homemade pasta – Scandelights

Bolognese sauce with red wine and bone marrow

Published on February 5, 2015 by Hanna5 Comments

It is not as often as I would like, that I have time to stand by the stove and look after a casserole (thank god for the oven and slow-cookers), but one Sunday I found the time and enjoyed a few hours in the kitchen. Although made with mince this bolognese was done properly; starting with a soffritto, adding the best tinned tomatoes and tomato purée and eventually red wine and cooking slowly on low heat. In the meantime I prepared some tagliatelle and baked marrow bones to add bone marrow to the casserole towards the end.

The idea to have bone marrow in a bolognese sauce is entirely Massimo Bottura’s and I’ve been thinking about trying it since I heard him speak at Taste of London in June.

I loved the addition of bone marrow but I love it in all types of dishes. This is still a subtle way of serving it, almost sneaking it in, but the depth and umami it adds make wonders for the stew. But, if you don’t like the sound of bone marrow just omit it, the bolognese sauce is still delicious!

Bolognese sauce with red wine and bone marrow, serves 3-4

500 g pork mince

ca 3 tbsp sofritto on equal parts onion, carrot and celery

400 g Cirio chopped tomatoes

200 ml water

1 tbsp Cirio tomato purée

1/2 garlic clove, presser

200-300 ml red wine

salt, black pepper

optional: rosemary and thyme

1 marrow bone

Mix equal parts onions, celery and carrot in a food processor. Use 3 tbsp about it and freeze (or keep in the fridge for other stews) the rest.

Fry the mince in a knob of butter in a frying pan. Add a knob of butter to a casserole dish and fry the soffritto on medium heat for a few minutes. Add the chopped tomatoes and water, tomato purée and garlic. Leave to reduce a little. Add the fried mince and red wine and leave to simmer for about 1 hour. Season to taste and add the herbs if needed. Preheat the oven to 200C and place the marrow bone on a baking tray and roast in the office until cooked through (i.e. not red/pink in the middle but see-through and a little brown at the edges). Scoop out the marrow and add to the casserole. Season to taste one last time then serve (with tagliatelle and plenty of grated parmesan).

Mushroom ravioli with trumpet mushrooms, girolles and sage butter

Published on October 31, 2013 by HannaLeave a comment

It was a while ago I made pasta but last Saturday I had a whole day to potter around the kitchen so out came the pasta maker.

I’m still quite amazed at how easy it is to actually make the pasta. Making ravioli out of said pasta is a little fiddly but not difficult at all. And it is so very delicious!

The filling with shallots, garlic, mini portobello mushrooms, dried ceps, parsley and ricotta is simply divine and easy to make. Served with fried shallots, trumpet mushrooms and girolles as well as sage butter this is such a satisfying autumn dish. Ideal for dinner parties (you can make it ahead) or a romantic evening at home with a significant other.

Hanna’s mushrooms ravioli, serves 2-3

double batch of pasta dough

polenta

3 tbsp butter, for frying

3 small shallots, finely chopped

1 large garlic clove, grated

300 g mini portobello mushrooms or other flavourful fresh ‘shrooms

2 tbsp dried ceps (porcini) covered with hot water and drained

2 tbsp chopped parsley

salt, black pepper

75 g ricotta

To serve:

1 handful dried trumpet mushrooms and girolles, covered with hot water and drained

1/2 shallots, finely chopped

50 g salted butter

5 sage

parmesan, finely grated

Melt the butter in a large frying pan on medium heat. Add onions and garlic and fry until translucent for about five minutes (be careful not to brown it). Add the mushrooms (both dried and fresh) and fry until nice and golden and all the juices have evaporated from the pan. Add the parsley and season generously. Leave to cool completely. In a food processor pulse the mixture until it is finely chopped (but not a mush). Mix with the ricotta and adjust the seasoning. Keep in the fridge until needed.

Make the pasta dough according to the instructions. After it has rested divide it into 3-4 pieces. Flatten each piece out and run it through the pasta maker, twice on the 0 setting and once on every setting up to 5. Sprinkle your work surface with polenta (for the pasta not to stick) and place the pasta sheets on top. Measure with your ravioli stamp how close you can place the dollops of filling on one pasta sheet and place teaspoon sized dollops of the mushroom ricotta mixture on that sheet. Dip two fingers in water and ‘brush’ the surface of the pasta, all around the dollops, with your fingers. The water will act as glue between the pasta sheets. Carefully place another pasta sheet on top of the one with the filling (brush off the polenta first). Start at one end and carefully encase the filling in the pasta, making sure there are no air bubbles and that the pasta sheets stick in between the filling. Use your ravioli stamp to cut out the ravioli. Place on a plate or baking sheet sprinkled with polenta. Cover with clingfilm until needed.

Repeat the process using up all the pasta dough, including the scraps left from cutting out the ravioli.

To cook; bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Add the ravioli (if a lot cook in batches) and let it cook for 2-3 minutes (they should rise to the surface). Remove with a slotted spoon and transfer straight to the deep serving plates.

While the pasta is cooking, fry the shallots and mushrooms in some butter. Season. Place the rest of the butter in a small saucepan and let it melt. Add the sage.

Spoon the sage butter on top of the ravioli, scatter the mushrooms around and top with plenty of grated parmesan. Serve immediately.

Homemade tagliatelle with mushrooms, garlic and parsley

Published on March 27, 2013 by Hanna1 Comment

On Sunday my visiting friend Carina helped me make pasta, and it was a lot easier to have someone helping me roll it out on the pasta machine.

We were both tired and wanted something satisfying but not heavy, so instead of a creamy mushroom sauce I opted for fried mushrooms with quite a lot of butter (instead of a sauce), garlic, parsley and truffle oil served with grated pecorino.

