Homemade Herbed Sausage Ravioli

I am a novice cook, but what I lack in professionalism I do make up in enthusiasm for all things food related. Most of my weekends are filled with new recipes to attempt, using cooking as my place to relax, to be creative and to enjoy myself. I have (luckily) grown up with ideals that it's truly important to spend time on your meals instead of opting for the 3 minute microwave dark side of food.

Pasta Making
Jamie Oliver is pretty much the Holy Grail for me when it comes to recipes - I have yet to stumble across one that doesn't work - and trust me, I have used a lot of his recipes. Jamie Oliver pasta is simply just:

600g '00' pasta flour (or very strong bread flour)
6 large eggs (or 12 egg yolks)

This makes pasta for around 5-6 people I would say.

Putting the flour in a large bowl (you can just mound it on your work surface, but from personal experience this can end up in disaster!) make a well and break all your eggs into the centre. Get a fork and beat the eggs together, gradually bringing in the edges of the flour walls. Now it's time to get your hands in there - mix all the flour and egg together until you form a ball of dough. Don't worry if your dough doesn't look as it should at this point - it is the kneading which will transform it into a smooth ball of workable pasta dough. You want to keep kneading until the grainy, floury feeling of the dough feels smooth to touch - this can take some time and is a bit of a work out!

Now wrap it up tightly in clingfilm and leave in the fridge for 30 mins or until you want to use it that day. I split this amount of pasta up into 2 and froze one half (was cooking for 3).


Sausage Filling (serves 3)                                Tomato Sauce (Simmer for 25-30 mins to reduce)
- 6 good quality sausages                                  - 2 tins chopped tomatoes
- chopped fresh rosemary                                  - 2 cloves garlic
- chopped fresh oregano                                    - chilli powder to taste
- 3 tbsp tomato puree                                         - handful of chopped green olives
- 2 cloves garlic                                                  - chopped fresh oregano
- 1 tbsp breadcrumbs                                         - salt & pepper
- salt & pepper

To construct the Ravioli
Whilst your filling is cooking, start to roll out your pasta - you can use a rolling pin if you don't have a pasta machine - it's just obviously a lot easier and quicker with one. Take your ball of dough and flatten to fit through the largest gauge setting on your machine. Feed through the dough, dusting with flour as you go, from the largest to smallest setting on your pasta machine. To get silky smooth pasta, fold in half and repeat from largest to smallest once more. You want your pasta sheets at a thickness were you can see your hand behind it.

Lay out your pasta sheet on a long work surface - remember to dust the surface with flour first (move everything out the way for this part), and start spooning your filling at equal distances across the bottom half of your pasta sheet. When you have finished delving out your filling, egg wash around your spoonfuls of sausage mix and fold over the top half of pasta to cover the filling. Firmly press around your mixture making sure to seal the pasta, take a circular cutter (mine is about 8 cm wide) place and cut around your mixture - make sure there's at least 1 cm of pasta around the edge. Dust the ravioli and work quickly to cut out the remaining ravioli before the pasta dries out - the drier it is the harder it will be to shape and seal.

When finished drop your ravioli into boiling water for about 4-5 minutes. Enjoy!