Having had two days out of the kitchen, I was most eager to dive back in for another day at the office. To add to the excitement, today’s menu was Italian, which is probably my favourite cuisine. I have a slight massive crush on everything Italian: the food, art, culture and so on. It’s something I can’t exactly explain, but only to say that I love it.
Pastas of all varieties adorned the menu and would soon find themselves on the serving table. Although all of them delicious, I was assigned the most beautiful of them all: ravioli with sage butter. The thought alone is a salivating one. I had been waiting for this day for a long time. Now that I know how it is made, I realise that I could have done it much sooner at home had I been a more confident cook.
Pasta recipes can vary greatly. Whilst all are flour based, other ingredients can include egg, semolina, oils, herbs, water, salt and so on. Given that I am writing this long after the day, I have since found my preferred recipe, which is simply flour and egg. It is a recipe accredited to Bocca di Lupo’s Jacob Kenedy, which requires 200g of pasta or ’00’ flour, 1 whole egg and three egg yolks. As you bring these together to form a pasta dough, it is most similar to bread and pastry as you have to get to know it. Although the recipe says 3 egg yolks and a whole egg, you may not quite need this amount. Eggs vary in size too, so just watch out that you don’t make it a sticky mess by adding too much. On the other hand, eggs can be small, so don’t be far from another egg which you can crack open and work with the yolk first. When making the pasta dough, begin by adding the egg yolk, if it is in danger of becoming too sticky then it is better that you are leaving out some quantity of the whole egg. If you don’t do it this way then of course your pasta will be just fine, but why miss some of that yellowy richness the yolk gives.
So you mix them, bring them together and you have a quite a stiff ball of dough. What do you knead to do next? (Couldn’t resist the word play). Yes, you need to knead your dough. Be tough with it, being gentle just doesn’t work, unless you’ve got lots of time on your hands perhaps. Otherwise just do it and you’ll have it kneaded well in 7 or 8 minutes. Don’t forget that if you are putting it through a machine then it will be kneaded further in doing so.
When you have your lovely soft dough, you have two options: hand roll or machine. I have tried both and wouldn’t discourage hand-rolling afterwards, it is just perhaps a slower proceedure, and leaves you with a less refined finish. Whichever you use, you’ll need semolina flour to ensure it doesn’t get all sticky. Using the machine, it is most important to say that you need to turn the dial slowly. There is no point in jumping in at 5 for first rolling or jumping from 7 to 4 in one go. I tend to go down by 1 if not by .5 and it keeps your pasta nice and smooth and gives you a beautiful end result.
Having sheets of pasta, you can go anywhere with them. Think of all the different pasta dishes you know: now you can make them yourself. The thickness of the sheet is crucial depending on what you plan to make though, so roll with caution. For me it was the ravioli, and I stuffed those with the suggested cheeses and herbs, but then became brave and added an egg yolk into the centre of some. This was a tricky, heart-racing process, but oh my goodness it was worth it. Served then with sage butter: yum!
If that wasn’t good enough, there was then tirmamisu for dessert. Dinner couldn’t get much better than that. Although I had to deviate from the suggested recipe as I truly believe mine to be nicer. Having said that, it depends what it is you are looking for from your dessert. If it is a big boozy kick, then sorry, I can’t help you. For me it is all about that beautiful smooth creamy texture, and the subtle coffee flavours. I love this element of food though where there are multiple variations on a recipe, each one considered the best by their own cook. As for my preferred tiramisu, the recipe can be found here, on an earlier blog post, give it a go: https://dirtywhites.wordpress.com/2013/01/10/we-are-family-yes-chickens-im-talking-to-you/
I presented my one as tirami-two-spoons, the perfect dish for two to give a sweet, smooth finish to the end of their romantic meal. In truth, the dessert is more than manageable for just one, in fact I would manage two or three portions of well made tiramisu, but everybody likes a bit of romance so why not share one and henceforth share a heavenly moment as you take the first bite…
Dirty Whites 