recently has filled me with the desire to start making more Italian food and some kind of stuffed pasta seemed a good place to start after reading some recipes in his book. So, a few days ago I made my first attempt, no photos of the results I'm afraid as I was too busy swearing and huffily muttering under my breath about 'stupid fucking pasta' when I realised they'd all stuck together on the plate. When I cooked the five I could salvage they weren't around long enough to get a photo. The result? a few tips on how to cock pasta up and five pieces of delicious pasta.
I tried again two days ago, applying the lessons I learned the first time around. I used about 80g pasta flour and one egg, mixed, kneeded then wrapped in clingfilm and left in the fridge for at least 30 mins. For the filling I roasted 1/2 a squash cut in half and smeared with one chopped garlic clove and butter, until soft, about 45 mins. I mixed the roast squash with about 80g parmesan but would probably use feta again next time which worked better in the original effort being a bit sharper. Season the filling as required with salt and pepper. Get the pasta dough out of the fridge, when not working with a piece of it keep it under a teatowel and when you are working with it keep the surface and it floured at all times or it will stick and you'll start swearing, which is terribly bad form. Roll it out a bit first to help it fit through the pasta machine on setting one, this seems to stop the pasta developing stretch marks which can turn into holes as you roll it thinner. Whilst on setting one fold the pasta sheet in three, roll out again and put back through the machine a few times. Not sure why you do this but the pasta which I'd put through the machine twice the first time round seemed better and this step is recommended by some recipes out there so I'm not just making it up. For the ravioli I took the pasta down to number 5 on the machine, but could have got away with 6 I think which might have made the dish a bit more about the filling and less about the pasta. By this stage I'd cut the pasta into two equal sheets, so dolloped the filling onto one then placed the other over the top. This is where some things can start sticking, my recommendation is to cut the ravioli then pick them up from the surface and seal them in your hands, then put them back down and trim the excess off. Instead of using two sheets you can also place the dollops a little wider apart and wrap the filling in a single piece of pasta in a semi circle shape which also works well. Keep the trimmings under a tea towel, roll out and repeat the above.
I cooked them in some very salty boiling water and served with sagey brown butter. Next time I'll make them smaller as they were a bit unweildy, two bites per piece I think should be the maximum, ideally just one. The use of eggs in the pasta seems not to have been considerred required forever although if using water people seem to add salt and oil as well. The quality of the eggs does seem paramount though and some use additional yolks to make up for poor quality eggs. Also I'm a little confused as to whether I need to be using the pasta flour or can just use plain flour or semolina, pasta flour seeming to be used for dried pasta. I imagine a lot of this will be a matter of taste and expediency. The filling is obviously the other big area for experimentation and then the sauce which seems to get more involved when you don't have a filling in your pasta. I'm looking forward to some Ragu experiments although not convinved they are really summery recipes being long slow cooks of pieces of meat.
