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I had never made my own pasta before, thinking that it would be time-consuming and complicated, requiring specialist equipment. Nothing could be further from the truth. I was really surprised how easy it was to make fresh pasta, and turn it into lobster ravioli. If you don't have any lobster (as it can be expensive), you could just as easily substitute crab, monkfish, or even salt cod. SERVES 2 Preparation Time: 10 minutes kneading + 10 minutes rolling and making the ravioli |
| For the Pasta dough: | For the Lobster mixture: |
| 100 g white flour | 100 g cooked lobster meat, shredded |
| 1/4 teasp oil | 3 garlic cloves, crushed |
| 1 medium egg | 50 ml double cream |
| 2 medium egg yolks | Hot pepper sauce, to taste |
| Pinch of salt | 1 tblsp olive oil |
| 1 teasp dried parsley, optional |
To make the lobster mixture, bring to the boil the olive oil and cream in a small pan. Turn this and the rest of the ingredients for the lobster mixture into a food processor and whizz for a minute. Leave to cool.
To make the pasta, place all the dough ingredients in a large mixing bowl, and mix into a ball. Turn out onto a floured board, and knead for about 10 minutes. If the dough seems too hard and crumbly, add a tiny amount of water - the consistency should be similar to kids' playdough. Wrap the dough in clingfilm, and leave to rest for 10 minutes.
On a floured surface, roll out the dough as thinly as possible - wafer-thin is preferable; any thicker and the ravioli will be quite heavy and chewy when cooked. The dough should roll out to about a 15 inch square. The intention is to place small teaspoons of lobster meat onto one half of the dough, then fold it over, and cut into individual ravioli squares.
To make 16 ravioli, make that many indentations with your finger at regular intervals on one side of the dough. Place a small teaspoonful of the pre-cooked lobster mixture into each indentation. Brush lines of water between the piles of mixture, then fold over the other half of the dough so that the edges meet.
Press down firmly along all the lines between the piles of lobster mixture. Cut along the lines with a sharp knife, then use the back of a fork to press the edges of each ravioli square, to make sure that each packet is well sealed.
Bring a large pan of slightly salted water to the boil, add the ravioli, and cook for about 5 minutes. The ravioli should swell up nicely during cooking. Drain well, return the ravioli to the pan, stir in some pesto, or any of your favourite pasta sauces.
Serve with some fresh Parmesan grated on top, and a crisp green salad.