Salmon Cottage Cheese Ravioli with a Dill Caper sauce

Its been quite some time since I rolled out pasta on the pasta machine, and with some fresh cottage cheese and dill lying at home, this recipe was just calling out to me. The ravioli stuffing a simple salmon and cottage cheese mousse, with a little dill and smoked paprika seasoning. The original recipe called for ricotta, but fresh drained cottage cheese has the same texture and feel.  Dill and Salmon are perfect pairs, with the capers adding a nice acidity to the dish. The ravioli requires most of the leg work, and they can be made in advance and frozen in batches. This recipe used one cup of flour, and made nine raviolis, which is enough for one person.

Ingredients

Ravioli

• 1 cup wheat flour
• 1 egg
• 2 tbsp flour for dusting
• 1/2 cup fresh drained cottage cheese
• 1/2 cup flaked pink salmon
• 1 tbsp chopped dill
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp water mixed in with 1 tsp flour
• Salted water with tsp of vegetable to boil the ravioli

Dill Caper sauce

• 1 cup milk
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 tbsp caper
• 1 tbsp chopped dill
• 1 tsp salt

Method

Ravioli

1. Mix the flour, egg and salt and make a soft dough. Wrap in cling-film, and keep in the fridge for at least an hour.
2. Blitz the salmon, cottage cheese, dill, oil, salt and paprika to make a thick smooth mousse. Keep it thick as its easier to handle and stuff in the ravioli.
3. Roll out the dough on a pasta machine, till the eight setting. Cut out circles of 2 inch diameter.
4. Spoon a teaspoon of the salmon cheese mixture into the centre of one circle, baste the edges with the water-flour mixture and place a second circle on top. Press down the edges to seal the ravioli, and place on a lightly floured board. 
5. Once the ravioli cases are made, bring a pot of salted water to a boil and add the ravioli cases. Avoid over-loading the pot, and limit it to three ravioli cases per round.
6. Boil for a minute each, until the ravioli cases float up and are cooked through.
7. Remove and keep aside in an oiled strainer.
8. Heat butter in a pan, and once it starts frothing, add the capers and dill. Lower the heat and let it steep for a minute. Then add the milk and salt and bring to a boil.
9. Add the ravioli and spoon the sauce over. Bring to a boil and take off the heat.
10. Serve up with a slice of lime. 

Capellini with Sea Bass

Strings of thin capellini are great with roasts, as they mop up the juices of the roasting vegetables and meat. These little shoestrings should be made with finely ground flour, as the high gluten content of flour helps hold it together. This dish is a simple salad of crusted sea-bass with roast tomatoes, over a bed of capellini. The capellini can just as simply be substituted with any thin pasta, like macaroni or farfale, as its purpose to simply soak up the flavour of the fish and the tomato. 

Ingredients

Capellini

• 2 cups fine white flour
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp salt

Roast

• 500g skinless sea bass cubes, preferably with bones
• 2 tbsp butter
• 4 tbsp olive oil
• 6 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 tsp chili flakes
• 3 tbsp breadcrumbs
• 1 small bunch coriander, chopped
• 4 small tomatoes, cubed
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1 lemon

Method

Capellini

1. Mix the flour, salt and eggs together to create a stiff dough. Add a little water it needed, and then wrap it in cling film and keep it aside for 30 minutes.
2. Cut into quarters, and gradually roll out one quarter on a pasta-machine, flouring at each roll to keep it from sticking. Thin it down to the 8th setting, just one off the thinnest setting.
3. Run through the capellini cutter and boil immediately in salted water. 
4. Boil for 10-12 seconds, and keep aside with a little oil to keep it from sticking.

Roast

1. Melt the butter with the olive oil, and add it to the breadcrumbs, chill flakes, garlic and coriander. Beat together create a thick paste.
2. Heat an oven to 240C/gas mark 8.
3. Clean the fish and salt it with a pinch. Keep aside for ten minutes.
4. Add the fish to a  roasting tin and pour on the bread-crumbs paste. Toss around to make sure that it coats the fish.
5. Toss in the tomatoes and roast in the oven for 12-15 minutes, until the fish is cooked through.
6. Once cooked, flake the fish and remove the bones. 
7. Toss the capellini in the roasting pan and create a little bed. Add the tomatoes and flaked fish on top and juice a lemon before serving.

Vermicelli Aglio, Olio e Peperoncino

Fresh pasta in a simple herb dressing is divine. Last time I used the fettuccine attachment in the pasta maker, sot this time I had to play around with the vermicelli attachment. On the first try, I made the pasta sheet a little too thin, and the vermicelli strands ended up sticking together and turning into a lump. So while making vermicelli, thin the pasta sheet to level 5 on the machine, and keep it well floured at each turn. The dressing for a pasta is a simple olive oil infused with garlic, red chilies and parsley.

Ingredients

Pasta

• 2 cups fine semolina
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 2 eggs
• salt to taste

Dressing

• 2 dried red chilies, thickly sliced
• 6 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
• 1 small bunch parsley, chopped
• 6 tbsp olive oil

Method

1. Make a soft dough with the pasta ingredients, and add a little water if its too dry. Pound and knead the dough down to release the gluten.
2. Wrap in cling film and place in the fridge to rest for 30 minutes to an hour.
3. Heat the olive oil in a thick bottomed pan, and add the garlic. 
4. Cook for a minute and add the red chilies. Fry for another minute and take off the heat.
5. Add the parsley, stir around and leave aside to infuse for at least 30 minutes.
6. Take the dough out of the fridge, and knead down again. Split into two sections and roll out one on a floured surface. 
7. Lightly flour the dough on both sides and roll through the pasta machine. Keep flouring both sides of the pasta sheet after each roll.
8. Once the pasta sheet is rolled out to level 5 (around 0.5 cm), run through the vermicelli attachment. Toss the vermicelli strands lightly to separate them out and add some flour to keep them from sticking. Repeat with remaining dough.
9. Heat a pan of salted water and once boiling, add the vermicelli strands. Shake lightly to separate out each strand and cook for 1 minute, until the vermicelli is just cooked.
10. Drain, and while still warm, toss in the dressing. Add a tablespoon of the cooking liquor and toss around to make sure that the dressing evenly covers the vermicelli strands.
11. Tuck in immediately with a little bread to mop up the dressing.

