cooking challenge week thirteen: homemade pasta

This was a great challenge. The kind of challenge I started this whole adventure to get to grips with. I am so pleased! I can't wait to whip up another batch of home made pasta. I made a ravioli with sweet potato, caramelised onion, goats cheese and basil. Honestly, one of the nicest things I've eaten. Certainly one of the nicest I've made. I topped it with a simple, rustic pesto - heavy on all the classic ingredients - loads of fresh basil, pine nuts, really hearty parmesan and good olive oil.

For the pasta:

You will need:

2.5 cups strong white flour (type "oo" if possible - and I actually used half whole grain flour)

4 organic free range eggs, at room temperature

A few tablespoons oil

A teaspoon of salt

What to do:

Sift your flour into a mound on the top of your work surface, and add a teaspoon of salt. Make a deep well in the centre. Crack one egg in and beat lightly to break the yolk. Incorporate some of the flour. Repeat with the next three eggs and then start to mix more and more of the flour until you have a crumbly dough. Add a tablespoon of oil, then a tablespoon of water, one at a time, until you have the consistency of a stretchy but firm dough.

Wrap in lightly oiled cling film and refrigerate for at least a half hour.

Lightly sprinkle flour on a clean work surface and roll the flour out, if you're working manually. You need to get the dough paper thin - about a milimetre, so you should be able to pick it up, hold it to the light and see through it. Obviously this is easier with a pasta maker but hey, let's go rustica! Because I was making ravioli, I did this in batches. The aim is to get two strips of dough that are roughly the same size.

Spoon your mixture equally along one strip then use an egg wash to cover the exposed pasta. Drape the other piece of dough over the top. You need to take your time to squeeze the air bubbles out of the ravioli. Work from the inside of the mix out. Use your fingertips to press the edges down. Use a cup to slice the pasta into rounds, or a knife to cut into squares.

Pasta should need to boil for around 2 minutes at the most. And it is GOOD. I am going to make a spaghetti tomorrow night, so stay tuned as I'll update with my success!

To make the ravioli filling, I peeled and sliced one small sweet potato until soft. Caramelised onion - One onion, finely chopped, mixed with 1 tablespoon butter, 1 tablespoon oil, 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar and 1.5 tablespoons brown sugar. Mix well and simmer over a low heat for around 30 minutes. Keep stirring to ensure it doesn't stick to the bottom or burn. Mix with finely chopped basil, and a good quality goats cheese. Season to taste and mix all ingredients together until you get the consistency of chunky mash potato.

For the pesto - use a food processor or hand mixer to combine basil, pine nuts, organic garlic (my new love!), olive oil, parmesan cheese and salt until you get the right consistency.

If you love pasta, then make this! You'll never buy store bought filled pasta again.