Grilled pepper ravioli in hedgehog shapes

I enjoy making ravioli very much. It's quite a bit of work, but so rewarding when you have the end product. I like eating light pasta dishes in the summer, and already a few of these ravioli can be enough for a light summer meal! I thought that my ravioli filling was quite vibrant this time, and of course you can fill some other shaped pasta with it as well. I served the pasta with homemade radish leaf pesto, which is in my mind the best kind of pesto.

These hedgehog ravioli come a little bit late for the Hedgehog Awareness Week this year, but shouldn't every day be about hedgehog awareness anyway? 

Please follow these instructions for making this dish.

Pasta:

400 g grade 00 pasta flour

4 eggs

1 tsp salt

Mix the ingredients and knead into a firm dough. Press the dough into a ball and let it rest wrapped in cling film in the fridge for at least one hour.

Later when you get to assembling the ravioli, roll out the pasta dough thinly with a pasta machine and cut shapes from it.

Ravioli filling:

3 yellow and orange romano peppers (or other peppers)

Vegetable oil for char-grilling

1 small shallot

2 garlic cloves

1 tsp olive oil

50 g vegetarian pasta cheese / vegetarian parmesan

A handful of fresh basil leaves

½ tsp oregano

½ tsp ground black pepper

1 tsp salt

Breadcrumbs (depending on the texture of the paste)

Char-grill the peppers until they have some black grilling marks and roast them at 200C for about 10-15 minutes until they are fully soft with some additional roasting flavours.

Cook the finely chopped shallot and garlic in little olive oil in a pan until soft.

Grate the cheese and purée all ingredients into a firm paste. Add breadcrumbs if the paste seems to be too moist. I had to add about 4 tablespoons to get my moist peppers to settle.

Cut hedgehog-shaped pieces (or any other shapes) from the rolled out pasta dough with a cookie cutter, fill the small hedgehog bellies with the filling (about 1 teaspoon each) and press firmly together. A light brushing of water around the edges helps the ravioli to stick together.

Once assembled, boil the pasta in water until al dente.

Radish leaf pesto:

The leaves from a bunch of radishes

1 clove of garlic

30 g cashew nuts

3-4 tbsp olive oil

A sprinkle of salt

The pesto can be prepared before the pasta making and left in the fridge.

Blanch the radish leaves for ten seconds in boiling water and quickly transfer them into cold water and then drain. Purée the leaves with the other ingredients and place the pesto into the fridge.

Serve the pasta with the pesto and some additional grated vegetarian pasta cheese as the spines and enjoy!

Your VegHog