Since I haven’t posted for a while, here’s a photo while I get back on my bike. Spaghetti carbonara. Home made pasta tossed with grana padano. Prosciutto briefly pan-fried. Egg cooked sous vide on 63C for an hour. Fresh thyme.
Perfect.
Pumpkin and Goat Cheese Ravioli
We have a glut of pumpkin. Last night I made this easy and tasty cheat’s ravioli using gow gees dumpling pastry.
This made about 18 ravioli which is enough for 3 people. The quantities are all very approximate!
2.5 to 3 cups of roast pumpkin
100gms of soft goat cheese
2 to 3 tbsp grated parmesan cheese
1/4 cup pine nuts
Salt and pepper
You can vary the pumpkin and cheese ratio to your taste.
Mix these together well. You can also add something else – some grated nutmeg or lemon zest or a pinch or paprika or a few chopped sage leaves.
Make the ravioli, of course. Seal the edges with a little water.
Melt 1/3 cup of butter in a saucepan with 12-15 sage leaves (you may need to make more than one batch). Cook on medium heat until the butter is starting to brown and the sage leaves are crispy. Pour the butter into a bowl so it doesn’t keep cooking. You can warm it later if needed.
Cook the ravioli in gently simmering water. It will only take a couple of minutes.
Serve with the burnt butter and sage leaves and some shaved parmesan.
Spinach and Ricotta Gnocchi
Here’s a different way to make ricotta gnocchi from my previous Ricotta Gnocchi with Scampi Tails. This comes from the brilliant Zuni Cafe Cookbook by Judy Rodgers. The book is packed with great descriptions of method. Whereas the previous recipe mixed the ricotta with flour, this one simply rolls the cheese mixture in flour.
Ingredients
500g ricotta, well drained. I used local Blue Bay Cheese which was smooth and dry – perfect.
2-3 handfuls spinach leaves
2 large eggs, cold – gently beaten
1 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1 tbsp chopped fresh chives (not in recipe)
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup grated parmesan or grana padano
00 flour
Sauce
Butter
Sage leaves
Option chopped bacon…
Gnocchi, Proscuitto & Feta
My basic gnocchi recipe comes from Philip Johnson’s fabulous book classic e’cco and I’ve previously blogged about it here. I love making gnocchi and am finally confident about it. I’ve been very light on the flour and the amount of mixing, but this last time have been increasing it a bit as the last couple of attempts were a bit too much like mashed potato!
Here I have it with a tomato sauce, soft persian feta, proscuitto and fresh basil.
Johnson has a recipe which involves making a tomato sauce but on this occasion I used a bottled one. However I adopted a trick of his which made it zing.
Put 100ml good quality balsamic vinegar in a saucepan and reduce until syrupy. Add 2 1/2 tbsp butter and stir. Then add your tomato sauce. This makes the sauce very rich with a delicious sweet-sourness to it.
His recipe uses goat cheese and I didn’t have any but the creamy feta worked fine.
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