Ever bought a shiny new pasta machine with all the intentions of making your own fresh pasta every week, only to have it sit in a cupboard gathering dust?
Ham & Mozzarella Raviolono, Saffron Broth & Rocket
Fear not! You are not alone. I too have a pasta machine that sees the light of day only once a month at the most but it is nonetheless a task that I get a great deal of enjoyment from. The hardest part is, fortunately, taken care of at the start – making the dough. The rest is pure pleasure. Once the dough is made, you can wrap it in cling-film and leave it in the fridge until you need to roll it, though not longer than a day or 2 – fresh is best. You can also make your filling in advance, whether it be ricotta, spinach & nutmeg, roasted pumpkin & pinenut, or (my favourite) truffled corn-fed chicken.
Raviolo (meaning one; ‘ravioli’ is the plural) are one of the most popular pasta dishes in the world and there are countless varieties which originated from all over the northern part of Italy, as well as new variations being created in kitchens worldwide. ‘Raviolini‘ are the smallest and are best served ‘in brodo’ (in broth) or in a light tomato sauce. ‘Ravioloni’ are the largest and traditionally come dressed in melted butter, sage and freshly grated grana padano.
Making Ravioli
We begin by making the dough. The finished dough can be stored wrapped in clingfilm in the fridge until needed. Just let it come up to room temperature before rolling. The other main component we need is the filling. This is best kept relatively simple.
The Dough
200g ‘00′ flour
2 large eggs
a pinch of salt
In a large bowl or on a bench, mix the flour and salt. Add the egg and mix well until combined. Knead the dough until it holds together well. You may need to add a splash of water or flour if the consistency is to dry/wet but bear in mind that the dough should be very firm, not sticky to the touch and does take a bit of hard work to knead to this point. If you have a bench-top mixer, you can use this to make your dough – much easier!
Filling ideas:
- Blanch some spinach in boiling water for 15 seconds to wilt then plunge into very cold water. Once chilled, drain and squeeze the water out. Chop and mix with some ricotta, an egg yolk, grated parmesan, freshly grated nutmeg, salt and pepper.
- Sweat some diced onion or shallot until sweet and soft. Allow to cool. Put in a blender with some diced, raw chicken. Blend until smooth, blend in an egg white and a dash of cream. Season and add a touch of white truffle oil or some freshly chopped herbs.
- Roast some diced pumpkin. Mash and mix with grated grana padano, some sweated onion and garlic and a little sage. Toast some pinenuts and add to the mixture. Season.
- If you have some meat stew left over from another meal, let it cool down and dice it quite fine. It makes a delicious, rich filling.
- Dice some ham with some buffalo mozzarella. Add grated grana padano, an egg yolk and season.
- Sweat some wild mushrooms with shallots and garlic. Add a dash of white wine and reduce. Add a dash of cream (just enough to bind it) and also reduce. Season and allow to cool.
The fillings are only restricted by your imagination. Some will work better than others and will go with cream sauces, fresh sauces (such as tomato) or broths better than others. If you keep the flavours simple I am sure you will have great success!
Rolling Your Dough
Start by clamping your pasta machine to the right-hand side of a long bench. You will need lots of room at the left of the machine for the pasta to be laid on. Lightly dust the bench with a little flour. Flatten your dough by hand or rolling pin to 5-8mm thick. Lightly dust with flour and dust off the excess with a dry pastry brush. With the machine on its widest setting, feed the dough through. Repeat again on the next smaller setting, continuing until you get to the third thinnest setting.
At this early stage, your pasta is not likely to be very smooth. To obtain the smooth texture and to strengthen the pasta, we need to fold it. Laying the pasta on a bench, fold one side to the line 1/3 away from the opposite end, then fold the other end over so you end up with 3 layers of dough 1/3 their original size. Return the machine setting to the thickest setting and repeat the whole sequence 2 more times until you have a silky-smooth sheet of dough. Continue rolling the dough thinner until you reach the thinnest setting. You should be able to faintly see your hand through the dough. 
The next stage is to add the fillings. Brush half of the sheet with eggwash (egg and milk), place your fillings on the dough evenly-spaced apart and lay the other half of the dough over them. Most importantly, press any air out of each ravioli. If you don’t do this, the air will expand on cooking which could explode your ravioli filling all through your cooking water.
The final stage in the making of your ravioli is to cut them out. Firstly, I recommend sealing the filling in by pressing a cup or rounded edge of an upside-down pastry-cutter around the filling. Then all you need to do is cut out your ravioli. Easy!
Tips
- Always keep your bench and pasta dough very lightly floured. Brush off any excess flour from the pasta with a dry pastry brush.
- Don’t start rolling your pasta until your filling is made and ready to use.
- KEEP YOUR PASTA MACHINE DRY!!! This means NOT cleaning it in hot soapy water. Simply brush it with your pastry brush after use. Once it gets wet, it will never stop squeaking!
- Don’t let your dough dry out. Work quickly.
- If not using your ravioli immediately, store in a tray with fine semolina underneath and on top. This will absorb any excess moisture and keep them separated.
- Use your ravioli on the day you make them. They dry out overnight and don’t cook as well.
- Cook in LOTS of boiling, salted water. The quantities required rely on the rule of 10’s. For 100g pasta, use 1 litre water and 10g salt. The more water the better so your pasta doesn’t stick.
- Try using the dough for lasagne sheets. It works great! Or cut out squares and cook in water. Serve layered with a bit of bolognaise sauce (sauce ragu) as ‘handkerchief’ pasta.
I was wondering if you could help me out. I am trying to make some recipes that use Flour 00 which is the flour used in Italy; that is the flour used in Lebanon also for virtually everything in pastry and bread; do you know if there is another flour I could substitute with? I live in Dallas and I don’t have access to the flour 00 here.
Thanks a bunch for your reply!
‘00′ flour is a high gluten flour so I would suggest looking for a ’strong’ or ‘bread’ flour. It is the opposite of softer flours which are more suited for light pastries and cakes. Hope this helps. :-)