Make the pasta
Ingredients
3 eggs
2 tsp olive oil
½ tsp salt
300g flour
1 Whisk eggs with oil and salt.
2 For the time-saving method, place flour in a food processor with egg mix then blend until a dough starts to form. Tip out on to the bench and knead aggressively by hand until firm, smooth and slightly silky and elastic to the touch; add a little flour if too sticky. Divide in two, flatten dough as much as possible then wrap tightly in cling film and rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.
For the handmade method, tip flour on the bench, make a well then pour in egg mix. Using clean hands work the flour into the eggs until a dough begins to form. Continue to knead as above. Get the recipe
Make the ravioli (serves 4)
Ingredients
¾ cup golden raisins
¼ peeled, diced pumpkin
3 Tbsp olive oil
⅛ tsp nutmeg
Fresh egg pasta dough (recipe above)
3 Tbsp butter
¼ cup picked sage leaves
½ cup soft goat's cheese or goat's feta
1 Heat oven to 160C. Pour 2 cups boiling water over raisins and allow to soak. When plump and cool, drain and keep aside.
2 Toss pumpkin in olive oil, season with salt then place in a roasting dish. Cover with foil and cook for 40 minutes until soft. Allow to cool then mash, mixing in nutmeg. Season lightly with salt and pepper.
3 Unwrap the pasta dough and flatten into a rectangle shape slightly thicker than the pasta machine's widest setting (number 1). Dust lightly with flour and roll through machine. Turn the dial to the next narrowest setting and roll again, gently pulling with your hand as it feeds through. Don't allow it to bunch up and jam under the machine. Continue to roll dough through, dusting lightly with flour as you go — narrowing the setting each time, until the desired thickness is reached.
For ravioli it is best to get the pasta as thin as possible, but this does make it harder to work with. Start off with rolling your dough to the third or second-narrowest setting and practise making ravioli. Once you have mastered this, try rolling the next batch a little thinner.
4 Lightly dust the bench with flour, lay pasta sheet on top. Cut into 40cm lengths. Work with one sheet at a time, otherwise, the sheets will dry out too quickly and be too hard to form shapes (leave the rest under a clean dry tea towel). Pipe pumpkin on pasta at regular intervals or spoon dots at regular intervals.
5 Lightly brush the tiniest amount of water on to the pasta around the pumpkin to help seal. Carefully fold pasta sheet over and use your fingers to press and seal the dough, forming it into squares around the pumpkin; try to eliminate air pockets forming.
6 Use a ravioli wheel to cut to shape, lift off and place on a lightly floured tray lined with greaseproof paper.
7 To cook ravioli, use two large pots of boiling, generously salted water. Add 2 tsp olive oil and gently cook ravioli for 5-6 minutes until they are al dente. Meanwhile, in a large frying pan, cook the butter on a medium heat until it starts to turn brown. Add sage leaves and drained raisins. Turn off heat. When ravioli are cooked, carefully drain then add to the sauce in the frying pan. Lightly toss ravioli in butter sauce then serve on hot plates or bowls.
8 Spoon raisins, sage leaves and butter sauce over ravioli and garnish with crumbled goat's cheese. Get the recipe
