Salmon & Ricotta Ravioli Recipe

Last night I made what Simon concluded was 'the best pasta I've made yet'.  I wasn't sure how well this one was going to work out - while I was scouring the web for similar recipes, I was surprised to find that pretty much all the salmon ravioli recipes called for smoked salmon and not fresh salmon.  But in my head it seemed to me be do-able, so I went with it and I'm really pleased with the result - and I'm very glad I have leftovers for lunch today!

Note: the photo is of the leftovers that I cooked up today and unfortunately I hadn't dried them sufficiently before storing them, so they're not quite as plump and attractive as last nights, but still a reasonable depiction.

Ingredients

Pasta Dough
Refer to this post for details of my dough, make for 2 people (note I now make it in the food processor rather than all that upper-arm toning kneading - it's just so much quicker).

Filling
300g skin-on, tail end salmon fillet (or about 270g if you buy it skinned)
275g fresh ricotta (I used a handmade ricotta from the grocers at the fish market rather than the much denser supermarket mass-production style)
about 2 tsp fresh dill
1 fresh lemon
salt & pepper

Sauce
Good quality EVOO (extra virgin Olive oil)
1 clove garlic, crushed & finely chopped
part of the lemon from the filling

Instructions

• First make your dough as per the instructions referenced.  Leave to sit for about 30 minutes while you make the filling.
• Skin the salmon then slice and then re-slice into small pieces - I ended up with mostly 10mm by 10mm by 5mm pieces or perhaps a smidgen smaller.  Place in a mixing bowl.
• Add the gently drained ricotta - I just poured off the liquid trying not to lose any of the actual chesse
• finely chop the dill and add to the bowl
• finely grate about 2/3s of the lemon rind and add
• mix gently and then add salt & pepper to taste
• Get a pot of water on the element so that it is boiling by the time your raviolis are filled
• And place the sauce ingredients (including the remaining finely grated rind of the lemon) into a pan ready to gently heat and infuse prior to serving.
• Now roll your pasta through the pasta machine doing the usual process of going through number 1 and folding and back through number 1 and folding several times until the dough is smooth, then eventually rolling it through to number 5.  I did this in several batches - such that I filled a tray of ravioli before rolling the next lot dough.
• Place the dough over your ravioli tray (after my 1 exasperating attempt at making ravioli by hand I refuse to do it without my raviolamp tray ever again). I'm using a tray that does 12 good sized ravioli.
• (probably a good time to begin heating the oil over low heat now)
• Place a spoon of the filling in each depression then cover with another layer of pasta and use the rolling pin (and your fingers) to seal the edges then remove the ravioli from the tray.  Repeat until all your filling has been used.
• Place about 12 ravioli in the pan of boiling water at a time and cook for 4 minutes with a dollop of oil to prevent them sticking.
• While the ravioli are cooking, agitate the oil a couple of times - you're not aiming to bring to a high temperature here, just to warm it and release some of the flavour from the lemon & garlic.
• Drain the ravioli then serve in pasta bowls, dressed with the infused oil.

We enjoyed this with a beautiful oaky Clearview Estate Chardonnay.

Fresh Ravioli Update

I've been a little absent from the blog of late, working hard, playing a bit to keep my mind off working hard, and sometimes, like tonight, finding time to cook!

Hmm, ok, I just glanced back at what I have actually blogged on the pasta making adventure - turns out it's not much! C'est la vie. Suffice to say I'm pretty comfortable making fresh pasta these days, and as of tonight, I'm pretty happy including fresh ravioli in my list of pasta making competencies.

I had tried making ravioli before, but without a ravioli tray - so just rolling the pasta, adding dollops of filling, another sheet of pasta, sealing the edges and cutting. The end result was tasty, if terribly ugly! And frankly, it was a frustrating and unsatisifying process, redeemed only by the fact that it was really very very tasty. There was a lot of swearing and serious grumpiness by the end of that particular evening however.

Ooh, but one good thing did come out of that little episode - I had truckloads of filling left, so the next night I made fresh cannelloni. Oh my word! That was heaven on earth! (and THAT episode in turn resulted in far too much pasta - so Simon made lasagne the following night! Which is probably the other reason it's been so long since I've made pasta - we ODed a little!).

So, back to present day! We were at a Living & Giving sale recently and they had several ravioli trays available. We weren't quite sure whether to go for lots of small ravioli parcels, or less larger parcels. We concluded that fewer, larger parcels would be easier to work with and bought essentially this:Good grief - why did I ever try and make ravioli without it??? This was SO easy. Yay! I'd made a filling of chopped up roast lamb, ricotta & parmesan with a bit of mint sauce - this was tasty, but needed more moisture in it. It's all trial and error though, and I was happy with the result - I just took notes to improve it next time!

Happy Days! Until next time - hopefully sooner than this time!

Fresh Pasta Making

Simon bought me an Imperia Titania Pasta machine for Christmas, so I am at last trying my hand at making fresh pasta.

I've now made 2 batches of fettucine and have concluded that this is a fabulous way to tone up my arms and also an incredibly satisfying little project. Not to mention absolutely DELICIOUS!

Just in case I take a break at any point and forget how I'm making the pasta when I come back to it - my recipe:

Per person, to be served as a main course: (if its a side dish, plan to store some of the resulting dough!)

• 100g flour (currently using Italian 00 flour from Sabato, although I'll give High Grade a go for comparison at some point)
• 1 egg
• Optional: 1Tb tomato paste (may require additional flour)

1. Mound flour on to cleaned work surface, make a well in the centre (because I'm making it for 2 this usually means I clear back to the work surface with a little flour fort around it!).
   
2. Break the eggs in to the well (add the tomato paste if using).
   
3. Mix the eggs with a fork and begin to incorporate the flour.
   
4. Continue mixing in the flour until kneadable (at this point I usually still have quite a bit of flour that is not mixed in)
5. Continue kneading until all the flour is incorporated.
   
6. Set a timer for 10 minutes and knead until it goes off. (This is perhaps a little longer than necessary, but it makes for a good work out!)
7. Wrap the lump of dough in cling film and set aside for about 30 minutes before rolling and cutting pasta. (I've done this once at room temperature and once in the fridge - the fridge one seemed to have sweated, so I'm going to go with room temperature).
   

I'm still working on perfecting my rolling technique, but the gist is - roll through largest width and fold - repeat at least 3 times, then work down through the thicknesses until desired consistency if reached - for fettucine & lasagne I'm going to 5. I think I'd use 6 for ravioli seeing as books I've looked at suggest you should be able to read newsprint through the dough for ravioli.

Finally, cut the dough to usable lengths (bear in my mind this will also be the length of strands you'll be chowing down on!), lightly flour the dough on both sides, then run through the required cutter (I have fettucine & tagliatelle options on my machine). Hang over cheap dowel that you bought at Bunnings and suspended between a couple of cube crates on the bench, or dining chairs. (ie don't bother buying an overpriced and unwieldy purpose made pasta drying rack).

Don't clean the pasta machine with water - rather, just make sure that dough is not too wet when you put it through, and brush it off with a pastry brush or similar before storing.