Making your own pasta is not so hard as you might think, especially if you have a food processor. These large ravioli parcels are filled with crab, apple and cucumber, served with charred spring onions.
Ingredients
For the pasta dough
- 500g/1lb 2oz 00 pasta
flour - 3 free-range
eggs - 2 free-range
egg yolks - pinch
salt
For the filling
- 60g/2¼oz Granny Smith
apple, diced - 60g/2¼oz
cucumber, diced - 300g/11oz white
crabmeat - 1
lemon, zest only - 20g/¾oz
chives, finely chopped - 6
spring onions, washed and left whole with just the root trimmed off - 1 tbsp
olive oil -
sea salt
For the dressing
- 400ml/14fl oz cloudy
apple juice - 100ml/3½fl oz
rapeseed oil - 1 tsp nigella seeds, toasted
-
lemon juice, to taste
Method
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To make the pasta dough, bring all the ingredients together in a food processor and rest for one hour.
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To make the filling, sprinkle the apple and cucumber with salt and set aside for half an hour, then squeeze out the excess liquid.
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In a large mixing bowl mix the crab, lemon zest, chives, apple and cucumber. Season to taste and set aside in the fridge.
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For the dressing, heat the apple juice in a pan to reduce it in volume down to a light syrup. Whisk in the rapeseed oil and the toasted nigella seeds and lemon juice.
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Roll the pasta through the pasta machine until it is smooth and perfectly thin.
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Cut the sheet of pasta into 40 x 15cm/6in squares. This should give you enough space to fill and cut the ravioli out.
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With a tablespoon make a small pile of the crab filling in the middle of 20 of the squares.
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Brush around the filling with water and put another pasta square on top to form a lid. Working from one side of the square seal each parcel all around ensuring that all the air has been removed (otherwise they will burst when cooked). Use a8½cm/3½in wide round pastry cutter to measure out each ravioli, and cut around the pastry cutter with a knife. Check the edges are sealed again. You should be able to make 20 ravioli. Place them on a sheet of floured cling film laid on a baking tray. Set them aside in the fridge until ready to cook.
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Heat a dry frying pan and brush the spring onions in a little oil and season with salt. Add to the pan to colour and steam for a few minutes until slightly charred.
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To cook the ravioli, heat a pan of salted water to boiling. Add the ravioli and boil for a couple of minutes until cooked to your liking and heated through. Once cooked, remove from the water, drizzle with olive oil and season with sea salt.
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To serve, put the ravioli in the bottom of a pasta bowl and lay the charred spring onions over and dress with the apple and nigella seed dressing.
