Hello, Head Chef and Sous Baker here!
That's right! Both of us are contributing to the blog this week. Some of you will have seen a sneaky peak of our Ravioli on our last blog and we can't wait to be sharing it with you!
Our crab filling recipe has been adapted from Better Homes and Gardens, and the ravioli recipe is a trusty BBC Good Food recipe. We did need specialist equipment for this - we used a pasta machine and a ravioli cutter, but they are worth the investment.
This was one of the best Saturday night meals that we have had in a very long time! It was a great way to get everyone involved in the kitchen and we hope you love it as much as we did!
We learnt a few things whilst making this ravioli that we need to share with you. Firstly, it was a rookie mistake not to flour the board before the filling process began. So don't forget to flour!!! Secondly, we served this with a creamy white wine sauce. Whilst this tasted lovely, we have decided not to include the recipe here. This is because we felt that a lighter sauce would compliment it better. So watch this space!
Our biggest tip for making this is keep your dough cool! We separated our ravioli into 3 batches (each batch containing one serving). To make it easier to separate the pasta pieces, we found that cold dough was the best.
Makes 39 Ravioli.
Ingredients:
For Ravioli:
300g Italian '00' flour or Plain flour
3 Medium Eggs
2 Eggs, whisked for egg-wash.
For Crab Filling:
1/4 tsb Chilli flakes
1 Shallot
1 Small garlic clove
1 tsb Butter
8oz Crabmeat
1/4 tsb Lemon zest
1 tsb Lemon juice
1 tsb drained Capers
1/4 tsb fennel seeds, crushed
Salt and Pepper, to taste
Method:
1. Place the flour in a food processor. Add the eggs and keep pulsing until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs (it shouldn't be dusty, nor should it be a big, gooey ball). This only takes a minute.
2. Tip out the dough and knead to form into a ball shape. Knead for 1 minute, it should be quite stiff and hard to knead. Wrap in cling film and leave to rest in the fridge for 30 minutes before using. (The dough will keep for 24 hours in the fridge).
3. Now cut the dough into 3 pieces. Starting with the first piece, flatten with a rolling pin to about 5mm / 1/4inch) thickness. Dust the pasta with flour and pass it through the pasta machine at its widest setting, folding and rolling 7 times - Don't change the setting - until you have a rectangular shape 7.5x18cm / 3x7in. It is important to work the dough until it is nice and shiny, as this gives it the bouncy texture. Repeat with the second and third piece of dough.
4. Now it's time to roll out. Start with the pasta machine at its widest setting, pass the dough through the rollers. Do not fold but repeat this process, decreasing the roller setting down grade by grade with each pass. Take the pasta down to the penultimate setting as with ravioli you are sandwiching two layers together when it is folded.
5. Place your rolled out dough onto a floured surface and cut using the ravioli cutter.
6. Place cut out squares onto a floured plate and place straight into the fridge under clingfilm.
7. Repeat steps 3-6 with the second and third pieces of dough. Keep in the fridge until you are ready to fill.
8. When ready to fill ravioli, prepare the filling. In a frying pan, fry the onion and garlic in hot butter over a medium heat until the shallots are browned - this shouldn't take long.
9. Stir in the crabmeat, lemon peel, lemon juice, capers, fennel seeds and salt and pepper. Take off the heat once it's cooked through.
10. Flour your surface with flour - plain flour will do.
11. Take one batch of ravioli from the fridge and set out all the bottoms onto the floured surface. Use a teaspoon to fill each one, being careful not to overfill.
12. Once the bottoms are all filled, egg wash the sides of each ravioli and apply the lids.
13. Crimp the sides - this is best done with a fork and use a knife to keep the edges clean and the filling inside.
14. Transfer the finished ravioli back into the fridge whilst you complete the other batches.
15. Repeat steps 11 to 14 until each batch is ready. Keep each batch in the fridge until they're ready to be cooked.
16. Bring a pan of water to the boil and cook your first batch for 1 - 2 minutes.The ravioli are ready when they have risen to the surface and are tender.
17. Cook the rest of your batches and serve with our Green Salad recipe.
As you can see from the first image, we served this with our Green Salad with Walnut and Bacon Dressing, which we published on our last blog. We found that we had almost half the crab mixture left after filling. This would be perfect to go with a salad the day after, or even with a jacket potato for lunch! Or you could simply halve the recipe provided.
We can't wait to see you in the kitchen making this surprisingly easy recipe - so don't forget to tag @rousties!
Until next time,
Head Chef and Sous Baker x
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