Jamie Cooks Spring
By Jamie Oliver
1 hr plus resting
Showing Off
serves 6
About the recipe
Using seasonal greens as a gorgeous filling for fresh pasta gives you the opportunity to turn something that’s sometimes thought of as a bit frumpy into something delicate and utterly delicious. You can celebrate any bang-in-season leafy greens here: think spring greens, spinach, kale or Swiss chard. Also, I’m channelling the nonnas and using a good old-fashioned rolling pin, so there’s no pasta machine needed for this one!
Recipe From
Ingredients
PASTA
300g Tipo ‘00’ flour, plus extra for dusting
6 large free-range eggs
FILLING
150g new potatoes
2 cloves of garlic
olive oil
1 good pinch of dried red chilli flakes
1 lemon
150g mixed seasonal greens, such as spring greens, kale, spinach, Swiss chard
30g Parmesan cheese, plus extra to serve
15g pecorino cheese
4 mixed sprigs of sage and oregano
1 knob of unsalted butter
Top Tip
It’s worth investing in a pasta cutter wheel to help you cut the pasta up, as not only does it make the edges look good, it actually helps to seal them as well. They’re widely available and you can get them fairly cheaply these days.
Method
- To make the pasta, pile the flour into a large bowl and make a well in the middle. Crack in 2 eggs, then separate the remaining eggs and add the yolks to the well (save the egg whites for cooking another day), and whip up with a fork, gradually bringing in the flour from the outside, and adding a splash of water to bring it together, if needed. When it becomes too hard to mix, use clean floured hands to bring it together into a ball of dough.
- Knead on a flour-dusted surface for around 4 minutes, or until smooth and elastic. Cover with a damp tea towel and leave to relax for 30 minutes.
- Boil the potatoes in a large pan of salted water until tender, then drain and leave to steam dry.
- Meanwhile, peel and slice the garlic and place in a large casserole pan on a medium-high heat with 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Add the dried chilli, finely grate in half the lemon zest and fry until lightly golden, stirring regularly.
- Wash the greens, discarding any tough stalks, and tear into the pan. Stir until wilted, add a squeeze of lemon juice, season with sea salt and black pepper, then tip onto a board and finely chop.
- Roughly mash the potatoes and mix into the greens. Finely grate over the cheeses, mix again, then season to perfection with salt, pepper and an extra squeeze of lemon juice. Roll the mixture into 3cm balls.
- Cut the pasta dough in half, thoroughly wrapping one piece and storing in the fridge (for up to 3 days), or the freezer for future meals. On a flour-dusted surface, roll out the remaining piece of dough to 1mm thick, then cut into long 14cm-wide strips. Place the balls of filling evenly down one side of the pasta sheets, 5cm apart.
- Brush the exposed pasta lightly with water (or cheat and use a water spritzer), then fold the sheets in half over the filling. Gently seal around the filling, pushing out the air, then cut into squares to give you your ravioli.
- Cook your ravioli 2 portions at a time in a pan of boiling salted water for 3 minutes.
- Alongside, drizzle a little olive oil into a frying pan on a medium high heat, pick in the herb leaves and fry until crisp and fragrant, then add the butter and a spoonful of the pasta cooking water to create a silky sauce.
- Scoop the cooked ravioli straight into the frying pan, with an extra splash of cooking water, if needed, then turn the heat off. Grate over a little extra Parmesan and gently toss to coat the ravioli in the sauce. Plate up and finish with a final grating of Parmesan and a pinch of black pepper.
Tags
