I love making my own pasta. The dough itself couldn’t be any simpler, as you only need flour and eggs for the basic one. You can make different variations by adding different ingredients like tomato puree, spinach or squid ink. I have finally managed to get my dough to the perfect consistency, and have also finally learned how to best make the filling for stuffed pasta. Ravioli is something my husband asks for more often than I make it. In the past, my ravioli didn’t seem to work out so well, however I have now managed to overcome this. Might even be I will have a happy husband eating ravioli more often from now on! On this post, for the first time, I’ve added small video clips about couple of stages of the pasta making. I’m very much at a practice stage with my tutorial videos, and hopefully with experience will get better.
Spinach pasta dough
250g 00 grade pasta flour
2 large eggs
125g fresh spinach, cooked and pureed
Pheasant stuffing
400g pheasant breast or leg meat
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
25g butter
150 ml dry white wine
150 ml double cream
salt and pepper
1. Chop the onions and garlic, and fry in butter until translucent. Add the pheasant meat and the white wine, and season with salt and pepper. Cook until the pheasant is just cooked through. Set aside to cool.
2. Once cooled, place the meat, onion and garlic into a food processer. If you have any liquid left in the pan, leave it there and use it as part of your sauce. Blitz the ingredients in the food processor, and add the cream, until the mixture is soft, mousse or paste -like texture.
3. Boil the spinach until soft. Drain / squeeze all water off, and puree.
4. Measure the pasta flour in a bowl. Make a well in the centre, and pour the eggs in. Then, starting with a fork, break the eggs and little by little mix the eggs with the surrounding flour. Once the dough gets firmer, move onto kneading by hand. Once the basic dough is ready mix the spinach puree in.
5. Cut the dough into four pieces. Repeat the next stages with all pieces. Flatten the piece with your hands, and roll through the pasta machine, on the widest setting. Fold the dough over in half, and roll through the same setting again. Then reduce the setting to the next, and roll through. Repeat until desired thickness is achieved. I would say from 7 down to 3 or 4 should be fine.
6. Cut your pasta. Brush half of the pasta round with egg, and add the filling. Fold the other half of the pasta over, and close with your fingers, pressing the pasta firmly together. Make sure you don’t leave air in.
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