Freshly Rolled Ravioli Pasta

Sweet Potato & Pumpkin Ravioli with Thyme and Poppy Butter Sauce

Beetroot Mascarpone Ravioli with fresh Pesto Sauce

Spinach, Garlic and Ricotta and Rich Bolognese Cannelloni

On Sunday night I hosted a Pasta Making night with my new Pasta Roller I got for my birthday. We invited all the new interns that will be at Dubbo Base Hospital for the next two years - Kelly Greentree, Joel Petite, Chrissie Hayden, Dan Bunker, and Beth was visiting for the weekend who also came along to help.

Kelly and Joel came over early and helped me make the dough, and eggs were flying everywhere. Lots of fun.

The dough recipe we used is a simple but versatile Jamie Oliver recipe:

Pasta Dough

600g Strong Flour (high protien, high gluten, triple sifted)

6 free range organic eggs

1/2 tsp salt

Method

Sift flour onto table with salt, make a well, add eggs, mix in with hands and knead for up to 10 mins until it is a silky texture. Add flour along the way if it gets sticky. Cover with plastic wrap and refridgerate 30 mins.

Once we kneaded and put the dough in the fridge to rest, we went foraging in our garden of pots for fresh herbs. We collected Marjoram, Parsely, Coriander, Rosemary, Dill, Thyme and Basil. We then started to prepare the Ravioli fillings and the sauces together.

Daniel was in charge of the Pesto sauce which primarily used the herbs from our garden. Joel worked on the beetroot and mascarpone filling, Kelly did the Sweet Potato and Pumpkin filling (mashed by hand!) and I prepared the spinach and ricotta and bolognese fillings for the Cannelloni. I made these in advance because I thought it would be too much to do on the night - which worked well so I had time to do the sauces.

Beetroot and Mascarpone Ravioli Filling:
1.5 cups of cooked (boiled or baked) pureed beetroots (can use canned beets but these have more liquid)
200g Tamar Valley Tasmanian Mascarpone
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Wholemeal breadcrumbs
Salt and Pepper to taste

Method:

With a spoon, mix the Beetroot puree with the mascarpone and parmesan and add breadcrumbs to achieve a paste consistency (so it is not runny). Taste for seasoning.

Sweet Potato and Pumpkin Ravioli Filling:

1 red skinned sweet potato, skinned and roasted

1/2 butternut pumpkin, skinned and roasted

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1 tablespoon butter, room temperature

pinch of fresh grated nutmeg

pinch of mixed spice

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, finely grated

1/2 cup dried, fine breadcrumbs

Method:
Mash the Sweet Potato and Pumpkin and add the other ingredients, mixing well.

Spinach and Ricotta Cannelloni Filling;
Two handfuls spinach, wilted and chopped finely
200g fresh ricotta cheese
handful of marjoram leaves, chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
salt and pepper

Method:
Combine all ingredients in a bowl mixing well.

Rich Bolognese Ravioli Filling:
300g lean beef mince

5 tbsp tomato paste

1 tbsp dried oregano

1 tbsp red wine vinegar

2 tsp brown sugar

1/2 cup water

Olive oil
Salt and pepper

Method:
Fry the mince in olive oil till browned and add the oregano and sugar and let caramelise for 5 mins.
Add the tomato paste, red wine vinegar and seasoning, and fry for another 5 mins.
Add the water and simmer till reduced back to a thick rich paste.

Ravioli Herb Pesto (from the Garden)
2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, finely grated
½ tsp sea salt & 8 black peppercorns, ground
Two big handfuls fresh basil leaves

Two big handfuls fresh rocket

Few sprigs fresh parsely
1 tsp unsalted butter
Juice and zest from ½ lemon
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil to make a paste

Method:

Add all ingredients to the food processor, except the olive oil, and process till finely chopped. Add oil in a thin stream to the pesto until just combined. Dont process for too long because it may emulsify the olive oil and make it frothy.

Thyme and Poppy Butter sauce

2 tbsp butter

1 tbsp olive oil

1/4 cup poppy seeds

1/4 cup fresh thyme leaves

1 tbsp hot pasta cooking water

Method:
Fizz the butter in a saucepan on the stove then add the other ingredients and toss through fresh pasta.

Tomato Cannelloni Sauce
knob of butter
8 Fresh Roma Tomatoes
2 cloves garlic
1 cup hot water
pinch of sugar
salt and pepper

Method:
Fry the tomatoes in the butter on high heat to caramelise, about 5 mins.
Add the sugar and garlic and fry another 3 mins.
Add the salt, pepper and water and bring to a simmer, reducing down to a loose tomato sauce.

Spoon into Cannelloni baking tray and place Cannelloni tubes on top.

Tear basil and pour over the cream, finishing with parmesan and slices of mozarella.

After all our fillings and sauces were ready and extra ingredients laid out we started pasta rolling!

Joel already had experience with his own pasta roller so he was really good at judging when the dough was 'right' - when it was silky and worked well enough through the first setting that we could proceed down the thicknesses to get paper thin ravioli pasta.

