love is creamy, part two

After the food-for-love post yesterday I didn’t think it would do to go home to left over curry for dins. So while Adam was at netball I schmaltzed it up in the kitchen. I’ve been wanting to try Dal Pozzo’s blue cheese and pumpkin ravioli since Chew posted it but didn’t know how to make the pasta. Then I found this idea for ravioli hearts at vegalicious.



It took ages to make. But it was a very yummy and loved up meal and definitely appreciated by the special one. (And the theme continued after dinner: we watched people’s hearts being ripped out in Apocalypto.)

For the pasta:
1 cup of semolina flour (thanks Pen for leaving some in my letter box!)
1/2 cup of water
2 teaspoons of olive oil
A pinch of salt

Personally, I’d up the quantities. This didn’t make much for two people. And mine looked nothing like those pictured on vegalicious, pasta press or not. (I think I got wholemeal semolina flour.)

For the filling:
Follow Dal Pozzo’s recipe (pumpkin, blue chees and rocket). It’s a delicious filling that saved my oddball ravioli, frankly. The quantities definitely made enough for the amount of pasta – I had too much so chucked it in the sauce.

For the sauce:
Baby spinach (wilted in butter, drained and chopped)
1/2 onion
Cream

How to do it:
Pasta: Mix the pasta ingredients to make a dough. Wrap it in a towel to sit for 1/2 an hour.
Filling: Remove the pumpkin’s skin, cut it into pieces and boil till cooked. Drain it and mash it together with the chopped blue cheese and rocket. Season.
Sauce: While you wilt the washed spinach on medium with some butter, dice the onion. When the spinach has shrunk to buggery, drain it and squash out any excess water. Let it cool and chop it all up.



Divide the pasta dough into quarters and roll them out. Vegalicious says to go real thin but be careful - one of mine split.
For your ravioli cases, if you have a nifty press you probably know how to do this far better than I and these instructions won’t be particularly useful other than to give you a laugh. If you don’t, draw a cutter guide on baking paper (hearts, letters, rude bits, whatever), lay it on your floured dough and cut around it.
I would trace a second guide, bigger than the first, for the top layer to accommodate your pumpkin bulge. Spoon the filling on the smaller one, then cover and seal the edges.

Cook the ravioli a couple at a time in boiling, salted water. I used a pan that wasn’t too deep so my fragile little parcels wouldn’t burst. It took at least ten minutes of cooking. They should rise to the surface when done but mine were kind of fat and slovenly.
Keep the cooked ones warm in a covered dish in a low oven (I sprinkled a little water on them so they didn’t dry out.)
For the sauce, saute the onion in olive oil until soft. Add the spinach and some cream and heat through.
Sit the ravioli on top of the sauce so your handiwork is displayed for all to admire. Serve with shaved parmesan.