Mushroom Ravioli

So, I had may amazing home grown mushrooms (from the Espresso Mushroom Company) and being Easter weekend, I had a bit more time to make something special. Time to break out the pasta machine. I love making pasta, especially filled pasta, but dear god, it really does take time and it's a real fiddle.

It's not the best thing to do for a big dinner because it's so labour intensive and quite last minute. This means you end up in the kitchen freaking out whilst your guests sit around the table laughing and having fun. It's also a lot of effort for one person. It's kind of a couples thing I suppose. Whoever would have thought being single would preclude you having pasta? Well sod this, I'm just going to make it for me.

If you've not tried filling your own pasta, you have time and can be bothered to get a few pieces of kit, it really is delicious. I've tried to buy fresh filled pasta and no matter what flavour you buy and where from, it always just seems to be full of brown paste. When you fill your own you get fresh ingredients and textures that you can differentiate between.

You will need a pasta machine, a ravioli press or cutter and be able to get your hands on some 00 flour.

I think that coming up with ravioli recipes is quite challenging. Not only do you have to think of something beautiful to go in the middle but also something to complement that, to go on top. The sauce to top the pasta is usually simpler than a regular pasta sauce and can sometimes be as simple as butter and herbs. However, that feels like a cop out to me and I always seem to be struggling to come up with something a little more interesting. Previous attempts have included sun blushed tomato and mozzarella filling with butter, white wine, chorizo, parmesan and parsley topping.

One of the things I liked about this recipe was that I discovered that nutmeg, tarragon and mushroom work really well together. I think I would have assumed before that they would have been too strong. The topping I made consisted of the sauce and then topped with toasted chopped hazelnuts, parmesan, chopped fresh rocket and tarragon. I think in retrospect I might have used parsley as it might have been a bit more delicate. I loved the hazelnuts though, lovely flavour and crunch being a nice alternative from the gremolata I would normally use.

As before, the espresso mushrooms really made the dish, but I think it could have taken more of the porcini powder, especially as I meant to use it in the sauce too and forgot.

This didn't really fit with the healthy eating regime but it was kind of OK as a weekend treat. If I'd not been concerned with fat content I might have used double cream rather than single and used bit more butter, pancetta and parsesan, but to be honest it was fine how it was. So, here's the recipe. Fiddly but worth it...

Mushroom and Tarragon Ravioli with Butter Cream Sauce

For the pasta:
100g 00 flour
1 egg
1/2 tablespoon of olive oil

For the Filling:

6 Pearl oyster mushrooms

1 largish chestnut mushroom

1 tablespoon of dried girolles (softened in boiling water, keep the water)

1/2 shallot

1 clove of garlic

2 teaspoons of butter

1 1/2 tablespoon of chopped tarragon

1 tablespoon of single cream

1/2 teaspoon of porcini powder

salt and pepper

large pinch of nutmeg

For the sauce:

30g pancetta cubes
splash or white wine
2 teaspoons of butter

2 tablespoons of single cream

1 tablespoon of parmesan

10 hazelnuts
fresh chopped rocket and tarragon to finish

Squeeze of lemon

Start by making the pasta. You do this by mixing the flour and egg, I used a magimix for this, then adding the oil until it comes into a dough. Knead for a about five minutes on an oiled surface. Then wrap in cling film and rest in the fridge for an hour or so. Meanwhile make the filling.

Meanwhile make the filling. Very finely dice the shallot and soften in the butter until translucent. Crush the garlic into the pan and cook for a minute. Finely dice the fresh mushrooms and the soaked dried mushrooms and add to the frying pan. Season generously with salt, pepper, porcini powder and nutmeg and cook until the mushrooms are cooked. Once cooked add the cream and the tarragon and cook for just a minute or so more. Cool slightly.

When the pasta dough is rested you'l want to cut it into two pieces. You wont use all of the pasta for one person, probably just over half but you might as well roll it out and make the rest into tagliatelle. Then, using plenty of flour use the settings on the pasta machine to roll it out. You need to get flour everywhere. All over the machine and repeatedly flour the dough too. When you get towards the last few settings on the pasta machine the pasta can get very long and unwieldy and it can be easier to cut it in half. The aim is to end up with two pieces of pasta that are about the size of your ravioli press, the bottom piece being slightly larger is best.

To assemble the pasta, sprinkle the press with loads of flour and lay over the bottom sheet of pasta, pushing the pasta into the holes, gently. Fill the holes to the top with mushroom mixture, pressing down to expel any air. Wet the edges to allow the pasta to stick better then place the top layer of pasta on top. Press down again on top of the mushroom mixture to ensure no air pockets. If you seal air pockets in side the pasta parcels they puff up during cooking and can split the pasta. Press down around the edges to seal and then roll over the top with a rolling pin. The ravioli press has ridges that should cut the ravioli into pieces, but can sometimes need a little help. It should then be a fairly easy job to turn the pasta out of the press.

Place on a floured tray or plate until ready to cook.

To make the sauce start by browning the pancetta in a frying pan. When it's crispy add the wine and reduce down then add the butter to melt. I forgot to add garlic and porcini powder at this point but I think that would be good. Season and add the cream and a pinch of parmesan and warm through.

To cook the pasta, drop into boiling salted water and wait for the parcels to float to the top.

When the parcels are cooked, drain and mix the sauce with a spoonful of the cooking water and swirl through the pasta and tip into a bowl. Top with herbs, rocket, hazelnuts and parmesan.