This is a very simple dish, yet absolutely delicious. This certainly proves (yet again) that good produce is all you need to make good food.

Homemade tagliatelle with mushrooms, garlic and parsley, serves 2-3

double batch pasta (made form 200 g flour and 2 eggs)

150 g fresh mini portobello mushrooms, sliced

1 handful mixed dried mushrooms (girolles, black trumpet and cepe), soaked in water and drained, kept whole

2-3 tbsp salted butter

1 garlic clove, chopped

1 handful parsley, chopped

salt, black pepper

truffle oil

grated pecorino

Make the pasta and cut into tagliatelle. Scatter on a platter or tray with polenta so it can dry out a little without sticking together. Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil.

Melt half the butter in a frying pan and fry all the mushrooms on high heat. Add the garlic towards the end. Season and add the parsley. Keep warm.

Cook the pasta for 1-2 minutes. Drain and return to pan. Add the mushrooms. Melt the remaining butter and add that too along with a few drops of truffle oil. Mix well and plate. Serve with grated pecorino.

Butternut squash and ricotta ravioli with lemon and nutmeg

Published on February 12, 2013 by Hanna1 Comment

When I went to school back in Sweden I was a very fussy eater when it came to school dinners. The food was just so far away from the made from scratch kind of food my mother and grandmothers cooked.

I remember my mother being very concerned, and on a school visit she made sure she had lunch with me. I was so glad that it was ravioli that day – one of my least favourite dishes, so my mother could see why I was so fussy. And she too, struggled to eat it. And from then on she always made sure to send lots of buns, crisp breads and fruit with me to school, just in case I didn’t like the lunch.

Nowadays I don’t think I am considered a fussy eater, but I still don’t eat ‘bad’ food, like those school dinners. They put me off things like lasagne and ravioli for years.

This ravioli however, is as far away as possible from the school version. Instead it is light and fresh with the sweet butternut marrying the earthy nutmeg and sharp lemon. The ricotta I think, add balance to the flavours.

Butternut squash and ricotta ravioli with lemon and nutmeg, serves 4

Pasta dough:

200 g 00-flour

2 eggs

Filling:

1/2 butternut squash

plenty of freshly grated nutmeg

approx 125 g ricotta

ca 1 tsp lemon zest

salt, black pepper

Sage butter:

50 g salted butter

5 large sage leaves, more to decorate

Cut the butternut squash in half and remove the seeds. Place skinside down on a roasting tray. Drizzle with olive oil and season. Roast until soft, about 40 mins, 180C. Scrape out the soft flesh and place it in a bowl. Mush it up with a spoon or a stick blender. Add nutmeg and seasoning. Leave to cool completely.

Weigh up the flour in a mixing bowl. Make a well in the middle and add the eggs. Knead into a dough. If too dry, add a tsp of olive oil, if too sticky add more flour. Shape into a ball and cover with cling. Let it rest for 30 minutes.

Mix the butternut squash mash with roughly the same amount of ricotta. Add the lemon zest, season to taste and if you like, add some more nutmeg.

Divide the dough into 4 pieces and roll it out using a pasta machine. Let the dough go through the widest setting three times while folding in between, then once on each setting until as thin as you prefer. I stopped at setting 7.

Place the thin pasta sheets on a floured surface. Place a teaspoonful of the filling on one of the pasta sheets with the same space in between the dollops. Brush the pasta with water all around the fillings. Cover with another pasta sheet, non-floured side down. Start at one end and flatten the pasta sheet on top of the other using your hand to protect the filling and to avoid air bubbles. Either cut into ravioli with a knife or use a ravioli cutter. If any excess dough is left over just roll it out again.

Bring a large pan of water to the boil and add plenty of salt to it. Add the pasta pieces 8-1o at the time. Remove with a slotted spoon once the pasta pillows have surfaced. This takes about a minute.

In the meantime melt the butter in a pan and add the sage leaves.

To serve, place 6-8 ravioli on each plate. Drizzle with the sage butter, add a sage leaf as decoration and serve with plenty of grated parmesan.

Homemade pasta!

Published on January 30, 2013January 30, 2013 by Hanna3 Comments

Monday last week was a historic day. It was the day when I finally made my own pasta.

I used a recipe from Simply Italian, a series that really inspired me to try it. Michaela in the show just make it seem so easy. And it was!

I will definitely make use of my handsome pasta maker on a regular basis. There are so many things I would like to try.

But for that first time last Monday, I stuck to what I knew; the amazing tagliatelle with browned butter, truffle oil and heaps of grated parmesan.

Homemade pasta, basic recipe

This is just a basic recipe that you can double, quadruple etcetera depending on how much you want to make.

100 g 00 flour

1egg

polenta

Pour the flour into a bowl or place in a heap on a surface. Make a dent in the flour and crack the egg. Combine with your hands or a wooden fork and knead into an elastic dough. If it is too crumbly, add 1 tsp olive oil, if too sticky add some more flour. Shape into a ball, wrap with cling and leave to rest for 30 minutes.

Divide the dough into three pieces and flatted. While working with one, make sure the other two are covered with cling as not to dry out. Run the dough piece through the pasta machine, 3 times on the widest setting, then 1-2 times per setting as working your way down to the thickness you prefer. Repeat with the other dough pieces and cut into tagliatelle using the machine. Place on a plate and sprinkle with polenta (to stop them sticking to each other) and leave to uncovered to dry for 5 minutes. Bring a large pan of water to the boil and add salt. Add the pasta and let it cook for about a minute. When the strands surface they’re done. Drain and serve.