Three Cheese Ravioli with Sage Brown Butter

Hubby and I have enjoyed some much needed time off work this week but in the lead up to Christmas we decided to stay close to home.  The only real plans we have had is to take each day as it comes and see where it takes us ... I love holidays like that!  Wednesday wasn't a particularly nice day so we vegged out at home, Hubby caught up with the PlayStation and I finally managed to watch Chocolat on DVD.  Such a wonderful movie ... although the title of this post may have given away that I didn't head into the kitchen with a bag of chocolate nor was a French cookbook in sight!

Instead, I decided to break out my new pasta machine ~ going for much cheapness at Morrison's ... its not exactly a whizz bang brand but I thought it would do the trick to get me started ;0)

Basic Pasta Recipe
200g '00' flour, plus a little extra if you need it
2 large eggs
1 tsp fine salt

Sift the flour into a mound onto a work surface, or into a large bowl.  Break the eggs into the centre.  Blend eggs into the flour with a fork, then use your hand to slowly work in flour until a paste forms in the middle.  Keep going, until you have a rough textured dough.

Dust the work surface and your hands with flour.  Hold dough with one hand, push down and away from you with the heel of other hand, then fold back towards you.  Repeat for 10 mins, giving it a quarter turn each time, until smooth and elastic.  Wrap in cling film then leave to rest in the fridge for 30 mins.

Making with a pasta machine
Set the rollers to their widest setting, then cut the dough into 4.  Flatten one piece and roll it through machine.  Fold it into three, give it a quarter turn and roll it through again.  Repeat three or more times, until smooth and an even shape.  Reduce opening of machine one notch and roll sheets through.

Continue this process, reducing a notch each time until the pasta is smooth and thin.  cut the dough with a knife to shape, or run the pasta through the preferred cutter on your machine.  Repeat with the remaining dough.

Three Cheese Ravioli with Sage Brown Butter
100g ricotta
100g blue cheese
50g finely grated parmesan, plus shavings to serve
1 quantity of fresh pasta dough, rolled and left in sheets (recipe above)
50g butter
8 sage leaves

Mix together the ricotta, blue cheese and parmesan in a bowl.  Season with some black pepper.

Cut out 7cm squares (I opted for circles with a cookie cutter!) from each sheet of pasta dough.  Knead trimmings together, re roll and cut out more squares.

Spoon a little of the cheese mixture into the centre of half the pasta squares.  Dampen the edges of each square with a little water, then top with remaining pasta squares. Using fingers or a fork, press edges together to seal.  Arrange on a tray dusted with flour, not letting ravioli touch each other, until ready to cook.

Melt the butter in a small pan on low heat.  Add the sage leaves (mine were massive so I tore them up before adding them to the butter), then cook for 2 mins, until butter is lightly browned and sage leaves are crisp.  Meanwhile, cook ravioli in batches in a large saucepan of boiling, salted water for about 5 mins, until al dente.  Drain thoroughly and toss with sage butter.  Serve immediately, topped with the parmesan shavings.

Serves 4
Good Food Home Cooking Series - Italian

This meal was perfect for a rainy-do-nothing kind of a day .... but it did take me two hours from beginning to end and I did get to the point where I was sick to death of rolling the pasta dough out that I maybe didn't use all of it ... or the filling (but shhhhhhhhhh, don't tell Hubby)!  Besides, the clock was ticking ever closer to time for the new Masterchef Australia of which I am totally hooked on again, and I couldn't miss the show as it was the night of the team challenge ... and I do so love the team challenges!!  So next time I'll make sure its another lazy day and I'll start it much sooner.

That said though, I was well chuffed with myself for producing home made ravioli.  I had visions of the little blighters bursting open in the pan of boiling water and all we'd end up with for dinner was water laden pasta circles covered in sage butter and parmesan ... but to my utter joy this didn't happen and it was really very tasty.  Hubby absolutley lapped it up, a sure sign of success!  This is defo on my must make again list and now I can't wait to try out some more recipes with homemade pasta ;0)