Home made pasta is a rewarding business, and not as hard as you might think. I always think that filled pasta like ravioli or tortellini goes best with a light dressing, rather than a sauce, as it allows the flavour of the pasta and the filling to be centre-stage. Herby butters or flavoured oils work well, perhaps with a sprinkling of cheese. Spinach and ricotta is a classic filling but swapping the spinach for its cousin, kale, and adding some potent garlic gives the dish a big boost of flavour.
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Loading...Ingredients
- For the pasta: 200g type 00 flour, 2 eggs.
- 100g washed and sliced kale.
- 150g ricotta cheese
- 2 cloves garlic
- 100g butter
- Juice and zest of 1 lemon
- Olive oil, salt and pepper
Instructions
Follow whichever pasta making recipe you are most drawn to. I used a food processor to blend the pasta and eggs until they resemble dust, then combine together as a lump of dough. This can be kneaded out a little - it will feel tougher than bread dough, that's ok - and put in a layer of cling film for 30 minutes in the fridge.
Heat some olive oil in a pan and gently heat the kale. It will reduce down in size.
Crush the garlic cloves. When the kale has been cooking for around 3-4 minutes, add a few knobs of butter and the crushed garlic. Cook for a further 2-3 minutes. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.
When the kale has cooled, mix well with the ricotta cheese and some seasoning. Mash it with a fork until well mixed.
Now the fun part! The pasta ball will need to be divided into 4. Make each part into a ball and roll out with a rolling pin until 2-3mm thick, adding flour to the board and pin to stop it sticking.
Lay out each pasta sheet and cut with a ravioli cutter. If you don't have one, a knife will work but will not be as straight - it will taste the same so don't worry too much.
Add a heaped teaspoon of filling onto a piece of the pasta before placing another on top. Apply pressure to seal the ravioli all the way around the edges.
When the ravioli are all prepared, leave proudly to one side while we quickly make the flavoured butter.
Very gently melt some butter in a small pan. We do not want the butter to burn, bubble or brown. Add the lemon zest, juice and plenty of black pepper and a pinch of salt. Mix well and allow to cool.
Cook the ravioli: add to a large pan of boiling salted water and cook for 3-4 minutes.
Serve in a bowl with some of the warm lemon-pepper butter spooned over the top and a few basil leaves for garnish.
Rozelyn Watkins
June 22, 2020 at 8:19 pmI have to try this!