butternut squash and red pepper ravioli in a sage butter sauce.

I love making homemade pasta. There is just such a richness to the finished result, which makes it a very special treat indeed. It’s a labour of love and I always enjoy thinking up ideas for ravioli and tortellini fillings as well as sauces for fresh spaghetti and pappardelle.

In creating a recipe with Bertolli, it made sense to use it as an opportunity to embrace real, fresh pasta and Italian inspiration. On their recipe page they have a whole host of warming and wintry pasta dish ideas too. From classic spaghetti bolognese to macaroni cheese with prosciutto and leeks, I was drawn to their inviting Penne with Butternut Squash, Rosemary and Chilli. I was instantly inspired to recreate a dish with the same delicious flavours.

In this case it had to be Autumnal; with sweet butternut squash and roasted red peppers at the centre of the dish. The luxurious, silky sauce is enriched with Bertolli with Butter and flavoured with aromatic sage and the crunch of toasted butternut squash seeds. Their butter is so versatile too, making for great pasta dishes, as part of cooking or simply layered on some warm, crusty bread. Here the buttery sauce adds extra flavour, which laces the ravioli beautifully. It’s also part of the filling mix, for that extra hint of luxury. 

vegetarian aubergine, mushroom and truffle no-meatballs.

If music be the food of love... actually, scratch the soppy music as I wouldn't mind a three course meal and a bottle of white. Any foodie will tell you that dining out or eating in is the best way to celebrate a special occasion. This Valentine's we'll be staying in and buying some extra indulgent ingredients to cook up a (hopefully) delicious meal at home.

With romance in mind, Expedia got in touch to see if I'd like to create a Valentine's meal idea inspired by a loved up location. Having been to Paris and Rome with my boyfriend over the years, the decision was a tough one. And then I realised, pasta duh? Italy it is! In true Lady and the Tramp style, I've created a vegetarian meatballs recipe that I'm sure veggies and carnivores are bound to fall in love with. A mix of aubergine, mushrooms and garlic with truffle and herb seasoning, simply mix with a rich tomato pasta sauce and your favourite slurp-able pasta. Buon appetito!

carluccio's spinach balls with courgette and chilli penne.

Known as Penne Giardiniera, this classic spinach balls recipe is a popular dish on Antonio Carluccio's restaurant menu. Loosely translated as gardner's penne, this pasta delight is packed with a huge portion of spinach and secret courgette in the fresh and spicy sauce. 

Luckily for us, it can be found in the Carluccio's recipe book too - simply named Pasta. I bought the recipe book for my foodie friend's birthday. And since we both love making homemade pasta, it make sense to make this dish together over a glass of wine on a Friday night.

homemade mushroom ravioli with a creamy red wine sauce.

A light mushroom ravioli recipe, infused with tarragon and topped with a creamy, red wine sauce. When I make homemade ravioli, I love to play with pairing the flavours of the filling and the sauce. So when Yapp Brothers wines challenged me to create a dish to complement one of their wines, of which they picked to suit my tastebuds, I knew I'd want to add a touch of their Merlot into both elements. 

gnocchi carbonara.

To celebrate National Recycling Week, Central England Co-op are encouraging people to "Taste It - Don't Waste It" in their latest campaign. I discovered some fantastic leftover recipes over on the Love Food Hate Waste site, perfect for inspiring you to turn those extra ingredients into something rather fancy. Using leftover potatoes, I went for homemade gnocchi, which can be added to leftover bacon (when that exists...), double cream and frozen peas to create a gnocchi carbonara.

how to make homemade pasta.

I love making fresh pasta at home. I see it like the savoury version of making cupcakes; time consuming, therapeutic and rewarding. It tastes so much better homemade and it's perfect for when you're feeling creative. On the other hand, I definitely wouldn't recommend attempting making it when hungry. Pasta dough is definitely not as tasty as a bowl of buttercream. 

Since my Granny and Grandpa bought me the fantastic gift of a pasta machine back in Christmas 2012, I've been trying my hand at all sorts of homemade pasta shapes, sizes, flavours and dishes. I'm by no means a pasta pro, but i thought it was about time I shared some pasta making tips and tricks i've learnt along the way.

salmon tortellini in parsley pesto.

the latest of my pasta adventures involved my love of salmon, attempts at tiny tortellini and a pesto adapted for seafood with a hint of parsley. i love making homemade pasta when i've got a spare weekend afternoon as i find it very therapeutic to make and then of course you have a lovely weekend meal at the end of it. 

homemade mushroom lasagne.

a creamy mushroom lasagne made with fresh, homemade lasagne sheets and portobello mushrooms. whenever i make pasta and turn it into shapes or use for ravioli, i always think why don't i just leave it as it is one day and make lasagne? this was the day. i also fancied trying out an alternative to my usual five a day veggie lasagne and going for a something more rich and indulgent.

spinach and ricotta ravioli in sage butter sauce.

inspired by my travels to malta, i wanted to get back into making pasta again with my trusty pasta machine; possibly the best christmas present my grandparents have ever bought me. in a sicilian bistro called la giara, i had a delicious course of homemade fresh ravioli filled with ricotta and spinach, then drizzled with an earthy sage sauce. so here is my take on the recipe! 

homemade spinach, ham and ricotta ravioli.

