Homemade Pasta- Spinach and Ricotta Ravioli

I absolutely LOVE making pasta! It does take quite a bit of time and effort but it is well worth it! There are so many shapes to try, and so many fillings if you wish to make filled pasta such as Tortellini or Ravioli. All you need are store cupboard ingredients and a relatively inexpensive pasta machine. I bought mine from Lakeland for £22.99. It simply clamps to your worktop or table, has 9 thickness settings and even comes with attachments for making Tagliatelle and Fettucine. It's so easy! There are extra attachments and gizmos you can buy for it such as a ravioli press and a ravioli attachment but I just use a square ravioli stamp which does the job perfectly.

Basic pasta is usually made from 2 ingredients... flour, and eggs. You can however alter it a little for different purposes if you wish. It can be made without eggs, replaced with water, if you need to, but to do this you will need strong white flour. This is because the stronger flour has higher levels of gluten, which when developed with plenty of kneading will help keep it together, reducing the need for the eggs. The most common type of flour to use is 00 flour, which is very finely ground. 00 flour however does have lower gluten levels, so you must use eggs and not skimp on the kneading, but it does produce a lovely silky, delicate pasta. For pasta with more bite, and for when you need a firmer pasta to create more intricate shapes, or withstand slightly wet fillings, it is also common to use semolina flour in conjunction with the normal flour, up to a 50:50 ratio. Because this dough will be a little drier and tougher, you may need to knead it for a little longer than normal, and use wet hands, in order to make it a little more malleable. It is also easier than you might think to make coloured and flavoured pasta. Just a blob of tomato puree and you have tomato pasta, a little cuttlefish ink and you can create a rich black Nero di Seppia Spaghetti, pureed beetroot and you will create a rich red/purple beetroot pasta, spinach or herbs can also be finely chopped or blended and added to pasta too. So many possibilities!

This weekend I made spinach and ricotta ravioli with a sage and butter sauce, here's how...

Ingredients
(Serves 2, but could easily be doubled)
For the pasta-
150g 00 flour
50g semolina flour
3 large eggs- 2 for the dough and 1 beaten for sticking the sheets together later

For the filling-
50g cooked spinach, water squeezed out and finely chopped
100g ricotta cheese
1 egg yolk
pinch nutmeg
pinch each salt and pepper

For the sauce-
200ml vegetable stock (made with a stock pot and pasta water)
50g butter
12 sage leaves
Parmesan, grated to serve

Method
1. In a large bowl, or on your worktop if your brave with the mess, create a volcano shape from the flour and crack the eggs into the middle.

2. Using a fork, begin to stir the flour into the eggs, starting in the centre and working your way out, bringing in more of the flour as you go.

3. Get your hands in and bring it together into a ball of dough, knead on a work surface for 15 minutes, add a little flour to the work top to stop it sticking if you need to, but try not to add too much and dry it out.

4. Once your dough has reached a lovely smooth consistency, wrap it tightly in cling film and pop in the fridge for half an hour in order th let the gluten relax and make it more malleable.

5. Meanwhile, prepare your filling. Combine the spinach, ricotta, egg yolk, nutmeg and salt and pepper in a small bowl, and place in the fridge until needed.

6. Once the pasta dough has rested, get your machine set up, on the widest setting (number 1 on my machine), on a worktop with plenty of space and split the dough into 4 small balls.

7. Take one of the balls at a time, keeping the others covered with the clingfilm so as not to dry out, and begin to squash it between your hands to flatten it out into an oval shape.

8. Turn the handle on the machine and feed the dough into it, rolling the dough thinner. Fold over the edges and pass it back through on the widest setting a few times, until you have a fairly rectangular shape.

9. Decrease the width between the rollers by turning the knob on the side to the higher numbers, one setting at a time, passing the pasta through once with each decrease. Your sheet of pasta will become thinner and longer. Keep doing this until your pasta is almost as thin as the machine will allow, I went for setting number 8 on my machine.
Holly's hints- If it begins to stick together, dust it with a little semolina, this shouldn't be absorbed or dry it out as much as flour as you can brush it off later.

10. Cut the sheet in half width ways, so you have 2 sheets of pasta.

11. Place heaped teaspoons of the filling, evenly spaced with about 4cm between them, along the length of one of the sheets of pasta, then brush the other with beaten egg.

12. Carefully lay the egg washed pasta, egg side down, on top of the sheet with the filling on.
Holly's hints- start at the back (the long edge of the pasta sheet) and carefully press further forward around the blobs of filling, trying to eliminate any air holes. Press down gently around the filling to seal.

13. Use the ravioli stamp to cut out the ravioli shapes, and place on a sheet cling film dusted with semolina.

Repeat steps 7-13 three more times, until all of the pasta is used up, you should have around 16 parcels.

The ravioli can be kept in the fridge for up to 24 hours but it is best cooked up immediately.

14. Bring a pan of salted water to the boil, and drop in your ravioli, bring back to the boil and cook for no more than 3 minutes.

15. Meanwhile, melt the butter in a small saucepan with the sage leaves, add half a stock pot and ladle in approximately 200ml pasta water from the other pan, stir gently to dissolve the stock pot.

16. Drain and serve up the ravioli in pasta bowls, before spooning over the sauce and grating over plenty of parmesan cheese.

Enjoy the benefits of your hard work!