Courgette ravioli in a pea cream

I have to write this down before I forget it. Last night, I put a mega twist on the awesome courgette pasta of a few weeks back and cooked one of the best dishes I have ever done. Masterchef worthy this one! So, here goes. This is a combo of something new for September and as it formed the starter of the dinner party, I will share the rest of the menu as well....

Courgette and feta ravioli with a pea cream 

Ingredients (serves 6):

400g tip '00' pasta flour
5 eggs
mint
parmesan
frozen peas
ingredients as per  awesome courgette pasta recipe minus the pasta

Making pasta:

I have used a number of recipes to make pasta before but return every time to the Silver Spoon's basic pasta dough which is basically 1 egg to every 100g Tip '00' flour. You should mix by hand but I always get better results using my Magimix dough blade. This time I added an extra egg. So for 6 people I did 400g flour  and 5 eggs (I had about half left over - see below for what to do with it or just make less...). Once dough has formed, tip it out and kead for a good 10mins until the dough is shiny and smooth. Cover and pop in the fridge for at least 15 mins.

Making the filling:

hile your dough is in the fridge, make up the courgette filling exactly as per the awesome courgette pasta recipe (obviously you add the feta and basil but no pasta). Actually, I grated the courgette finer for the pasta but that's the only change I made. One it is cooked, there will be quite a bit of liquid. Pour all the liquid out through a sieve and leave the mixture in a sieve over a bowl to drain as much liquid as possible - KEEP THE LIQUID.

Making up the ravioli:

You really need a pasta roller to make life easier but essentially you ant to get sheets of the thinnest pasta you can. Put a teaspoon of the courgette mixture at regular intervals along on sheet of pasta, brush water around the filling and then cover with a further sheet. Try to get out all the air and make sure the pasta around the filling is well sealed. I use a round cookie cutter to cut my ravioli (so probably not actually ravioli) but you can use any shape or size - just adjust your pasta and filling amount to suit. Remember to flour as you go to stop the pasta sticking and when each ravioli has been cut out, put them on a floured tray. Below is a pic of the filling on the pasta (I forgot to take any other pics....)

Making the pea cream:

Return your liquid from the pasta filling to your pan and reheat. Add in a load of frozen peas (no idea how much just guess) and cook until peas are tender. Turn heat down and add some cream - the amount will depend on how much liquid you had in the first place but you want a thickish cream. Once cooked, blitz the whole lot together and add more cream and some seasoning to taste.

Assembly:

Put a large pot of salted boiling water on the stove and drop the ravioli's in one at a time. They take about 5 mins ot cook but just check the pasta is soft and not rubbery. Once cooked, allow about 3-4 ravioli per preson for a starter portion, pour over some of the pea cream and garnish with mint and parmesan.

For the main, I used Jamie Oliver's 30 minute meal thai green curry sauce recipe and made a seafood curry. I used 2 cod fillets, 2 salmon fillets, 2 squid and a bag of frozen jumbo prawns. Once the sauce was cooked (I doubled his recipe to serve 6 as a main), I added the fish when I put the rice on to steam (about 14 mins before serving), the frozen prawns and squid about 5 mins before serving and that seamed to work. Served with steamed rice and steamed pak choi.

I cheated for dessert and bought sticky toffee pudding and custard but hey, I made pasta.......

In other news:

• I had pasta left over so made tagliatelle and linguini with the girls the next day. It was absolutely delish! Ciaran made an arrabiata with linguini for our dinner. The homemade pasta made such a difference. 

•  EEROD can walk!!!!
• EEROD can say 'mummy'. Most people would delight in this but I now have two small people follwoing me around with 'mummy', 'mummy', 'mummy'........all. bloody. day.
• I have a new role at work which should be interesting
• This time next week I will have completed a 10km run, sold some aprons and apple and chilly jelly and served creamed teas......