foody weekend

Well this week's challenge has been spread over Saturday and Sunday, as we caught up with some friends last night so I wasn't able to do my full three course meal!

I was, however, able to serve part of the enree as a snack for us to share. I made a loaf of bread, soft and white, which was to be turned into Bruschetta. I am learning, with this cooking challenge, to be more of a patient cook. There is no way you can rush baking, particularly not yeast based doughs, which need time to rise and prove. The longer you can leave the dough to rise, the softer and fluffier the bread.

Then, the main course (and cooking challenge) was a ravioli I made from scratch. I have tried this in the past but it didn't work out. I think this was because I didn't roll the pasta thin enough. Without a pasta machine you need to get the ravioli paper thin, which takes patience and arm muscles! I made a sweet potato, goats cheese, caramelised onion, basil and pine nut filling, and I served the ravioli with home made pesto and aged parmesan. To make the ravioli, I used a mix of wholegrain and white flour.

I don't think the photographs do this challenge justice but it was absolutely delicious. The combination of flavours was sooo good and the texture was perfect. I was really, really pleased. I think using a pasta maker would still give you a slightly thinner product though, but I'm going to make a heap of these and freeze them in portions. Delicious.

Finally, for dessert, sweet berries with rum sauce and home made ice cream. Delicious!