Lemon ravioli with sage butter
Ravioli al sapore di limone, con burro e salvia
Ingredients for 4 people
Plain flour – 300g
Eggs – 4
Lemon olive oil – 1.5 tablespoons
Ricotta – 300g
Spinach – 120g cooked and finely chopped
Marjoram – a couple of fresh sprigs
Salt and pepper
Butter – 40g
Sage – a big sprig
Find a nice big clean workspace. Pour the flour into a mound and make a well in the middle. Break 2 eggs into the well and whisk in with a fork, gradually bringing in more and more flour. Add the lemon olive oil (or normal olive oil for a general pasta). When there is a lumpy mass sticking to your fork turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead for 5 minutes. I find it hard to believe 5 minutes is so long when I knead the pasta, so I make myself keep going for a couple of songs on the radio.
When the dough is smooth and homogeneous, cover it with a kitchen towel and leave for half an hour. Then get your pasta machine together – we have a hand-cranked Atlas 150, which has been kicking around for ages and remains faithful.
Cut the pasta into 4 manageable pieces. The trick is to roll the pasta through the machine 10 times on the widest setting, folding it back in half each time. The dough should be beautifully smooth.
Now work your way down the thicknesses on the machine from 1 to about 6. You should have beautiful sheets of pasta, which you need to lay out on a floury surface. This pasta recipe is the basis for all shapes. In general if you need a bit of elasticity (like for ravioli) use olive oil, if not (like fettuccine) go easy on the oil.
To prepare the filling mix together 2 egg yolks, the ricotta, spinach (you can use frozen if you don’t have fresh, just make sure it’s well thawed and drained), marjoram and a couple of pinches of salt and pepper.
Back to the pasta sheets. Put a teaspoon of the filling mixture at regular, well-spaced intervals. Paint around them with the egg whites. Lay another pasta sheet on top and press down over the mounds of filling. Cut into ravioli shapes with a pasta cutter.
Bring a pot of water to boil, with a bit of salt and olive oil. Cook for about 2 minutes. Whilst it’s cooking, make the sage butter. Gently heat the butter in a frying pan with the slightly torn-up sage leaves. Spoon out the ravioli into your serving dish, cover with the sage butter and serve.
Orecchiette pasta with cauliflower
Orecchiette al cavolfiore
Ingredients for 4 people
Cauliflower – one medium sized
Garlic – 1 clove
Chilli – 1
Extra virgin olive oil – 2 tablespoons
Orecchiette – 500g
Salt
Parmesan – grated to serve
This is a different take on the more common orrechiette with broccoli, which we found at a lovely little trattoria in Urbino.
Cut the cauliflower into little florets, cook in salted boiling water for 5 minutes and then drain. Peel the garlic and seed and chop the chilli. Heat the olive oil (Marchigiani if you can find it) and gently cook the garlic and chilli for a few minutes. Add the cauliflower and cook for a further 5 minutes so there’s a bit of colour to the veg.
Cook the orecchiette in salted water according to the instructions on the packet. Once it’s al dente, drain and toss into the cauliflower. Serve with a generous handful of grated parmesan.
Pan-fried trout with polenta crust and almonds
Trota in padella con impanatura di polenta e mandorle
Ingredients for 4 people
Trout – 2 whole ones gutted, rinsed and patted dry
Polenta – 1 cup
Olive oil – 2 tablespoons of the peppery kind
Lemon – cut into wedges
Almonds – 2/3 of a cup, slivered and blanched
Always hungry to extend our cooking repertoire, Cathy and I did a course called ‘Flavors of Olive Oil’. It was run by Deborah Krasner, an olive oil aficionado who efficiently taught us the multitudinous uses of fine olive oil, from soups to cakes. Cathy’s favourite was the pan-fried trout with polenta crust. Even the crunchy skin was delicious. I was turned on by Deborah’s orange and caraway seed cake. It uses olive oil instead of butter, so it’s guilt free (low in saturated, high in monounsaturated fats) and apparently very forgiving to make for a cake novice like me.
Roll the fish in a plateful of the polenta. Shake off the excess.
Heat a cast-iron frying pan, and when it’s hot, add 1 tablespoon of the olive oil. When the oil is hot add the fish. Brown the fish on both sides, about 4 minutes per side depending on the thickness. Once they’re cooked put each fish on a plate with a wedge of lemon.
Wipe the pan and heat the remaining olive oil. Brown the almonds over a medium-high flame and stir continuously. As soon as they are golden and aromatic pour the almonds and oil over the fish. Serve with a flavoursome green salad.
Orange, almond and caraway seed cake
Ingredients
Unbleached flour – 300g
Sugar – 250g
Fine sea salt – ¼ teaspoon
Baking powder – 1 teaspoon
Bicarbonate of soda – 1 teaspoon
Eggs – 3 large ones
Full fat milk – 300ml
Olive oil – 100ml of the fruity kind
Orange – grated zest of 1
Vanilla extract – 1 teaspoon
Sliced almonds – 80g
Caraway seeds – 1 tablespoon
