Pasta techniques | Live For Pizza

August 21, 2013November 19, 2013

How To Make Ricotta Gnocchi

Soft fluffy gnocchi are one of my favourite comfort foods so when I heard they can be made with ricotta instead of potato I couldn’t wait to try it. The principle is the same and if anything this recipe is more forgiving than potato gnocchi because the ricotta cheese seems to help bind up the gnocchi when they are cooked. I served my first batch tossed through some fresh basil pesto but next time I’m going to try a simple tomato sauce – I think they needed a bit more zing. I’ve also seen these made as spinach and ricotta gnocchi with the addition of some chopped blanched or frozen spinach to the dough.

Ingredients

500g/1lb ricotta cheese. Look for the stuff that comes by the wedge or wheel instead of the gluggy stuff you sometimes get in a tub. The gluggy stuff works but needs more flour added, so the gnocchi will be a little chewier.
1 tbsp grated parmesan
about 1/2 cup plain flour
a grind of salt and pepper
optionally, a pinch of garlic powder

Method

Mix cheeses and seasoning together in a bowl.

Add just enough flour so that the dough can be worked easily and be formed into shapes. It should be smooth but not dry. For the drained ricotta I found, 1/2 cup of flour was about right for half a kilo of ricotta.

Roll pieces of dough into a snake about the thickness of your finger. Cut each snake into lengths about twice that width.

The pieces can be cooked now, but it helps sauce stick to the gnocchi if they are given some texture. This is traditionally done by rolling each piece over a ridged board with your thumb. The result is a slightly hollow shell with lines around the outside. I use a ridged gnocchi board like these ones on Amazon. Alternatives are to use the back of a fork, or a cheese grater – all work well.

ricotta gnocci (1 of 2) — Using a gnocchi board, push away with your thumb

ricotta gnocci (2 of 2) — The gnocchi curls around your thumb, creating a depression and ridges for the sauce to cling to!

ricotta gnocci (1 of 2)-2 — Instead of a gnocchi board, a cheese grater works…

ricotta gnocci (2 of 2)-2 — …or the tines of a fork.

To cook, bring a big pan of water to the boil with a good dash of salt. Cook batches of as many as will fit in the pan in a layer. Cook for a minute or so after they bob to the surface before removing with a strainer. If moving to a dish to serve I find it best to drizzle some oil or butter into the dish first to stop the gnocchi sticking together.

June 1, 2013June 4, 2013

Nettle Green Pasta Dough

After making nettle pizza I had some blanched nettles left over, so nettle pasta seemed like the natural thing to do. I’ve used spinach to make a green pasta dough before but the nettles gave a much more vivid green colour so this is a trick worth remembering! I used the dough to make ravioli, stuffed with cheese, chard and more leftover nettles. I also made a little batch of fettucine – both dishes were lovely. And very green.

nettle pasta (1 of 1)-2 — Nettle Ravioli with olive oil, pepper and parmesan

Ingredients

2 eggs

1 tbsp blanched nettles, very finely chopped

cups plain white flour.

Method

Mix all ingredients in a large bowl. If the mixture is very sticky, mix in 1 tbsp more flour at a time until no longer too sticky to handle. If the mixture is to stiff to work with mix in 1 tsp more water at a time.

Allow the mixture to rest for 10 minutes, then tip out onto a board and knead for a few minutes, until smooth.

Press the dough as flat as possible and pass through the widest setting of a pasta machine, or roll by hand. Fold the strip in half and put it through the machine again. Repeat this step 8-10 times. Then roll through progressively narrower settings until the thickness is right.

Ravioli Filling

3 large leaves of chard or silverbeet, blanched and chopped fine
2 tbsp breadcrumbs, preferable made from stale bread with crusts removed and whizzed in a food processor.
2 tbsp grated parmesan
1/2 cup ricotta
small pinch grated nutmeg

For ravioli lie the dough on a well floured board or clean tea towel and blob on teaspoons of filling, leaving plenty of space between . Top with a second sheet of dough and press down well all around the filling. Use a cookie cutter or pastry wheel to cut out ravioli. Cook in boiling water for a few minutes. Dress with something light like oil and parmesan so the subtle flavours shine through.

May 17, 2013June 4, 2013

How To Make Strichetti

This pasta is taken from the recipe described in Pellegrino Artusi’s Science in the kitchen… and is the first of many recipes I want to try from this book. The shapes are very easy to make, and although a little time consuming the end result is worth the effort. The double loop shape is excellent for holding sauce and it feels good in the mouth, almost like a little dumpling. Interestingly all of the examples I could find described as Strichetti are in the bow tie shape rather than this double fold – although the principle is similar, these hold sauce much better. Artusi serves these in broth but I suggest a rich tomato based sauce to serve. I put the sauce in the bottom of the bowl first, then ladled the pasta straight from the pot onto each bowl of sauce, then spooned over a touch more sauce and added parmesan and pepper. Treating the pasta gently like this let it keep its shape very well.

This recipe makes an entree for 4 or a meal for 3.

Ingredients

2 eggs
200g plain white flour. If a firmer texture is liked, substitute 50g plain flour for fine semolina.

Method

Tip most of the flour into a large mixing bowl, keeping a little aside.

Crack eggs into the bowl and stir with a wooden spoon or fork until there are no more lumps. If the dough feels too sticky to handle easily, add a bit more flour at a time until no longer sticky. It’s much easier to add more flour to a sticky pasta dough than it is to have to knead in more liquid to a very stiff dough! When the dough is workable without being sticky, knead for a few minutes until smooth.

Cover the pasta in a bowl or wrap in glad wrap and set aside for 15-20 minutes.

Flatten dough as much as possible by pressing or rolling on a benchtop before feeding through a pasta machine. Pass through the widest setting a few times, folding the strip in half each time.

Divide the strip in 3, then start feeding a strip through progressively narrower settings on the machine until the right thickness – #2 on my machine. Of course, you can just roll it with a pin instead of using a machine.

Lay the strip on a lightly floured board. Use a fluted pastry cutter to cut strips “a finger and a half wide”.

Then cut on an angle to get diamond shaped pieces.

To shape the pasta, pinch 2 opposite corners together firmly.

Then turn around and pinch the other 2 corners together on the other side. Repeat for each diamond before rolling out the next piece. Work fast so the pieces don’t dry too much – I roped in the family to help.

To cook, bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil with a few tsp salt. Add the pasta, and be ready to start tasting them for done-ness soon after they float to the top. Mine took about 60 seconds after floating up to be cooked to my taste.

You can do without a pasta machine if you don’t mind a bit of work with a rolling pin, but a fluted cutter like this one is worth having for this and lots of other pasta shapes! I found my lovely brass one on ebay second hand.