Ravioli are the next level of our trip at the wonderful world of fresh pasta
ingredients for 4 servings (cost about 3 € pp)
- Salt
- 300 g fresh pasta with eggs
- 1 tbsp (or more) beetroot powder
- A confection of ricotta (about 250g)
- 40 g parmigiano reggiano or grana cheese
- 10 g pine nuts
- a bunch of chervil
- garlic olive oil
- 2 leeks
- 30 g flour
- black pepper
Stuffed pasta is a whole chapter in fresh pasta making. When we speak about stuffed pasta we mean two different categories of preparations.
a) The water cooked pasta as tortellini, ravioli, agnolotti, fagotini, capeletti etc
b) The oven cooked pasta as lasagne, canelloni etc.
The pasta dough used for stuffing must be more elastic and more durable than the common fresh dough, so it is, almost always, used pasta dough with eggs which contains not only flour but also semolina. Water cooked pasta dough must also be much thinner (almost transparent) than the common one, so we use number 5 or 6 position at our pasta machine.
I have already talked to you about powders. Powders are a fantastic weapon for every cook, as they offer him the possibility to colour and aromatize their preparations, EVERY SEASON of the year, without using chemical products. I often use powders for my soups, my sauces and of course for my fresh pastas.
To prepare a powder, we must first dry perfectly our ingredients. How? With a dehydrator and if we don´t have one with the oven. We cut the ingredients in thin slices and we remove the humidity, following the constructor´s advices or the PG guide, which it will soon be edited. We then grind them very very finely, we pass them through a fine sieve (not obligatory) and we conserve them in the fridge for many months.
In my fridge I keep always red and yellow beet powder, carrot powder, spinach powder, nettle powder and porcini powder.
So, for today´s dish we prepare 300 grams fresh pasta with eggs, as you can see here with the addition of a tsp of beetroot powder. If you want your pasta to have an absolutely uniform colour, just pass the powder from a fine sieve and dilute the finest powder in the pasta water. If you want your pasta to have stigmas as mine, use both fine and less fine powder. If you want a deeper colour and a stronger beetroot aroma add one more tsp of beetroot powder.
As I already told you we pass the pasta from the machine, arriving at position 5 or 6 trying to obtain a thin sheet of fresh pasta. We cut the pasta in equal rectangular forms. Ravioli usually have dimensions from 4 to 8 cm. What you see at the photos, are about 6 cm X 6 cm. Pasta machines usually produce layers of about 14 cm width, so you can prepare a long rectangular layer of about 12 cm and then cut it in half lengthwise.
I forgot to tell you that before shaping the pasta we must put the ricotta in a sieve and let it strain for about an hour. We then discard the liquid and we mix the solid part with the finely grated parmesan, the finely chopped chervil and the roasted pine nuts. We check with our tongue the saltiness of the mix. We put the ricotta cream in a pastry bag.
We arrange the half of long sheets of pasta and we brush them with water. Water will help the two sheets of pasta remain attached during the boiling process.
We start adding small “walnuts” of ricotta cream on half of the pasta sheets, leaving initially about 3 cm from the border and then 6 cm till the next “walnut”. When finished we cover with one other equal sheet of pasta. We start pressing the upper sheet of dough at the points WITHOUT ricotta cream beneath in order to attach the two sheets of pasta. This point is crucial, so we must press quite intensively.
With a wavy edge pasta cutter, we cut the raviolis. We leave them aside. We cut the leek in relatively thin stripes and we dust it with flour.
In a cold skillet we add the olive oil (about 60 to 80 ml) and 2 garlic cloves cut in slices. We bring to heat till the garlic starts to turn gold. We discard the solid parts of garlic. We raise the temperature and after a while we add the leek stripes. We fry them for some seconds, till their colour becomes golden. We drain the leek on kitchen paper.
Meanwhile we bring to boil two litres of salted water and we boil the ravioli for about 2 to 3 minutes. We carry them in the skillet with the garlic oil trying to toss them well with it.
We put the ravioli on plates, garnishing with the fried leek and black pepper and we serve.
