These flavours go so well together! A perfect vegetarian pasta dish!
I’ve made fresh pasta before, but this was the first time I tried ravioli. Making tagliatelle is pretty, easy, just cut the pasta sheets in to long strips, ravioli is a bit more work. It didn’t go totally as planned the first round but the 2nd round already went much better. The trick is to either do it with 2 people, or if you’re by yourself (like I was), work with smaller sheets. Anyway, the main thing is making sure there are no air pockets in the ravioli cushions and that they’re sealed properly.
There is also a little video on Instagram post showing how I folded the raviolis, although good to mention: the egg wash should have been brushed on the pasta sheet before I added the filling, oops!
If you’re not in the mood for making your own pasta, which I totally understand, you can also get ready made fresh pasta sheets at your supermarket, then you can skip straight to the filling part!
Lemon & Ricotta Ravioli with Sautéed Cavolo Nero & Mixed Mushrooms
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Loading...Ingredients
- Pasta (see notes)
- 2 cups 00 flour
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 tsp olive oil
- 4 whole eggs, 2 egg yolks
- 2 egg whites set aside
- Ravioli Filling
- 1 tub ricotta (250 g)
- zest from 2 lemons
- 1 heaped tbsp grated parmesan
- Pepper & Salt for seasoning
- 1 egg yolk
- Sautéed vegetables
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 shallot, finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
- 250 - 300 g mixed mushrooms
- 150 - 200 g cavolo nero or kale
- 1/4 cup vegetable stock
- 1 tbsp pine nuts
- Pepper & Salt
Instructions
The Filling (5 minutes)
Mix all the ingredients together, apart from the egg yolk.
Taste and season to your liking.
When you're happy with the flavour mix through the egg yolk.
Set aside in the fridge until you're ready to use it.
The Pasta dough (20 minutes)
Place 00 flour onto a cold surface and use a fork to make a well in the middle, kind of like a vulcano.
Season the center with salt and add the olive oil.
Crack the eggs into a bowl and lightly whisk.
Add a third of the eggs into the well and with your fork, working from outside to inside, gradually mix the flour with the eggs. Make sure you don't break the barrier (the vulcano walls).
When eggs have been soaked up by the flour, add another third and repeat. The dough will still look messy and crumbly at this stage.
Create another well in the middle and add the rest of the eggs, combining until the dough looks like crumbs.
Once the eggs are incorporated, flour your hands and start bringing the dough together, forming a ball. I suggest also using a scraper for this.
Continue to flour your hands and knead the dough until firm and elastic, ± 10 minutes. If the dough is too sticky add more flour, but do this in small amounts, a dough that's too dry is harder to fix.
A tip to knead: press the dough down with the ball of your hand, then fold the dough over itself, twist 45 degrees and repeat.
When done wrap in cling film and place in the fridge for at least 20 minutes, but you can even make this a day ahead or freeze it at this stage for later use.
Rolling out the pasta (20 minutes)
Cut the ball of dough in quarters, cover and reserve the pieces you are not immediately using to prevent from drying out.
Dust the counter and dough with a little flour.
Press the dough into a rectangle and roll it through a pasta machine 2 times at the widest setting.
Pull the sheet of dough with the palm of your hand as it emerges from the rollers.
Reduce the setting and crank the dough through again, 2 times.
Repeat this until the narrowest setting. The dough should be very thin and slightly see through.
Dust the sheets of dough with flour so they don't stick.
Repeat with another quarter of pasta, and set aside.
Filling the pasta - also see my video on Instagram (± 15 minutes)
Lay out a sheet on your floured work surface, you will be folding this sheet double to create the ravioli, so you only need to place filling on half of the sheet.
Add a tablespoon of water to the egg whites and whisk it in.
Brush the top surface of half of the pasta sheet with the egg wash, this will work as a glue.
On this half, drop ± 2 teaspoons of your filling onto the sheet, about 5 cm apart. You should be able to place 5-6 portions of filling on this half.
Pick up the dry side of the sheet and, working from the middle, slowly cover the fillings with the pasta sheet. Work 1 filling at a time, making sure there are no air bubbles around the filling.
Repeat until you get to the end.
Cut the ravioli's out with a knife or a cutter and seal the edges with a fork to make sure they are properly sealed.
Dust a tray with with corn flour to prevent from sticking, and lay the raviolis on this to dry.
Repeat with the second sheet.
If you're happy with the amount you can place the rest of the pasta dough, tightly wrapped in plastic and sealed in an airtight container, in the freezer. Or make more!
The ravioli will take 4 minutes to cook, see below, but better to start on your vegetables first.
The Sautéed Vegetables (± 12 minutes)
Heat a skillet and in the dry pan, toast your pine nuts. Set aside when done.
Heat a drop of olive oil and melt a small knob of butter in the skillet.
Add the mushrooms and Sauté on 1 side, don't move them around (this will make the moisture come out of the mushrooms and go bit soggy), but let them caramelize, ± 3 minutes.
Give them a flip and let caramelize on the other side. Again, don't mix them around too much.
After ± 2 minutes add the shallots and garlic, stir through, and let sauté for another 2-3 minutes.
Add the cavolo nero (or kale) and stir fry it through until wilted, ± 2 minutes.
Deglaze the pan with the vegetable stock and liquid reduce to about a third, then you're ready to serve. Turn down the heat while you cook your pasta.
Finalizing the Dish (± 10 minutes)
Bring a large pan of well salted water to the boil, there should be enough room for the ravioli to float around in.
One by one carefully pick up the ravioli by hand and drop them into the boiling water. You might need to do it in 2 o 3 batches, depending on the size of your pan.
Place 5-6 ravioli on a plate, layer the vegetable mix on top, sprinkle over the pine nuts, some parmesan cheese, a drizzle of olive oil and some freshly cracked black pepper.
Notes
The pasta recipe is for 4 people, but the rest of the ingredients are for 2 people. I always like to make extra pasta and then freeze half for later use. Always handy to have lying around! If you'd rather just make for 2 then you can halve the recipe for the pasta.
