Week two in my quarantine kitchen

This week has certainly been a strange period of time trying to get accustomed to the new normal way of living. For me, it has seen mine and Meg’s first attempt at a Zoom home workout, my first trip to a supermarket since the lockdown measures were introduced, many phone calls trying to sort out my ongoing baggage saga, the shameful downloading of TikTok and of course much more cooking! I feel like I have aged about 40 years in the past few weeks, and this has been highlighted by my devastation when also this week, I found a grey hair on the top of my head! With this being said, after a long day of classes and sorting various China related things, cooking has to be one of my favourite forms of relaxation.

My personal highlight from this week has to be spinach and ricotta ravioli completely made from scratch. This is such a good way to kill time if you’ve got a few hours to spare, and the delicious result is definitely worth the slightly tedious method of making it. Now I can’t lie, the first time I made this it tasted good, but I hadn’t quite perfected rolling the pasta thin enough. This week saw my second attempt, I definitely learnt from my mistakes the first-time round, however a slight warning for you, after individually cutting enough ravioli to feed my very hungry family of four, I did not find this as relaxing as cooking simpler dishes. Make sure you allow yourself plenty of time for this process!

Many recipes that I have looked at online suggest that you need a pasta machine to roll the dough, however I have befriended the handy rolling pin and it certainly does the job! So here is my take-

Ingredients

Pasta

• 510g plain flour, plus extra for rolling

• 6 eggs

• 2 tablespoons olive oil

• 2 teaspoons salt

Filling

• 200g spinach

• 200g ricotta cheese

• 40g grated parmesan cheese

• Lemon juice

• Salt and ground black pepper

1) Start by placing the plain flour into a large mixing bowl. Using the back of a spoon, make a large well in the middle of the flour. Crack all six eggs into this well, and also add the olive oil and salt.

2) Using your nice clean hands, gently start to mix the flour at the sides of the bowl into the middle, mixing it with the eggs. Continue mixing until the eggs and oil are well incorporated into the flour and it comes together as a ball.

3) Lightly dust a clean worktop or chopping board with flour. Place your pasta dough onto the surface and knead the dough with the bottom of your hand for about 3-5 minutes. Make sure to keep turning the dough to ensure that it is all well kneaded. The dough should start to look smoother and nicely form a ball. Wrap in cling film and set aside to rest for 30 minutes.

4) While the pasta dough is resting, prepare the filling. Place the spinach into a large saucepan over a medium heat for approximately 5 minutes/until all the leaves are wilted. Make sure to regularly stir the spinach during this time so it wilts evenly.

5) Once the spinach is ready, drain in a colander. It is important to get any excess water out of the spinach so use kitchen towels to press/ squeeze all water out. Then finely chop the spinach.

6) Place the ricotta and parmesan into a mixing bowl and add the chopped spinach. Stir well and then add a small amount of lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste. Try not to add too much lemon juice as you want this mixture to keep its thickness.

7) Once the pasta dough is rested, place it on a floured surface. Personally, I find it easier to roll small quantities of dough at a time and to keep repeating the process because even though it takes a while, it is easier to get the dough nice and thin. I recommend cutting the dough into quarters and making four batches of ravioli.

8) Take one quarter of the dough and set the rest aside. Cut this piece in half again. With a rolling pin, roll one of the pieces into a long thin rectangle (around 14cm by 7cm, but really just as thin as you can get it. The dough will try to resist the rolling pin and keep springing back to its original position, so also use your hands to carefully stretch out the dough. Don’t worry if it starts to look slightly see-through, that is a good thing as long as the pasta doesn’t rip.

9) Now place small amounts of the filling mixture onto this rolled out pastry, about half a teaspoon worked well for me. Make sure to leave enough space around each bit of filling, as shown in this picture. Brush water on the pasta, around the filling, I just use my fingers to make sure I am careful and don’t touch any of the filling.

10) Then roll out the other small piece of dough like the previous one. Carefully lift the rolled pasta onto the pasta with filling on. Gently stretch the pasta sheet over the blobs of filling as this will help to get the pasta even thinner. Use your fingers to press down the pasta around the filling and to seal it to the pasta underneath.

11) Using a small knife or a small biscuit cutter, cut circles around the filling to make individual ravioli. Leave a big enough gap between the filling and where you cut, to make sure that the ravioli is sealed properly. Using a fork press down the edges.

12) Repeat this process with each of the quarters of dough, until it is all used, and you have made plates full of perfect ravioli.

13) Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil. Again, I would cook the ravioli in batches to make sure you can keep an eye on them. Pop the first lot of ravioli into the water and cook over a medium heat. The ravioli should only take a few minutes to cook and are ready once they easily float at the top of the water.

14) Remove the ravioli from the water using a slotted spoon, and I suggest placing the cooked ravioli in an empty saucepan with a lid on to keep them warm whilst cooking the rest of them.

So, there you have it! Hopefully a fairly simple way to make one of my favourite restaurant dishes in the comfort of your own home and stop you from being bored in the house. I like to serve this ravioli with some double cream heated with some simple seasoning and fresh herbs, a drizzle of olive oil and some garlic bread on the side.

I hope this recipe can keep you occupied for a bit and take away some of the sadness of pasta being sold out in a lot of supermarkets (I mean that’s if you manage to find flour, fingers crossed!!). Good luck, I hope you enjoy and eat well! Much love xoxo