This easy 'how to make ravioli' guide makes fresh, filled pasta simple thanks to expert advice from celebrity chef Theo Randall.
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00:00Hello my name is Theo Randall from Theo Randall at the Intercontinental. Today
00:03I'm going to show you how to make ravioli.
00:10So first of all we're going to start with the filling. So the filling we have
00:12some spinach, now you can do anything you want, you
00:15could use broccoli, you could use the classic chimo de
00:19rapé which is the turnip tops, you could use swiss chard,
00:22anything kind of green and slightly robust that you can cook
00:26and then finely chop and mix in some ricotta and some parmesan cheese.
00:30So we've just got spinach here, so I've left the stalks on the spinach so it's
00:33got a nice texture to it, then I'm just going to finely chop the
00:36blanched spinach which I've squeezed out. Now it's important that you take out a
00:39lot of the water because if it's too wet the mixture
00:43will be too wet which will make the pasta soggy.
00:45So it's really important to make sure that you squeezed it out.
00:50Now I find if you blanch the spinach and you then put it into a colander let it
00:54cool down to room temperature it's much better
00:57flavour than by putting it into ice-cold water because when you put in
01:00ice-cold water it dilutes the flavour so it takes a
01:03little bit longer but you get a much nicer result.
01:06So finely chop the spinach so it's really fine,
01:09you can leave a little bit of texture in there but it's quite nice if it's nicely
01:12finely chopped and then we're going to add some
01:14ricotta cheese and we're going to add some parmesan and some salt and pepper.
01:19So very very simple filling okay so we put the
01:22chopped spinach into a bowl then we're going to add
01:26our ricotta cheese so just lovely fresh ricotta
01:30mix that in together with the spinach and then we're going to add some
01:37parmesan, a nice amount of freshly grated parmesan cheese,
01:41some salt and pepper, freshly ground black pepper
01:45and sea salt. Make sure it's quite well seasoned because
01:49it's going to be blanched in the pasta so the filling has to be really quite
01:53strong. Just mix the spinach and the ricotta
01:56and the parmesan using a teaspoon we're going to put the
02:00filling now temptation is to make really large
02:02balls of filling make them very very quite smallish because if they're too
02:06big when you push the pasta together it's all going to come out the sides
02:09it's very important one there's a gap and two it's very very clean in between
02:12each ravioli otherwise what will happen is the filling
02:15will get stuck in between the two sheets of pasta so when it cooks
02:19it will open up. Now if you're doing this on a larger scale or professional level
02:23you can use a piping bag but I'm just using a teaspoon because we
02:26are cooking at home. Portions of filling with a decent gap
02:29and take at least two fingers in between each
02:32each gap then we're just going to get some water and we're going to run
02:36some cold water over each part of the pasta dough so basically acts like a
02:42sealant so like almost like a glue. So just some water
02:45just cold water pastry brush then rub that in between not too much don't make
02:49it too wet but just enough so it gives a bit of moisture and then along the
02:53bottom of each bit of pasta and then we just
02:56fold the pasta over just fold this over the top pasta's just
03:00nice slightly moist because I put that tea towel on top which kept it nice and
03:03juicy if you don't do that what will happen is when you fold it over the
03:06pasta will break and crack and that is a disaster. So fold this over
03:12push down sort of pushing it almost towards you but making sure that that
03:16bit of dough is not sticking to the other piece of dough yet and
03:19then using your two little fingers just push down and what we're trying
03:23to do now is get rid of all of the air there's no air in between the little
03:27pasta parcel because if there's air and you pop it into the
03:32water what will happen is the air will expand and explode
03:35you'll end up with some horrible ravioli that's all sealed and then
03:39using the cup of your hand over the ravioli and push down
03:43and that will release all of the air so push down
03:46and then just keep pushing down so all that air comes out
03:49and you end up with lovely sealed raviolis getting this as well
03:53and then we're going to get our cutter and cut the ravioli if you got on the
03:56zigzag one even better but I've just got a straight sided one here and then just
04:00cut along make sure that you've got those bits
04:02of pasta sealed nicely this side as well getting rid of the little trimmings of
04:06pasta and then just cut the pasta and take off
04:10the surface and then once you've done that just go
04:13through the ravioli and make sure that all the edges
04:16are sealed by literally picking up each one and then just press
04:19so it's all sealed it's definitely worth doing this because if you don't then you
04:22might get a little hole in there a little bit of semolina flour on the
04:25bottom just to make sure it doesn't stick and then
04:27we're actually going to put this onto a tray and pop it in the fridge now
04:30the temptation with anything goes in the fridge is to cover it with cling film
04:34if you cover it with cling film what will happen is the pasta will remain
04:37really soggy you want the pasta to almost dry out and the fridge is
04:40brilliant because it'll evaporate the moisture squeezing
04:43each edge and making sure that filling is nice and
04:46tight inside and then once you've done that put it
04:50straight in the fridge
04:54okay so the pasta's been in the fridge for about 20 minutes so it's got a
04:57slight dryness to it so when you cook it'll have a lovely
05:00al dente bite now if you have any leftover bits of pasta like here
05:04the best thing to do is just scrunch them up and then put them through
05:07the pasta machine again and make some tagliatelle or tagliarini if they're a
05:10bit dry put them in the food processor with a
05:12little bit of water and then just give it a quick blitz and
05:15then wrap it in cling film and use it another time
05:17but a good kitchen is a frugal kitchen so use up every scrap of pasta you have
05:21left over I can now cook the ravioli
05:27so just put the ravioli in one by one in simmering water not fast boil just
05:32simmering water for three to four minutes and then take the pasta out and
05:36put them into a pan with some butter and some sage and a ladle of the pasta water
05:40move the pasta in the pan together so it emulsifies
05:43so the ravioli is really nice and emulsified it's got the lovely kind of
05:47juice from the pasta water and the butter and the sage
05:50so we're just going to plate up nice generous large
05:54ravioli so that sage just the sage just soft it's not fried it's just kind of
05:59soft and it has a nice lovely sort of flavour to it it's really
06:02made the buttery sauce that goes with it let's serve with some parmesan cheese
06:07and some black pepper very simple very delicious ravioli