter
5 sage leaves
1 tbsp lemon juice
sea salt and cracked pepper
In a large saucepan over high heat, quickly fry zucchinis in some butter until they turn golden brown. Set aside
In another saucepan, add 50g butter over high heat and fry until butter begins to foam.
Add sage leaves and lemon juice. Pour sauce immediately over zucchini and mix.
Season with salt and pepper.
While at work, I just came to realise that I have watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind quite a few times, many times, in fact. Maybe not as much as I have watched The Princess Bride or Dirty Dancing, but that is only because time has allowed that figure to accrue. Not that I would ever divulge how many times I’ve watched Dirty Dancing, it’s too embarrassing to recall and even you dear reader would be ashamed of this astronomical figure (I can just imagine all the men cringing at this thought). Don’t worry I can feel the collective shaking of heads right now. Let’s just say that one too many summers were spent at various friends’s air-conditioned houses watching these classic chick flicks. So probably not enough times to quote the scripts verbatim, however I do have to gag myself from sporadically blurting out my favourite lines to avoid threatening death glares from companion viewers.
I think what I liked about ESOTSM was the concept of the story and the effortless banter between the characters. I loved how it used the concept of memory and asked the question of what happens if your memory of an event were to be erased; if faced with the same set of situations could you expect a similar outcome? Anyway, I digress, is this not a food blog? I can just imagine some hapless internet surfer chancing upon this blog, thinking I just wanted to see me some food, what has this movie got to do with ravioli? Well nothing really, this is just one of my many habitual rants of the random persuasion.
Let’s just say, when I like a movie I like to revisit it, a lot and I think the same goes for food, especially with food that I make myself. If I have even an acute measure of success with a cooking venture, it is bound to be repeated and repeated until it can be repeated no more. Well I found out not too long ago that I really enjoy making fresh pasta. Although not all chronicled on this blog, my forays into pasta making have been profuse. Pasta-making has become like those ubiquitous reruns of The Sound of Music and Bewitched; it is guaranteed to be making an appearance somewhere near you.
This particular ravioli was inspired by Sydney gourmet pasta-makers Pastabilities. They give away samples of their ravioli at the Pyrmont Grower’s Market deep fried, not boiled, like how you would normally expect to see or eat ravioli. It is always a treat coming to their stall, squeezing through the throng of fellow tasters with the unyielding intent of trying one of their unique raviolis, deep-fried to a crisp. Then the ritual of puffing air at the piping hot ravioli’s begins. The things are virtually impossible to eat straight away whole, as the filling is scorching hot. My customary routine is to bite off part of the shell to expose the hot filling and then proceed to puff away at the thing until it has cooled just enough that it doesn’t burn the flesh off my tongue.
This deep-fried Ricotta and Currant Ravioli requires an accompanying disclaimer before you eat them. For one, they are very hot, and secondly they are incredibly addictive. I do urge you to make them, however I accept no responsibility for any injuries that occur while cooking and eating them. Once deep fried, the blistered exterior puffs up and transforms into a golden brown envelope. They are certainly cute to look at, but even better to eat. Now I understand how unpleasant it is to fry, let alone deep fry. I have already expressed my contempt for frying anything but make the exception with these things; they will be worth the blisters afterwards.
Ricotta and Currant Ravioli
Basic pasta recipe can be found over yonder.
350g fresh ricotta
3 tbsp icing sugar
½ cup currants
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp orange zest
1 tsp vanilla extract
a pinch of salt
extra icing sugar, for dusting
To make filling, simply combine the following ingredients in a bowl and set aside in refrigerator for 30 minutes.
FILLING THE PASTA
On a flour-dusted bench, lay you pasta sheets lengthways.Heap a good amount of filling onto the centre of each sheet at one end. Repeat this all the way along the sheet at 5cm intervals.
Using a pastry brush, dipped in a little water or egg wash, evenly brush the pasta around the mounds of filling.
Fold the pasta sheet over, covering the mounds until the two ends meet.Push out any air by cupping the filling and extracting the little air bubbles that form.
Using a knife, pizza cutter or crinkly cutter, trim the sides of the ravioli.
The pasta can now be deep fried immediately, or it can be stored in an airtight container in the freezer for 4 weeks.
NOTES FOR DEEP FRYING THE RAVIOLI
Use vegetable oil or a vegetable oil blend for frying.
For best results use a thermometer, temperature should be around the 180˚C mark.
If pasta is frozen, do not defrost before frying.
Ensure that the raviolis are tightly closed so they do not burst while frying.
Do not overcrowd the fryer, allow some room for the raviolis to move around.
The ravioli will only take 30 seconds or less to fry, as soon as they turn golden brown remove them from oil immediately.
Drain excess oil on a paper towel.
Dust with icing sugar before serving.
To finish off what I started, here is what came of the ravioli that I created yesterday. I set aside a container of the raw stuff and placed it in the freezer specifically for days where I was not in the disposition to labour over a great meal. Those kinds of days are quite seldom as I do enjoy cooking and being in the kitchen. However, I did not anticipate one of "those days" coming so soon, it goes to show that Kevin Coster was right about something, "if you build it, they will come".
So, after a long day like today, where misadventures were aplenty- flat tyres, incompetent telephone operators, departing relatives, no sleep, you get the picture. It was nice to come home and know that the extent of food preparation required, equated to simply boiling a pot of water.
Furthermore, in a lovely turn from our day’s ill-fortune, the lovely Italian lady next door dropped off some of her famous tomato sugo. This little act of charity turned our unassuming dinner into to a sweet and delightful experience where we could forget the quandaries of the day, simply to let them evaporate at each bite.
