First Ever Pasta Making Session - A Success!

Since arriving at Casa Di Tizzie for our 3 week stay I?ve been salivating for the promised pasta-making lesson, and it did not disappoint.  We dove straight into ravioli and chose to fill it with pumpkin simply because we?d found a massive pumpkin in the garden and it needed using.  The filling in this recipe could be substituted with practically anything! A traditional spinach and ricotta (lightly cook the spinach with a little onion, then blend with ricotta) perhaps?  Personally I?d quite like to try fennel and chicken mince as I?m still feeling a little swoony for that aniseed kick.



Pasta
400gm '00' white flour (100gms per person)
4 eggs (1 per 100gms), or you can substitute up to half the Eggs for the equivalent amount of water this reduces calories with only a little effect on the taste
Salt
Filling
1 med. onion
1 fresh red chilli
1 med. pumpkin
1 tsp. pepper
1 tbsp. fresh thyme
400gms parmesan cheese
2 tsp. salt

The flour is poured into a donut shape, eggs (and water if using) are cracked into the middle and a pinch of salt is added.  Use your hands to fold together, then knead for about 10 ? 12 minutes.  Rather than sticking to an exact time, you FEEL the dough turn from a floury in-cohesive clump to a firm-yet-elastic clump.  Err on the side of over-kneading if you?re unsure, it?ll just make for softer more pliable pasta.  Next take child-fist-sized chunks (ok, not an official measuring unit, but it makes sense to me) and either flatten with a rolling pin or use a pasta maker to make rectangles approx. 2mm thick, 10cm wide and 30cm long.

Meanwhile?cook the filling?

Fry off the onion and chilli; add the pumpkin and season with salt and pepper before adding ½ cup water.  Cook until tender, then smooth (either in pan with a utensil or in a kitchen mixer) before removing from the heat and adding the thyme and grated parmesan cheese

Then?combine to make the pasta pieces?

Using a teaspoon, make 5 small evenly spaced dollops of pumpkin mixture along the middle a pasta rectangle, ensuring the end dollops are at least 1.5cms from the edge.  Fold the pasta over the dollops and use your fingers to seal around each dollop before cutting out the ravioli shape. You want to leave just under a centimetre of pasta around the dollop: enough to ensure its properly sealed but not so much that the pasta flavour overrides the filling flavour. Then repeat with all of the pasta rectangles, keep aside all the pasta that you cut away and re roll this later. If you?re anything like me the first rectangle will produce a motley crew of over sized, leaking ravioli pieces, but a bit of practice will improve the look and by the end of it you?ll have sleek and sexy pasta ripiena pieces (stuffed pasta pieces).



Lastly?cook and serve?

Cook the ravioli in salted, boiling water for approx. 8mins then drain and serve with some olive oil tossed through and sprinkled with parmesan cheese. Buon.

Wow, I said dollop a lot in that recipe. I think I?ve filled my dollop quota for the month. Almost. Dollop. There, done.