make | your own pasta

OK, so this one doesn't need much introducing - how can you get more fun than making your own pasta!!

We were so excited, coming home with our brand-spanking-new pasta machine (thank you Argos - £20!) and couldn't wait to get started.

Just so you know, this does take time.  The actual making and cooking doesn't take that much time, but you've got to make the dough and then leave it to rest for 1 hour before rolling it, and then filling it.  But it's worth it!

When you get a pasta machine, you should make a small amount of pasta first to clean out the machine.  You shouldn't wash the machine because it will go rusty, just wipe it clean.

In other news... Emily has started watching 'Peaky Blinders' on BBC (Thursday 9pm).  Neither of us really have time to watch TV, and the only other thing we religiously watch is 'Downton Abbey' on Sundays, but she's been really impressed so far with the show! We particularly like how they play modern music against a backdrop of post WWI Birmingham.  It is a bit violent, but if you don't mind that then you can find it on iPlayer here.

Enjoy today!!

- rosinaviolets    x

Our tester pasta! Next stop: linguine!

Making the dough

First roll.  On the thickest setting, roll the dough out at
least 7 times, each time folding it in half before putting it
through again.  

Get the pasta nice and thin
and shiny.  The shine
means you'll get a good al dente
texture.  

Sage & Squash Ravioli Bows
For the Pasta
140g '00' Pasta Flour
2 eggs
Water

For the Filling
1 egg white (to seal the pasta)
1 squash (we used onion squash, a little like small pumpkin, tastes a little like sweet potato!), cut into small chunks and baked in the oven for 30 mins at 180C.
2 tablespoons ricotta cheese
2 tsp dried sage
1 dessert spoon agave nectar (or honey, or maple syrup)
Pinch of salt, lots of black pepper

For the sauce
400g tin chopped tomatoes
Splash balsamic vinegar
1 tsp dried sage

• To make the pasta, put the flour into a food processor.  Pulse the food processor, and then tip in the eggs.  Keep whizzing until you make breadcrumbs.  This should take about two minutes.  

• Take out the blade from the food processor, and use your hands to form the dough into a ball.  Add very small amounts of water to make the egg and flour come together.  Once you've got your dough, tip it out onto the worksurface, and knead it firmly for about a minute.  Wrap it in cling film and leave it to rest in the fridge for 1 hour.  

• Cut the dough into two equal sized pieces.  Using your hands, form the dough into a square, and then using a rolling pin, flatten it until it's about 5mm thick.  

• Fold the dough in half, and then pass it through the pasta machine on it's thickest setting.  Do this at least 7 times, each time folding the dough in half and then passing it through the machine.  Do not change the setting of the machine.  You want the pasta to be nice and shiny, because then you get a good al dente texture.  At the end of this, the pasta should be in a rectangular shape, about 7.5cm x 18cm.  

• Repeat with the second piece of dough.

• Now, you can roll the two out.  Start at the widest setting, and put the dough through the machine.  Don't fold it over, but put it through the machine again, on the next setting.  Keep going until you get to the last setting.  You can put the dough through more than once on each setting.  

• Do this for both pieces of dough, and now start to make your ravioli! 

• First, get your sauce simmering.  It's super easy.  Just get all the ingredients, put them in a pot, and put them on the heat for the amount of time it takes to make and cook the ravioli!

• To make the ravioli filling, tip into a bowl your cooked squash, two tablespoons of ricotta cheese, a dessert spoon of agave nectar, and the sage.  Use a potato masher to squash the whole lot together.  Taste it, and then add as much salt and pepper as you need.  

• Flour the worksurface, and then lay out your pasta. Add heaped teaspoons of the filling along the whole length of the sheet.  We made our ravioli quite small, so made two ravioli squares along the width of the pasta, as shown in the picture.  Go along with a pastry brush and brush around each blob of filling with the egg white.  

• Lay the second pasta sheet on top of the first.  Press down along the edges, and around each blob of filling, then use a knife to cut the pasta into squares.  You can leave them as squares or press the ends together to make bows like we did.  

• Get a big pan of water on a rolling boil and then tip in your ravioli.  They will take about 2 minutes to cook, maximum.  When they are all floating, they are done.  

• Serve with the sauce.