And so it was, Ravioli, two ways. I opted for mine to be simply drizzled with a splatter of extra virgin olive oil some toasted pine nuts and cracked black pepper; while G opted for his ravioli with generous lashings of Santina’s tomato sugo. It was perfect.
Unfortunately, no photos of the tomato sugo, G eats too fast.
When your mother gives you a pasta machine for your birthday what do you do? Well the obvious answer is to make pasta of course, but before this could transpire I had to silence the sniggering taunts from other family members who laughed at the prospect of me making my own pasta. For someone who previously had little interest or experience in cooking before, they were quite bemused at how I had acquired such a novel distraction in so little a time. Apparently, I somehow went from being completely detached from everything associated with food and the culinary arts to suddenly knowing the difference between Chanterelles and Portobellos.
The fact is, I have always been surrounded by food and have had the benefit of a rich culinary upbringing, but until very recently I never embraced it. Now in my twenties, you can see why it was such a surprise to many when I begin heralding the wonders of homemade shortcrust pastry and start spouting French cooking techniques previously unheard of, coming from these lips.
Seven months after my birthday, the pasta machine remains unused. Until today that is. I decided that today would be the day that I would break in my seven-month old, mint condition pasta machine by making some egg-pasta ravioli. After tasting Pastabilities’ Butternut Pumpkin, Sage and Goat’s Cheese Ravioli, I vowed that if I were ever to make ravioli, I would endeavour to replicate this particular one.
The filling seemed fairly straightforward as all the ingredients were included in the name of the ravioli. And indeed it was simply a matter or combining all these ingredients together. A few taste tests here and there, a few sprinkles of salt here and there and it was done. The filling was velvety and delicate; the hints of sage with the creamy pumpkin tasted blissful. The three ingredients all mingled together, mutually enhancing each others’ flavour. The burnt butter also added an exquisite touch of nuttiness to the filling.
And so it appears that it is they, the doubters that have egg on their faces, as that it was they that were so rapt about my egg pasta ravioli, so much so that they were eating bowlfuls of it. It is only right that it is I, that gets the last laugh. Making pasta can so so much fun.
Egg Pasta
250g "00" Italian Pasta flour
2 large, fresh, free-range eggs
1 egg yolk
Place flour in a mound on a dry flat surface.
Create a well in the centre of the flour, and crack the eggs and yolk into the well.
Using your fingers or a fork, gently mix the eggs slowly incorporating more and more flour until you create a smooth dough.
Keep kneading the dough with your hands until it becomes smooth and elastic.
Shape dough into a ball and wrap in clear plastic and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
NOTE: Use organic or free-range eggs when possible and it is important to use the freshest eggs that you can obtain.
Also if available, use Italian “00” flour as that they are especially milled for pastas and contain the proper amount of gluten to achieve the desired consistency for pasta dough.
Butternut Pumpkin, Sage Butter and Goat’s Cheese Filling
500g Butternut Pumpkin
25g unsalted butter
8-10 sage leaves
60g goat’s cheese (chévre)
sea salt
Roast the butternut pumpkin in the oven for 40 minutes, or until soft at 190°C.
When the pumpkin is cooked, spoon out the flesh and place in a bowl.
Make a well in the centre of the bowl for the excess water to drain into.
Allow pumpkin to cool and drain for 20 minutes, and then remove the excess water.
Meanwhile, place butter and sage leaves in a small saucepan and fry until sage leaves are crisp and butter has browned.
Remove the sage leaves and pour the butter into the bowl with the pumpkin.
Add the goat’s cheese and a pinch of sea salt and combine until the mixture reaches a smooth consistency.
Set aside until ready to fill ravioli.
Rolling the Pasta Sheets
Divide the dough into four portions and work with one portion at a time, keeping the others covered.
Take one portion of dough and knead until smooth, roughly flatten the dough with a rolling pin.
Lightly dust with flour on both sides before running through the machine.
Using the pasta machine at its widest setting (highest number), roll the dough through, ensuring that it remains in one piece.
You may want to fold this sheet over and run it through the machine again, at the same setting to ensure you have a smooth texture.
Continue running the sheets of pasta through each setting (decreasing in number), until you achieve the desired thickness (with my pasta machine, I rolled the pasta through, until the number 2 setting).
NOTE: Remember to dust the pasta sheets on both sides to prevent it from sticking.
Also make sure you have adequate bench space for the pasta sheets to lie flat on the bench.
Assembling the Ravioli
Lay your pasta sheets on a flour-dusted surface.
Heap a good amount of filling onto the centre of each sheet at one end. Repeat this all the way along the sheet at 5cm intervals.
Using a pastry brush, dipped in a little water, evenly brush the pasta around the mounds of filling.
Fold the pasta sheet over, covering the mounds until the two ends meet.
Push out any air by cupping the filling and extracting the little air bubbles that form.
Using a knife, pizza cutter or crinkly cutter, trim the sides of the ravioli.
The ravioli is now ready to be cooked or they can be stored in the freezer, in a container dusted with flour for up to 4 weeks.
Butternut Pumpkin, Sage Butter and Goat's Cheese Filling
sunny perfection
The lovely Italian lady next door, despite suffering from athritis always manages to make us some of her fabulous tomato pasta sauce. It was perfect timing for us as I was not in the mood for cooking and we were starving.
From what I gather it is basically just a simple tomato sugo, although I am not entirely sure what she puts in it, it is definitely very good. I couldn't improve any further so what else was there to do but cook up some spaghetti and slather it with this beautiful red sauce. I didn't have any fresh parmesan on hand to sprinkle over the top but it did not matter at all. Molto bene, bravissimo!