HERB RAVIOLI WITH WALNUT SAUCE
Herb ravioli
Tomato concasse
Walnut paste*
Butter
Sage
Parsley garlic
Parmesan
Warm the walnut paste with boiling water, until creamy.
Heat a knob of butter gently in a sauté pan, add the sage leave and when foaming, a little bit of boiling water. Put in the cooked ravioli, add the tomato concasse and parsley garlic. Toss for a minute.
Spoon some walnut sauce on the bottom of the plate, arrange the ravioli on top, sprinkle some parmesan and spoon the butter sauce with the concasse. Garnish with fried sage leaves.
*You can either use a good bottled one or home made. Drain the oil of the walnut paste before you use it.
EGG-FREE RAVIOLI
egg free pasta dough:
500g 00 flour
200mls warm water
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
pinch salt
If you are using a food processor, sieve the flour into the bowl, add the salt, then start the machine and slowly add the warm water. If you are making the pasta by hand, turn the flour into a mound on a clean surface, and then make a well in the middle. Put in the salt and warm water into the middle. Then slowly start to turn one hand, working in the flour a little at a time, until it all becomes absorbed and comes together (If you are using a food processor, at this point switch off the machine, take out the dough and put it on a clean work surface).
Put it through the pasta machine, a couple of time, going down the settings two or three numbers each time, and folding it back on itself before putting it through again. Fold it to the width of the machine, then take it down through the settings to No. 1. Wrap it in clingfilm and set aside.
RAVIOLI METHOD
Mark the halfway point of your first strip of pasta and brush one half with beaten egg, then place little mounds of filling (about a teaspoonful) two abreast on the half that is brushed with egg, leaving a space of about 3-4cm between each mound. You should have enough to make around 10-25.
Put a mint leaf on top of each mound of filling. Fold the other half of the pasta over the top, carefully matching the long edges down one side and pressing them together, then doing the same the other side. Gently press down around each raviolo (don’t worry if you compress the filling a little as you go.
Using a fluted ring cutter about 1cm bigger in circumference than the filling, cut out each raviolo and discard all the trimmings. Now you need to seal each one and press out any air trapped inside, so take each raviolo and carefully, with your thumbs, pinch around the outside. If you hold each raviolo up to the light, you can see where the filling is, and whether or not you have smoothed out all the air pockets.
HERBS FARCE
800g Swiss chard leaves
1k spinach
600g borage leaves
200g nettle leaves
300g parsley
250g basil
100g sage
800g herbs mixture
300g ricotta
1 egg
100g parmesan
Salt
Nutmeg
In a big pan, warm the olive oil and add the Swiss chard, spinach, borage, nettles herbs and cover. Let them stew until soft. Drain in a colander and blitz the mixture, while still hot, in the robocup until smooth. Pass the mixture through a drum sieve and put it in a chinois with weight on top. Leave to drain overnight.
Put the ricotta into a bowl, add the drained herb mixture, parmesan, egg and grated nutmeg. Adjust the seasoning if necessary.
HOMEMADE WALNUT PASTE
1kg walnuts, in their shells
2 garlic cloves
3 tablespoons of olive oil
Crack the walnuts, keeping them as intact as possible. Put them on a tray, toast them in the oven at about 170°C, for 4-5 minutes until golden. While they are still warm, wrap them in a cloth and rub them to pull off as much of the skins as possible. Peel off any remaining skin with a small knife.
Leave to cool down and, in the meantime, crush 2 garlic cloves in a mortar, add the walnuts and pound everything into a smooth paste.
Stir in 2 or 3 tablespoons of olive oil – just enough to make a thick paste.
If you are not using it all straight away, you can keep it in a sterilized jar covered with at least a finger depth of extra-virgin olive oil – it should keep for around four weeks.
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