Pasta making cooking class recipes
RECIPES
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Family secrets:
Let the pumpkin shine and add just enough ricotta to reach a smooth consistency without diluting the pumpkin flavour. It’s important to cook your sage and butter sauce on a low to medium heat to make sure your sage gets crispy without burning the butter.
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Ingredients for 4-6 people:
1 kgs Delica pumpkin (approximately 1 small pumpkin)
50 gms Parmesan
175 gms Ricotta
Fresh Grated Nutmeg
100gms butter
A bunch of sage leaves
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Method (for the filling and sauce):
Heat your oven to 200 degrees
Quarter your pumpkin and lay on a lined baking tray. Season with olive oil and salt and roast for about 30 minutes until tender all the way through.
Once cooled slightly, scoop out the seeds (discard) and scrape the flesh off the skin.
Mix the pumpkin flesh with ricotta, parmesan and nutmeg, using the back of a fork to mash it and get rid of any lumps.
The mixture can now be used to fill your ravioli.
Now to prepare the butter sauce; melt butter in a pan large enough to fit all the ravioli on a low-medium heat. Add chopped sage and fry until crispy. Keep the heat low enough to prevent the butter from burning.
Once crispy, add a ladle of pasta water and stir well allowing the sauce to emulsify.
Pop the ravioli in salted boiling water for 1-2 minutes or until the filling has warmed through. Drain and transfer the ravioli to the pan with the sage and butter sauce.
Gently stir the ravioli into the sauce adding pasta water if needed.
Once the ravioli are covered in sauce, plate approx 5-6 ravioli per person onto small plates.
Top with a little parmesan to finish.
Fresh Pasta:
Ingredients Pasta:
100gms of double 00 flour per person
1 egg
Pinch of salt
Method:
Mound flour on a clean work surface, create a well in the center. Crack an egg into the well, add salt, and beat the egg with a fork or fingers.
Gradually incorporate flour into the egg until dough forms. Knead for 8-10 minutes until smooth. Wrap in plastic and let the dough rest for 30 minutes.
Roll out the pasta dough to number 7 on a Marcato machine or the second thickest setting on other machines, making sure your sheet is as wide as possible and lay your full pasta sheet on the work surface.
Fold your sheet in half horizontally so that you have two equal parts, push down and unfold.
Using a teaspoon, put 1 spoonful of the filling on the bottom half of the sheet every two fingers apart.
Fold over the top half of the sheet to cover the filling and push around the filling with your fingers to get rid of some air and so that you can see where to cut each ravioli.
Using a pasta cutter, cut out each square ravioli, no egg or water is needed, the pasta cuter should lock in the filling!
Flour the ravioli generously until ready to cook.
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Ingredients (yields 1 large portion)
100gr 00 flour
1 medium sized egg (about 55gr)
Pinch of salt
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Method: Making the dough
Pour the flour into a pile on a clean work surface. Using the egg (in its shell) push the flour from the center in a circular motion to create a well (the outer walls of the flour stop the egg pouring out when it is cracked). If making more than one portion pour all flour into one pile rather than separate piles.
Crack your egg(s) into the well of flour and scramble it using one hand.
Begin to combine the flour into the egg using a pinching motion. At this point using both hands will speed the process up (however, if you’d like to keep one free to sip wine, who are we to judge?)
Persevere with combining the ingredients until they come together to form a dough.
Now move to using the palm of your hand to knead the dough for at least 4-5 minutes.
***Note Eggs are different sizes so add a few drops of warm water if the dough feels very dry and a sprinkling of flour if very sticky.
Your dough is ready when it is smooth in appearance with no white flecks and you can successfully perform the ‘spring back test’ - no fear, this is not a Simone Biles gymnastics trick, rather a simple poke of the finger on the dough - if it springs back the gluten is activated and the dough ready to rest - gold medal for you.
Wrap your dough in cling film tightly and rest for 20 minutes at room temperature.
Shaping the Tagiatelle:
Attach your pasta machine to a clean work surface ensuring you have space to the left of the machine for the dough to be rolled out. Dust this space with a little ‘00’ flour. Set your machine to the thickest setting (usually number 6 or 0 depending on the machine you are using)
Unwrap your dough and shape it into an oval the length of the rollers (if it feels sticky dust with a little flour).
