Red pepper ravioli

I am such a big fan of homemade filled pasta, and I always try to make up new variations of it. They do take some effort to make, but the results are normally phenomenal! Today I made some giant ravioli (well, could always be bigger...), which had a nice and intense red roasted bell pepper filling.

Here are the ingredients and the method for making this pasta dish. You can combine the ravioli with just a simple tomato sauce or even just with butter and cheese and a side salad (I have made photos of each serving suggestion, please see below).

Pasta:

400 g flour

4 eggs

1 tsp salt

Filling:

2 red peppers

1 tsp olive oil (for brushing the peppers for roasting)

3 tbsp pine nuts

1 garlic

50 g Jarlsberg cheese

½ tsp salt

1 tbsp fresh oregano leaves

5 tbsp breadcrumbs (check consistency before adding all)

Method:

Make the pasta first as it needs to rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. Knead the flour with the salt and eggs into a firm dough. Add little water if the dough is too tough. Once you are happy with the texture, wrap the dough in a cling film and set to rest in the fridge.

For the filling quarter the peppers and remove the seeds. Brush them with olive oil and roast in the oven at 180C for about 30 minutes until they are soft and have roasted flavour.

Toast the pine nuts in a dry pan for a couple of minutes. Add the chopped garlic into the pan just to be heated through quickly. Grate the cheese and then puree all the filling ingredients to a firm paste with a hand mixer, and add more or less breadcrumbs depending on the moisture of the mix. You wouldn't want a runny filling as it can escape the ravioli more easily.

Then start making thin pasta sheets. Roll the dough in small batches a few times through a pasta machine to make thin sheets. Cut out whatever shapes you like of the sheets with a cookie cutter or a knife, and fill them with a generous teaspoon of the filling by leaving an edge of about 1 cm all around. Brush the edges with water and then stick the pasta pieces firmly together. Press them down with a fork if needed. Set to side.

When the whole dough has been worked on and filled, boil water in a large pan and cook the ravioli until al dente and serve. Also check out my other ravioli recipes here.

Stay hungry and share your pasta making experiences with me!

Your VegHog