I am fortunate enough to have a KitchenAid. I received it as a gift for my wedding. It is my favourite kitchen appliance and sits proudly on my bench all of the time. My mother and mother-in-law always stare at it when they visit and ask me if I use it much. Ha! I find a use for it almost every day! It is always being useful and is so very beautiful, and that, to me, earns a space on my premium bench space.
As part of my KitchenAid kit, I have a pasta dough roller attachment. This is amazing! It makes the process of making fresh pasta a breeze. Although, I must agree with my husband that attempting a new recipe at 6pm on a Monday night, was not the best idea. Not when it had to fit in with bedtime for the little one. However, the process definitely paid off as this dish is spectacular!
A twist on the classic spinach and ricotta, because silverbeet is something we get a lot of in our veg box and it makes a beautiful spinach alternative for this purpose. And a bacon crumb for texture and umami.
Even if you have a hand operated pasta machine, I promise this is not difficult at all! And totally worth the effort.
The pasta recipe is adapted from Stephanie Alexander’s basic pasta recipe, found in the Cook’s Companion.
Silverbeet and ricotta ravioli with bacon crumb
Ingredients
For the pasta:
- 300g plain flour
- 2 tsp salt
- 3 eggs
For the filling:
- 1 tbs olive oil
- 1 bunch silverbeet (just leaves), shredded
- 2 spring onions, finely sliced
- 375g ricotta
- Zest of a lemon
- Salt and pepper
For the crust:
- 1 rasher bacon
- ¼ cup breadcrumbs
- Extra virgin olive oil, to serve
- Parmesan cheese, to serve
Directions
Directions:
- To make the pasta, combine the flour, salt and eggs in a mixer with a dough attachment. Once it has come together into a ball, knead for a minute or two, adding a little extra flour if too sticky (it should be quite sticky). Then cover with plastic wrap and leave on the bench to rest for an hour.
- To make the filling, heat the oil in a frying pan and fry the silverbeet and spring onions on a medium heat until the silverbeet has wilted and is soft (approx. 10 mins).
- Take off the heat and stir through the lemon zest and ricotta.
- Divide the pasta dough into four and roll each amount out using a pasta roller to one of the thinnest settings (I used a KitchenAid attachment and rolled out to ‘7’). You may need to dust the pasta sheets with a little flour whilst rolling to ensure that it does not stick. Avoid using too much flour so that it does not clump when cooking the pasta.
- Lay your pasta sheets out on the bench, and place 1 tsp of filling along the bottom half of each sheet, leaving about 3 cm in between each dollop.
- Lightly brush the bottom edge of the pasta with water (not too much or it will get very sticky!) and in between each dollop of filling. Fold the pasta over and pat to seal the edges well. Cut using a knife or a crinkle cutter. When setting aside before cooking, lightly dust with flour once again to ensure that the ravioli do not stick to each other.
- To make the bacon crumb, fry the bacon in a frying pan. Once crispy, whizz in a food processor with the breadcrumbs.
- Cook the ravioli in a large pot of salted boiling water for 3 minutes or until floating.
- Serve the ravioli drizzled with extra virgin olive oil and grated parmesan cheese, and a sprinkling of the bacon crumb.
pumpkin and pear 