Beetroot & Goats’ Cheese Ravioli, Burnt Sage Butter with Pine Nuts
This is a recipe that takes a little preparation but it’s most certainly worth the effort. You can make a day ahead so it’s ready to go, for when you want a very quick simple tasty supper.
The beurre noisette (traditional french butter sauce) perfectly compliments this dish with its rich pillowy filled flavoursome, creamy parcels of exquisite joy. Topped with toasted pine nuts and a scattering of black pepper and parmesan, this dish will remind you of a trip to a favourite Italian restaurant.
I hope you enjoy making this recipe for a supper treat for one or for family and friends.
Happy cooking! N x
Serves 4-6 people | Prep time: 2-3 hrs | Cooking time: 10-15 minutes
Ingredients
Pasta Dough
400g 00 flour
50g fine semolina, extra for dusting.
3 medium free range eggs
2 tbsp cold water
1/2 tsp salt
2 medium sized natural cooked beetroot, puréed (use vacuum packed) not in vinegar
1 tbsp Olive oil
(Above makes approx 600g pasta dough, half can be frozen)
Ravioli Filling
2 180g rindless soft goats’ cheese logs
100g fresh parmesan or vegetarian hard cheese (plus extra for serving)
2 medium free range eggs (1 egg for glaze)
Handful of lemon thyme leaves
Handful of fresh parsley, chopped finely
Handful of fresh basil leaves, chopped finely
1 lemon, zest and a squeeze of juice
Salt & pepper seasoning
Burnt Butter with Sage (‘beurre noisette’)
16-20 fresh sage leaves
100g salted butter
75g pine nuts, toasted
Pepper seasoning
Grated parmesan or vegetarian hard cheese
Method
Start by making the pasta dough either by hand or in a food processor. If making by hand on a work surface, mix the flour and semolina together and tip out on to the work bench and create a well in the middle.
Add the whisked eggs, salt, olive oil and beetroot purée.
Fork the flour into the egg mixture gradually until combined. Using your hands, roll the dough until you have a rough dough ball. You may need to add a little cold water if the mixture feels too dry. You should end up with a sticky dough ball.
If using a food processor add all the ingredients and whizz, if using a mixing machine with a dough hook, mix all the ingredients together until you’ve created a sticky dough ball.
Knead the dough for ten minutes on a lightly floured surface until smooth and elastic. Use a bread scraper to scrape up the dough and move it around. Form a smooth dough ball and wrap in cling or a beeswax wrap.
(Try to use as little flour as possible to avoid the dough becoming too dry and dense).
Pop into the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
Whilst the dough is resting in the fridge, make the ravioli filling mixture.
In a bowl add the goats’ cheeses, parmesan, or vegetarian hard cheese, chopped thyme, parsley and basil, one whisked egg, seasoning, lemon zest and juice. Whisk to combine until you have a smooth consistency. Cover and chill until required.
Remove the dough from the fridge and cut in half. Wrap the other half and freeze if necessary.
Sprinkle a light dusting of fine semolina flour on a flat work surface and roll the dough out into a manageable small rectangular shape, that can fit in to your pasta machine.
You can roll the dough by hand, rolling it as thin as possible. You will need to roll a long rectangular strip that can be cut into two equal halves or four equal lengths. You should be able to get 24 pasta ravioli shapes from your strips.
If using a machine, roll the dough through on the first wide setting twice. Keep the dough floured with the semolina if it’s getting too sticky.
Roll through again on a narrower setting. Continue to do this twice working through the settings 2,3 and 4. You may need to take the dough up to setting 6 or 8 to get a 1/16’’ thick rectangular piece of dough. Your dough should be transparent so you can see your fingers through it. You may want to work with four smaller pieces of dough to achieve four lengths instead of two longer lengths. Either way you need your dough to make 24, 2’’ ravioli shapes.
The dough should be quite long by now. If you have the work space cut into two equal sized pieces, if not cut into four if easier.
Lay the dough out onto a semolina floured surface ready to cut out your ravioli shapes.
Starting from the narrower edge working lengthwise. Start an inch inwards and portion a teaspoonful of the filling mixture along the dough sheet an inch apart. You should end up with a dough sheet of 24 separate mounds of filling. If splitting the dough in to four then you’ll have two dough sheets with twelve portions of filling on each sheet.
Using a pastry brush, brush a little egg wash around the edge of the pasta sheets and lay the top sheet over sealing the edge. Using your finger and thumb and the side of your hand seal around the dough pockets of filling, creating little mounds, making the filling tight and removing any air pockets.
This will help to seal the filling in and prevent the pockets bursting open when cooking.
Using a circle or square pasta cutter approx 2’’ diameter or a pasta wheel cut out 24 ravioli shapes. I used a circular steel pastry cutter, cutting two inches apart. You can be as creative as you like with your shapes at this stage.
This will give you 4 large pasta raviolis for 6 people or 6 pasta raviolis for 4 people. Depending on how many portions you’ll require, or how greedy you’re feeling! You can decide how many you need at the cooking stage.
Have a semolina dusted baking tray to hand to place the individual shapes on, leave to dry out for at least an hour.
In a dry frying pan, toast your pine nuts for 2/3minutes, ready for serving.
When you are ready to cook your pasta, pop a pan of water on to boil.
Once boiling, add a little salt and turn down to a medium heat, add the pasta raviolis depending on servings, (don’t overload the pan) to avoid them sticking together.
Cook for 3/4 minutes until they rise to the surface. They don’t take very long to cook at all.
Whilst the pasta is cooking, add the salted butter to a frying pan, on a low heat cook until the butter is foaming. Add the sage leaves and cook until they are browning and crisp. Keep swirling your pan around to avoid the butter burning, it should smell nutty and still have a light buttery colour, not black and burnt.
Remove from the heat. Plate up your ravioli pasta, pour over a drizzle of the butter and sage, sprinkle with toasted pine nuts and a grating of parmesan cheese, season with black pepper.
Serve and enjoy!