Pass the dough through the rollers, turning the handle steadily, starting from the widest roller setting and working through the numbers to the thinner setting (we recommend setting 5-6 for tagliatelle or Tagliolini. Run the dough through the widest setting four times with a fold before every repetition and then from there step by step on each number without folding.
You should have a long sheet of pasta by now - if not, pass it through the penultimate level again.
Using a knife, cut your sheet of pasta into 2 or 3 pieces (ideally each piece should be around the length of a piece of spaghetti).
Move the handle into the tagliatelli cutting function of the machine. Thread each piece through, collecting with your hand as it comes out. It’s really important not to squeeze the pieces together as they will stick. Lay them out on a floured surface or plate - separating them as much as possible.
Salt some boiling water (salty like the sea!) and drop the pasta in - use a spoon to ensure the pieces are not sticking together. Cover with a lid and leave for 2 mins. Test a piece - if you can imagine it tasting delicious covered in sauce then it’s ready (fresh pasta will never really achieve the ‘Al Dente’ texture but over cooking it so it became mushy and soft would be a real shame - especially after successful completion of 14 steps)
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Since Campania has access to the Tyrrhenian Sea, seafood is the main protein used in this region. Local fishing traditions date back centuries, and prawns are a staple catch brought in daily by local fishermen.
For this recipe the heads of prawns are essential to give flavour to the sauce since we only add in the prawns at the end to avoid overcooking.
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Ingredients for 4 People:
25gr Parsley
4 garlic chopped
500gms whole prawns (12 prawns)
750 gms Datterini cherry tomatoes on the vine
Olive Oil
1/2 teaspoon of chili flakes
Salt and pepper to taste
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Method
Peel and devein your prawns reserving all the heads.
Halve the peeled prawns lengthways.
Squeeze all the prawn heads into a bowl getting as much juice as possible out of them.
Halve your cherry tomatoes and peel and finely chop the garlic.
Generously cover the bottom of a large pan (the two handled black pan) with EVOO. Add the garlic, half the parsley and all the chili. Bring to a light sizzle on a medium heat.
As soon as the garlic is sizzling add all the tomatoes, prawn head juices and salt.
Cover with a lid and leave to cook for around 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes or so.
The tomatoes should be soft and almost disintegrated and the sauce should have lost 2/3rds of its liquid (you can also use a mashed and gently mash any whole tomatoes).
Taste and adjust seasoning as needed.
Boil the pasta until two thirds of the way cooked (still very aldente).
At the same time add the halved prawns to the tomato sauce.
Finish cooking the pasta in the sauce adding pasta water as needed.
Serve with a generous drizzle of EVOO and sprinkle of parsley.
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Torta Caprese al Limone is a contemporary variation of the traditional Torta Caprese, a flourless chocolate almond cake originating from the island of Capri in Italy. The classic Torta Caprese is believed to have been created in the 1920s by a pastry chef who was preparing a chocolate almond cake for a visit by American gangsters, including Al Capone. In his haste, he forgot to add flour to the batter. The resulting cake was unexpectedly delicious, leading to its association with the island of Capri and its name, "Caprese" .
The Amalfi lemon, has been cultivated since at least the 10th century. They are grown on terraced cliffside gardens (called limoneti), these lemons are larger, more elongated, and sweeter than standard varieties. Their thick, fragrant peel and low acidity make them ideal for this dessert
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Ingredients for a cake serving 12 people:
Ingredients for the cake batter:
250g softened butter
250g sugar
2 tbsp lemon juice (must be freshly squeezed)
1 tsp vanilla extract
Zest of 3 lemons
5 eggs
250g ground almonds
3 tbsp coarse polenta
2 tsp baking powder
Ingredients for the glaze:
Juice of 1 lemon
1 ½ tbs sugar
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Method
Pre-heat the oven to 180C
Using a hand blender or kitchen aid mix the softened butter and sugar together until fully combined and the butter is fluffy, about 3-4 minutes.
Break the eggs one by one into the creamed butter and sugar mixture, beating well after each addition. Make sure you scrape down the mixture from the sides of the bowl as you beat.
Add the lemon zest, 2 tbs of lemon juice and the vanilla extract and whisk again.
Fold in the ground almonds with a spatula as well as the baking powder and polenta into the cake mixture and fold in until fully combined.
Meanwhile, grease the cake tin with butter and dust with flour.
