Mushroom and walnut ravioli

S made me a nice Saturday lunch, so I decided to make him a nice dinner. His favourite food is pasta. I made a fresh, eggless pasta a few weeks ago, and wondered if the same dough would work as ravioli. Which, I just realised, is a merger of two of S's favourite food things: pasta, and little packages. I had been thinking about what would be good as a filling, and mushroom and walnut was a forerunner. So when we got home with mushrooms among our grocery shopping I decided to go for it and give ravioli a shot.

(made 12 fairly large ravioli = a good quantity for two people, with some dough left over that made a portion or two of fettucine to dry out)

For the pasta:
1 cup pasta flour
1 cup plain flour
1 tbsp gram flour
1 tsp salt
water

For the filling:
olive oil
2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
~8 medium sized mushrooms, cleaned and finely diced
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tbsp chanterelle mushroom powder
1 tsp white vermouth
1/2 tbsp chickpea and barley three-year (dark) miso
~10 walnut halves, half ground / half chopped
salt+pepper

First, make the pasta. Mix the flours and salt in a heap on a clean work surface. Make a well in the middle and add water, mixing with your fingers until it comes together into a dough. Knead for a few minutes, until the dough is pliable. Wrap in clingfilm and put it in the fridge for ~30 min.

While the dough is chilling, prepare the filling. Heat ~1 tbsp of olive oil in a medium frying pan. Add the garlic and fry until softened and starting to go light brown. Add the mushrooms, mushroom powder and thyme and cook, stirring occasionally, so the mushrooms soften, go dark and release their liquid. Continue cooking until the liquid is reabsorbed / evaporated. Add the vermouth and cook until it too is evaporated. Add the miso, walnuts and seasoning to taste.

The pasta dough should have had sufficient time in the fridge by now. Take one third and roll out on a floured surface until thin. Cut out circular pieces using a Coke glass or other circular cutter. Pair them up. Place a teaspoon full of the mushroom filling mixture in the centre of one of each pair of circles. Lightly wet the edge of the circle around the mushroom pile, then place the other circle of the pair on top and squish the two circles together all around their circumference with your fingers. Try not to let any air get sealed in the middle. You can press around the edge with a fork as well if you want to be sure of the seal.

As each one is completed, transfer it to a baking sheet lined with coarse cornmeal or semolina. Refrigerate them on the baking sheet until you are ready to cook them. Roll out the next third of dough (and then the next third) and shape more ravioli, continuing to add the completed shapes to the collection on the baking sheet until you are out of filling. If there is any remaining dough you can just roll it out and shape it into fettucine or another shape, and dry it out if you don't feel like eating it all straight away.

To cook the pasta, bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Put the ravioli in. Cook for about 5 minutes - they will float, then you will need to cook them for a minute or two longer. The exact cooking time will vary depending on the thickness of the pasta. Serve with a drizzle of olive oil (or truffle oil?) and some salt and pepper, or with whatever kind of sauce takes your fancy.


These turned out good: S loved them and said they were one of the best things I ever cooked. The pasta was a little thick - it is hard to roll it out really thin manually, and since these involve a double layer of dough all around the perimeter any slight too-thick-ness is magnified. We both quite enjoyed the thickish pasta anyway, although I don't know if it would have passed inspection on Masterchef... None of them burst while cooking - think using water to help the seal was a good tip. Not sure if the gram flour made any difference (might be an idea to try varying the quantities of the different types of flour in the dough more though?). The filling was really successful - incredibly flavourful and savoury, and a great texture. The next filling I'd like to try is butternut squash, sage and hazelnut or pecan.

Steamed asparagus, sesame, miso

Asparagus is wonderful stuff. I like it just as it is, lightly steamed or fried. But for maximum enjoyment I think it needs a little bit of a smooth, creamy sauce. Hollandaise is traditional, but I find it bland, slimy, overly rich and cloying. I tried a version with miso before and wasn't sure about it. This is an variation on that idea, and I really like it.

1 bunch of asparagus

2 tbsp white miso
2 tbsp tahini
1 tsp honey (or sugar)
1 tbsp mirin or white wine or vermouth
1/2 tsp sesame oil
juice of 1/2 a lime
water

2 tsp white sesame seeds
2 tsp black sesame seeds
1-2 tsp chopped fresh coriander

Wash the asparagus. Trim it: starting at the base keep bending the stem until you reach a point where it breaks, discard the base part and keep the tip. Put the tips in a steamer and steam for about 10 minutes, until tender but still bright green (check along the way to make sure it isn't overcooking). Put straight into cold water to stop cooking.

While the asparagus is cooking, make the sauce by mixing together the miso, tahini, lime juice, honey, wine and sesame oil. Add water until you get a thick, creamy, just-pourable consistency. Separately, mix the two different kinds of sesame seeds together.

Arrange the cooked asparagus on a plate and drizzle the sauce all over. Sprinkle the sesame seeds and chopped coriander over the top. Done!


This is delicious, and takes about 15 min from beginning to end so great for a weeknight supper. It's a bit early in the year for asparagus but I found some in the reduced section and figured it was only going to waste if I didn't eat it...

Mushroom barley 'risotto'

I had been trying to solve a problem with risotto: you really need white wine to make it good, but if we opened a bottle of white wine for risotto the other 90% of the bottle will go wrong before we'd ever get around to drinking/using it.  I did some research, and decided the answer might be to use white vermouth instead: you can put the lid back on and keep it in the cupboard til next time.  We bought it at the same time as creme de cassis (for cake) and a bottle of single malt (for Burns Supper) - what a weird combination.

Last night S and I had quite a lengthy discussion about what to do for dinner, and in the end I made a mushroom risotto with barley instead of risotto rice.  Mushrooms and barley are one of those combinations that is just meant to be, in my book

1 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
~ 8 mushrooms, cleaned and sliced (use a mixture of different kinds of fresh and dried mushrooms if you have them)
1/2 tbsp thyme leaves
~1 cup pearl barley
1 tsp soy sauce (optional)
3 tbsp white vermouth
~3 cups vegetable stock
2 tbsp parsley, chopped
salt+pepper

toasted sunflower seeds, to serve

Heat oil in a medium saucepan, add the onion and garlic, cover and sweat for 5-10 minutes, until the onions are softened.  Add the mushrooms and thyme and cook for a bit longer, uncovered, until the mushrooms are browned, then add the soy sauce.  Add the pearl barley and stir and mix for a few minutes to coat.  Add the vermouth and cook until it is mostly evaporated.  Next add the stock a bit at a time, stirring and waiting for it to bubble off while you cook.  As you get close to using it all up taste the barley grains for texture - they are good with a little bite left.  Use a little more or less stock until the texture is good.  The cooking process takes about half an hour.  Finally, add the parsley and season to taste.  Serve with toasted sunflower seeds on top, if you want.


This was pretty successful.  The vermouth worked very well as a wine substitute.  The process took about an hour from beginning to end: more than I was thinking when I was just thinking of the barley cooking time.  May consider soaking the barley in stock while doing the first steps to speed it up, but I think the flavour might not be as good.  Happy to have the fresh thyme and parsley too, they really made it good.