Homemade Sweet Potato & Pesto Ravioli
The picture on the left is me when I was 10 (The leopard print onesie was always my go to outfit!) after getting the birthday present I had wanted for a couple of years. Unlike most 10 year olds it wasn't an I-Pad or the latest trainers but a pasta machine. I was watching "Jamie and Jimmy's Friday Night Feast" and loved the idea of having my own pasta machine to make my own fresh pasta and ravioli. Although, at the time I followed a recipe, I have since created my own ravioli recipe comprising some of my favourite pasta flavours. The beauty of a pasta machine is it speeds up the process severely as without it, in order to get the perfect, incredibly thin, sheets to make the pasta shapes, you have to roll it out a great deal which is tiring, incredibly boring and often not as effective as using the machine- at least it certainly doesn't taste like fresh Italian Ravioli! I have always been a big pasta eater but the best ravioli I have ever tried was actually in Rome during Christmas 2017. The filling consisted of sweet potato and something I assume was either sage or a similar herb providing the most mouth-watering assortment of flavours- even better the ravioli was drizzles in olive oil and parmesan to give the pasta the perfect flavour to! I decided against recreating the exact dish as I knew it wouldn't be as good but have created a similar filling which I think is just as delicious as well as much easier and cheaper (and even follows the same colour scheme!). Although you don't really need a pasta machine for this recipe, I would highly recommend it to speed up the boring part of the recipe. I hope this recipe is enjoyed by you and your family as much as we all love it!
Here is my recipe for Homemade Sweet Potato & Pesto Ravioli:
Ingredients: (Serves 4-6)
For The Ravioli:
- 230g Plain White/Wholemeal Flour +more for dusting (I alternate between the flours depending on what filling and sauces I am doing)
- 1tsp Salt
- 2 Eggs
- 1-2tbs Water (depending on the texture of your dough)
- 1 Large Sweet Potato, cooked and mashed
- 50g Cream Cheese
- 1-2tbs Pesto (depending on how strong you like the pest flavour)
- 1tbs Everything But The Bagel Seasoning (optional but recommended!)
Method:
- To make the ravioli filling, simply mix all the filling ingredients together until fully combined (yep, its that simple!)
- Pour your flour onto a clean work surface and make a small well in the middle
- Sprinkle the salt on top, then crack the eggs into the well
- Using a fork, whisk the eggs in the well gradually bringing the flour into the egg mixture
- When more doughy, use your hands to knead the mixture together adding water if too dry and more flour if too wet
- Roll out your dough as thin as you can using a rolling pin (maximum 0.5cm thick)
- Secure you pasta machine in place, then roll your dough through the machine until it is thin enough to go through number 8 of the machine (if you don't have a machine you need to roll the dough until it is 0.1cm thick)- it should be thin enough to read through if you placed a newspaper underneath!
- Using a glass, cut your ravioli into circles
- Place 1tsp of your filling in the middle of one half of the circle, fold over the other half then use a fork to stick together
- Place all the finished ravioli on a baking tray-leaving them to dry for around 45 minutes
- Boil as you would normal ravioli (for me this is around 10 minutes)
- Serve plain with a drizzle of olive oil or with a simple pomodoro sauce (and of course lots of cheese!)
- Enjoy!!