Pour the batter into a cake tin about 22cm in diameter, filling about ¾ of the way up.
Bake for about 35 minutes until the cake has risen and a skewer pushed into the center of the cake comes out clean.
Whilst the cake is in the oven, squeeze the remaining lemon and add the juice into a small pot with 1-2tbs of sugar per lemon. Bring to a boil and cook until the sugar has dissolved.
Once the cakes are out of the oven, prick them with a toothpick and spoon over 3 tablespoons of the glaze.
Leave to cool before serving.
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Ricotta ravioli exemplifies the evolution of pasta in Italian cuisine, dating back to medieval times. Initially filled with herbs and spices, it evolved to include creamy fillings like ricotta during the Renaissance. If you would like to make this recipe in advance, you can freeze the ravioli and then cook them straight from frozen in boiling water.
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For 2 people:
For the pasta dough:
200g all-purpose flour
2 large eggs
Pinch of salt
For the ravioli filling:
200g ricotta cheese
Zest of 1 lemon
40g grated Parmesan cheese
Salt and Pepper for Seasoning
For the Tomato Sauce:
One large garlic clove, smashed and peeled
250gr of Datterini Cherry Tomatoes, halved
50gr of Tomato Passata
Olive Oil, Salt and Pepper
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Directions:
1. Make Pasta Dough:
- Mound flour on a clean work surface, create a well in the center. Crack eggs into the well, add salt, and beat eggs with a fork.
- Gradually incorporate flour into the eggs until dough forms. Knead for 8-10 minutes until smooth. Wrap in plastic and let rest for 30 minutes.
2. In the meantime, heat the smashed garlic cloves and the with two table spoons of Extra Virgin Olive oil in a small pan on medium heat until the garlic is fragrant, about 5minutes. Add the halved cherry tomatoes and Passata as well as a pinch of salt and cook with a lid on for 20-25 minutes on a medium heat until the tomatoes have burst and released all of their liquid. Mash the tomatoes with the back of a wooden spoon or potato masher to release all of their juices and remove the lid for another 10 minutes to reduce some of the liquid until you have a rich thick tomato sauce.
3. Prepare Filling:
- In a bowl, mix ricotta, Parmesan, salt, pepper, and lemon zest. Adjust seasoning and add more lemon zest if needed.
4. Roll and Fill Ravioli:
- Roll out dough thinly using your pasta machine. Place teaspoons of filling on one half of the dough, fold over, and press to seal. Cut into squares using your pasta cutter.
5. Cook Ravioli:
- Boil salted water, cook ravioli for 3-4 minutes until they are cooked through. Drain and serve hot with homemade tomato sauce. Garnish with extra Parmesan cheese.
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Ingredients for 12 people:
6 sea bass filets
120 gr of Parsley finely chopped
5 large garlic cloves finely chopped
1200g of cherry tomatoes, halved
200gr black olives (we love Taggiasca but kalamata work well too)
100gr of capers
500ml of Cooking dry white wine
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
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Method:
Heat your oven to 180 degrees
Halve your cherry tomatoes and place them seed side up on a baking paper lined tray. Pour a generous drizzle of olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Put these in the oven for about 1 hour - if you are short of time you can turn the oven up but we are looking to slow roast the tomatoes so the edges begin to char and they appear almost sundried.
Prepare your filets by running your finger along each one, removing any bones as you go if needed. Then bake your sea bass filets skin side up spread out onto an oven tray with a drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper, a generous splash of white wine and cook for about 15 minutes at 180 degrees until cooked through.
Whilst your tomatoes and sea bass is cooking, fry your garlic, ⅔ of parsley, capers, olives and a sprinkle of chili in a pan with a very generous amount olive oil (enough to coat the bottom of your pan) and cook on a medium heat for about 5-7 minutes making sure to stir occasionally so that the garlic does not burn. Once everything smells delicious and fragrant add your white wine and turn down the heat to low and simmer for a further 15 minutes making sure the heat is low enough so that we do not evaporate all of the wine. Season your sauce with salt and pepper.
Once your fish is ready and you are about to cook your pasta, shred the fish into your sauce without the skin and add your roasted tomatoes. Taste for seasoning and then cook your pasta until very al dente and finish your pasta in the pan with the sauce on medium heat with some pasta water until it is cooked and add the remaining chopped parsley.
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