Ravioli

Pasta - infamously difficult to make, yes? Well, maybe not. You can make pretty good pasta, without the aid of a pasta maker, and pretty quickly too. Filling experimentation is also fun (we made this one up ourselves): try pumpkin and nutmeg, parma ham and cheese, mushroom, spinach and ricotta, chicken or sweet potato for starters. (Use the fresh stuffed pasta in supermarkets for inspiration!) This recipe is for mozzarella and sudried tomato, yum yum :)

Ravioli
Prep time: 40 minutes
Serves: 2

Ingredients 
For the ravioli:
150g strong bread flour
2 small eggs, beaten
1/2 tsp olive oil
For the filling:
1/2 small egg, beaten
120g grated mozerella
25g finely grated parmesan
6 sundried tomatoes
2 tbsps spicy tomato salsa (optional)
Ground black pepper
Italian herb mixture
Parmesan shavings, to serve

Method

1. To make the pasta dough - sift the flour into a large bowl and make a well in the middle.Pour in the eggs and oil and work in,
   
    using a circlar motion, with a metal spoon to make a soft dough. Then, knead for 10 minutes until it is smooth and elastic (it shouldn't be sticky, if so add a little more flour - this usually happens if the eggs are too big.) Oil a plastic freezer bag lightly and leave the pasta dough to rest inside for 3 minutes, at room temperature. Move on to the filling.
   
2. Finely chop the sundried tomatoes and combine in a bowl with the other ingredients. You could whizz to a smooth paste if you want or leave it chunky. Season with pepper and herbs and mix well. 
   
3. Flour or oil a work surface very well. Divide the pasta dough into two and roll out into very thin strips, until you can almost see through the pasta.
   
   
   
   Ours broke up and we just did lots of little strips, it doesn't matter as long as you have two that are roughly the same size to place onto of each other with the filling in between. 
4. Drop teaspoons of the mixture onto one strip, evenly spaced out and 7.5cm apart. Brush round with a little water and lay over the other sheet of pasta.
   
   Press down around the mounds gently to seal them, and cut out either with a pastry wheel, (for wavy edges), a sharp knife or a square shaped cookie cutter (we used one with the wavy edges :) ) You should get about 12. Place on a plate as you make them, but don't stack or they'll stick to each other and you may want to oil/flour the plate so they come off easily.
   
   
   
5. Boil a pan of water and cook the ravioli in batches for 2-3 minutes. If they're sealed properly, they should float and not burst (but will taste just as nice if they do.) 
   
6. Serve with Parmesan cheese and seasoning, and a salad. You could garnish with some basil to complete the look.