Fresh Fettuccine with a Zucchini Marinara sauce

Fresh pasta has this tenderness and and unctuousness that store bought pasta can scarcely compare with. I bought a pasta machine last week and had to try it out this weekend. Fresh pasta needs a lot of "love", ergo a lot of pounding and stretching, to make as it uses hard summer wheat but needs the glutinous flexibility of winter wheat. So be prepared to exercise those dormant muscles in your hands and arms as they're in for quite a workout while making the dough. 

For the sauce, I used a simple marinara, with the addition of some zucchini and bacon for that little textual lift. For a vegetarian version you can omit the bacon entirely, and add some crisp onion as a garnish at the end for a little crispiness.

Ingredients

Fettuccine

• 4 cups fine wheat semolina, or hard wheat flour
• 5 eggs
• 1 tsp salt
• Extra plain flour for dusting
• Vegetable oil for oiling

Marinara Sauce

• 6 whole tomatoes
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 5 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp pepper
• salt to taste
• 1/2 a zucchini, chopped into thick quarters
• 3 rashers of back bacon, roughly chopped

Method

Fettuccine

1. Mix the eggs, salt and semolina together and knead into a firm dough. You shouldn't need any extra water, but in case the dough is a little loose add a little plain flour to kelp bind it together
2. Once the dough is made, place it on a floured workplace and oil your fingers. Then punch the dough down and stretch it out with the base of your palms. Roll it back and stretch it out again. Working this way with the dough will get the wheat germ to release its gluten.
3. Keep working on the dough until its springy to touch; which should take around 10 minutes of kneading. Then wrap in cling-film and let it rest for at least 30 minutes.
4. Once rested split into 8 sections, and take one while keeping the rest under cling film to prevent it from drying out.
5. I used a pasta-machine, so roll it out until the pasta sheet is around 1 mm in thickness (setting 7). Then cut it out into fettuccine strips and boil in salted water. Keep the dough and fettuccine strips lightly floured to keep it from sticking. 
6. The fettuccine when cut would appear to be bunched together, but they would separate out when boiling. Just lightly shake it just as you add it to the boiling water and it will separate out.
7. Cook until its just cooked and just firm to touch, which should take around 2-3 minutes. Drain and lightly oil.
8. Repeat with the remaining pieces of dough.

Marinara sauce

1. Score the top of the tomatoes crosswise and boil until completely cooked. Remove and keep under cold water, then peel the skin off the tomatoes.
2. Add the boiled and skinned tomatoes to a food processor along with the oregano, thyme and paprika. Grind until you get the desired texture, such as keeping it chunky or smoothening it out.
3. Heat the olive oil in a pan and add the chopped garlic and onions.
4. Fry until the onions turn translucent and add the zucchini. Fry and cook the zucchini and add the white wine.
5. Stew on a high flame and add the ground tomato.
6. Add the pepper, basil and some salt to taste and bring the sauce to a boil. Then lower the flame to medium and let it stew. I like my marinara sauce to be thick and thus I cook the sauce uncovered. If your cooking it uncovered, keep stirring it periodically to prevent it from burning. Once cooked remove from heat and keep covered.
7. Fry the chopped bacon on high heat and in its own fat. Add the crisp bacon to the sauce and mix in in.
8. Create a base of fettuccine and ladle the sauce over. Serve up and dig in.

Fuzi with a bacon and garlic sauce

Fresh pasta just has a different feel and tenderness. And with the freedom to shape it as you wish, it adds a textual lift to any pasta dish. I haven't tried shaping pasta before, so the fuzi that I've made here are a little misshapen, but they make for a lovely lunch, especially with a simple bacon garlic sauce. I remember seeing these made in Anthony's Bourdain's fishy feast around Istria, and when dressed with white truffles and cream, they looked delectable. Fresh pasta is typically served up with a thick sugo of chicken and game meats, but I'm not a big fan of heavy meaty sauces for lunch.

I've used smoked bacon in this dish, but it can just as easily be substituted with mushrooms. Also, I rolled and cut these out by hand, and thus they've ended up in a little  varied in size. 

Ingredients

Pasta

• 1 cup whole wheat
• 1 cup semolina or hard wheat flour
• 2 eggs
• Water

Sauce

• 2 rashers of bacon, chopped
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1/2 tbsp olive oil

Method

Pasta

1. Mix the eggs, wheat and semolina together and add a little water to make a soft dough. Leave aside to rest for 30 minutes.
2. Roll out the dough into a thin sheet and cut out 1-1.5 inch squares.
3. Take one pair of opposing corners of a square and pinch it together, leaving a . An alternate folding style is to cut the square along the diagonal to create two triangle, and pinch the three edges together at the top to create a little cap. 
4. Boil the pasta in salted water till its just cooked. Add a little vegetable oil and rub it into the pasta to keep it from sticking.

Sauce

1. Heat the oil in a pan, and add the bacon. Crispen the bacon and add the garlic. 
2. Keep stirring to prevent the garlic from burning. Cook until the garlic releases its aromatic oil, and add the milk.
3. Reduce the heat, add the paprika and salt to taste. Let the sauce stew for 2-3 minutes to let the flavours meld together.
4. Add the pasta, and toss around. Serve up hot and right off the stove.