Chicken and Spinach Ravioli

I had been eyeing off a ravioli maker and yesterday saw that the kitchen ware shop had a sale on. Of course the store had sold the ravioli maker the night before as they were half price. Luckily they had another store 15 minutes drive away which had six in stock. So I promptly drove down to pick up my new ravioli maker.

I also bought a few extra ingredients so that I could make spinach and chicken ravioli. I really only  needed chicken mince and some fresh ricotta as I keep strong flour normally for pasta making and had spinach growing in the garden. The spinach looked good the last time I looked at it but we have had some severely hot weather which has wilted my plant. I rescued what I could and will make do.

My ravioli tasted fine but the finished product was very rustic
Anyway here it is...

Filling
300g Chicken mince cooked with chopped garlic and pepper
one cup of chopped cooked spinach
300g ricotta cheese
Mix altogether. My food processor has died but feel free to give it a quick whiz for a smoother texture.

Pasta

Ratio of 1 egg to 100gram of strong flour

I used 500g flour (bread flour) and five eggs

You can substitute water for eggs, 3 eggs and 50ml water give or take a little bit

The dough should form a nice ball after kneading but not be too sticky.

Rest the dough for 30 minutes wrapped in plastic film in the refrigerator

With your pasta machine roll out a sheet double the length of your ravioli tray ( I did mine to number 2 -reasonably thin).

Semolina flour is useful to help dry the pasta as you are rolling it through the pasta machine to stop it from sticking and also helps to stop it from adhering to the ravioli plate. Dab pasta sheet prior to laying sheet on base plate with semolina. Shape base sheet with mould provided and then fill indents with filling.  Fold back rest of pasta sheet to form top and sprinkle with semolina flour and roll with rolling pin to seal and cut ravioli

Mine only were indented by ravioli pattern and required hand cutting (although the instructions on the box said wait an hour for pasta to dry- not very hygienic with chicken in 37C degree heat)

Six minutes in a boiling pan of water and top with prepared tomato sauce. Being so hot I cheated and opened a large tin of diced tomatoes with a tin of pasta sauce added some pepper and smoked paprika and away we went.

I told you it looked rustic - no points for presentation but the children all said it was nice

And after dinner I sat under the air conditioner and did a little more crotchet on the wave blanket.

And then every chance I had over the weekend.

Can you see a pattern developing?

3 rows of each colour x3 colours (blue red white)

Repeat colours with x2 rows of each colour ( blue red white)

Drop the first colour and introduce a new colour at the end of the next block of 3x3 colours (drop blue then do red white -new colour - orange) . Repeat colours in rows of 2.

And plod along until your fingers ache.....

Time for more crotchet... Thanks for joining me.