Chrissie, Bunker and Beth also came over and joined in the pasta rolling, and everyone helped so I was really really impressed. The ravioli maker attachment didnt work very well at first because of a few possible reasons: we put too much filling in, the pasta sheets were not wide enough, we didnt flour the sheets enough to stop them sticking and we needed to roll through the double sheets a  bit before putting any filling in. Beth ended up cleaning it and successfully rolling out some little square ravioli!

We became really good at rolling the sheets of dough so we decided to start also making ravioli pillows by hand, because we could get more filling in that way! For one ball of dough we added finely chopped marjoram and then rolled it out and used it to make beetroot pillows.

The Cannelloni needed to go in the oven so we rolled out a long strip of plain dough and cut squares from it to roll the Spinach and Ricotta and the Bolognese fillings. The tomato sauce was spooned into Daniels new baking dish and the Cannelloni were placed on top, with cream, parmesan, torn basil and big slices of Mozzarella. Into the oven it went for 20 mins.

Meanwhile, Beth ended up working out how to use the ravioli maker without it sticking and got a few handfuls of little ravioli from it. They were good but very small and we had so much filling left so we decided to continure making more by hand (with a roller cutter to make zigzag edges) and that was fun to do. A few minutes in boling salted water and they were done! We tossed half in pesto and half in the Thyme and Poppy Butter sauces.

It had taken a bit longer than expected, so we were really hungry, and it was well worth the wait and the effort.

Cannelloni

The leftover Ravioli dough to make Semolina Spaghetti for another nights meal, by adding some semolina flour while rolling it out. It has made a wonderful rugged spaghetti, that will, I am sure, catch the sauce of a nice Rabbit Ragu I plan to make this weekend. 

Pumpkin Soup in a Pumpkin Pot

My friend Beth and her partner Daniel helped me make this big pumpkin pot of soup. It filled the house with warmth and caramely pumpkin smell yumm..

Ingredients:
1 brown onion
1 big jap pumpkin
2 carrots
1 bunch parsely
3 stalks celery
some parmesan
salt and pepper
4 cups vegetable stock
toasted cumin and coriander seeds (1 tsp each)

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C
1. Scrape out the pumpkin from inside to make a pot. leave enough pumpkin on the sides so it will hold itself up.
Place in a baking dish (better with sides that hold it up in case of collapse) and place lid back on. Drizzle with olive oil and put in oven.
3. Meanwhile, saute the onion with the seeds, then add in celery. Then add chopped carrot and pumpkin and stock.
4. Simmer till cooked and whiz in blender till smooth.
5. Add back to baked pumpkin and keep in oven till ready to serve!
Serve with freshly cracked black pepper, parmesan, parsely and warm crusty bread.

We were scraping off the insides of this yummy pumpkin as we scooped out the soup !

Pumpkin Pie

Two Types of Pumpkin Pie

The last two dinners I have cooked I have incorporated the lovely and mouldable mashed pumpkin. I have been experimenting and trying out my new recipies on Daniel, the studious medical student who needs lots of nutritious energy even though he says he would prefer just meat pies for every meal.

I also used sweet potato because they are like pumpkin to me - similar enough to assimilate into dishes where pumpkin is unavailable, and sweet.

First I made chicken Pumpkin pies:

I sauteed onion and garlic in olive oil and a little butter, then seared chicken mince, added stock, dry white wine and lastly after simmering, added fresh oregano from the garden! (a little cornflour or plain flour can be added to thicken this sauce since it is for a pie).

I then added this mixture to two little pre-prepared pie pots that were lined with filo pastry.

I then added seasoned, mashed sweet potato and pumpkin to the top and sprinkled with pepper, salt and feta cheese. Bake!

Big Pumpkin Pie

Recently I bought a whole rump - and proceeded to butcher it in our kitchen - nicely producing some big lovely cuts of steak and some off cuts for stews and curries. I thought, brilliant! I will use some to make a big pumpkin pie. I used mashed pumpkin to create the pastry and stewed the beef in a nice slow sauce for the filling.

Ingredietns:

1 cup cooked brown rice

1 onion, diced
1 carrot, diced
1 stick celery, diced
2 cloves garlic
500g diced beef
2 cups beef stock
1/2 a bottle of nice dark beer
2 tbsp tomato paste
2 tomatoes, diced
fresh and dried herbs
Olive oil

Method:
Saute onion in olive oil, add chopped carrot, celery and garlic and cook till transparent. Set aside.

Flour beef chunks and sear in olive oil until browned, add the onion mix with the beef stock and bring to a simmer. Add tomato paste, tomatoes and season to taste. Add fresh and dried herbs - thyme and orgeano and rosemary. Add other optional pie vegetables (I added peas because some get mushy in the cooking process and some retain their shape - they are always good in pies). Top up with adequate water to cover ingredients. Simmer for 1 hour while preparing the dough, topping up with water when neccesary.

Dough:

400g plain flour

250g mashed pumpkin

1 egg

Mix all together and knead well. Divide in 3rds. Roll out 2/3 and put in big greased pie dish. Bake for 10mins to crisp the base.

Pie Construction Method:
Add brown rice to the bottom - to catch the juices.

Add the beef stew.

Cover with remaining 1/3 pastry rolled out.

Bake for a while till brown.

Though Dan thought he was getting the sweet pumpkin pie for dinner....i.e. Dessert for dinner - he was annoyed! Niketh liked it though.