having made my usual rustic parcels in previous ravioli making, i was so excited to try out this proper ravioli press. it was a little gem i found in my local tk maxx - amongst a pretty impressive baking section of various sized piping bags, decorating tools and cake tins. fellow foodies i urge you to go check it out, this ravioli maker set me back about £2. 

i feel like instead of a crazy cat lady i'm going to be a crazy foodie gadget lady found cuddling my bamboo steamer and pasta maker. i've previously made crab and dill ravioli, boursin and sundried tomato ravioli and red wine venison ravioli so this time i really fancied something with a thick ham and cheese - so i thought i'd try spinach, ham and ricotta filling!

homemade red wine venison ravioli.

my lovely pasta maker has had a little break lately - i seem not to have made anything italian inspired in so long! i recently discovered the somerset produce from field&flower - with everything from classic british sausages to the more unusual game cuts - and thought this would be a brilliant opportunity to try out a posh ravioli with some delicious venison. i ordered a few different meats which will be posts to come. but for now, how did i make it? :)

homemade ravioli filled with sun dried tomatoes and boursin.

 

as you may have noticed - i'm really getting into pasta making lately. my pasta machine really has been one of the best christmas gifts i've ever received! i've been getting my friends into it making it with me too - which is really fun even if it does test their patience a little :)

so my boyfriend and i decided to have a go at making homemade ravioli - i have to give credit to him that he thought of the sun dried tomato and boursin cheese filling which worked really well.

begin by making the homemade pasta dough as in this post - we used 200g pasta flour and 2 eggs which i find makes 2 portions. then fill with your favourite ingredients like so...

 

homemade vegan pasta.

wow well this was yummy... and i have to give credit to my friend amelia for her amazing vegan pesto, veg and potato pasta recipe :) i've done homemade pasta before since my lovely granny bought me a pasta machine for christmas. however, this was my first go at "vegan pasta" too which involved using water and olive oil instead of egg.

homemade crab ravioli with mascarpone, lemon and dill.

shopping list.
makes one large portion or two small.

for the pasta
♥ 100g "00" grade white flour
♥ one egg

for the crab filling
♥ one tin of white crab meat
♥ 100g mascarpone cheese
♥ the juice of one lemon
♥ one tablespoon of dill

begin by making pasta, with a machine, like in my first attempt at homemade pasta post. you pretty much use 100g flour to one egg. this was a really big portion for myself and i didn't actually end up eating it all. but it was very therapeutic to make! :) the actual pasta making takes around 15 minutes and the crab filling takes next to no time to mix together. 

homemade farfalle with prawns, courgette and white wine sauce.

shopping list.
makes two portions.

for the homemade pasta
♥ 200g "0" grade flour
♥ 2 eggs
♥ a pinch of salt

for the dish
♥ 200g cooked prawns
♥ one medium courgette, sliced
♥ 100ml crème fraîche
♥ 50ml white wine
♥ 4 spring onions, chopped
♥ 50g butter
♥ 2 tsp flat leaf parsley, chopped

i got this recipe from a lovely pasta cookbook by jeni wright, which my grandparents bought alongside my pasta machine. i thought seeing as i'd like to make pasta bows, aka faralle, i should go with a dish that actually uses that kind of pasta. as i am told that different pasta holds sauces and flavours differently - is this true? either way this recipe was yummy - though i have adapted it a little. 

if you'd like to make the pasta yourself, you might want to read my first attempt at homemade pasta post in which i made linguine (ish). i then cut the pasta into little rectangles and pinched to form the bow - leaving to dry for about an hour. though i can't see a problem in using supermarket bought fresh or dry pasta - for which you will need around 60-80g each. 

for the pasta dish, i began by melting the butter and spring onions in a large pan on a medium heat for around 5 minutes, until softened. next i added in the courgettes for another 5 minutes and added in a little salt and black pepper too. pour over the wine and cover, simmering for a further 10 minutes. if you are using dry pasta, now would be a good time to put that on to boil. 

next, stir in the crème fraîche and allow to simmer and reduce for 10 minutes. once a golden colour, add in the prawns. this is the part where i put my fresh pasta on to boil, as it literally only takes about 3 minutes. once the prawns are heated through, drain the pasta and toss together. ta daa!

my first attempt at homemade pasta.

shopping list
♥ a pasta machine
♥ 300g "00" grade flour
♥ 3 eggs
♥ a pinch of salt

so for those of you who follow me on twitter or instagram, you'll know that pretty much all i've done over the christmas period is take pictures of my pasta adventures. this was a christmas present from my grandparents and a brilliant one at that.

they also bought me a right pasta recipe book which i have since tried along with my attempt at pasta bows, which i'll post soon. i've also learnt, though i'm sure this is probably something all over the internet already, that the ratio is pretty much one egg to 100g of flour. so here's how i did it... (ish)

firstly, i made a sort of well out of the flour ready to crack the eggs into. i haven't actually looked into why you can't use a mixing bowl to make pasta - does anyone know?

next, i carefully cracked the eggs into the flour to give a rather volcano-esque result. this is followed by a pinch of salt which i've read is really important for the taste. 

i then used a fork to tentatively break the eggs and begin to slowly stir in a little flour. WITHOUT breaking the floury walls. i love this bit as you start getting sort of stringy bits of gooey white flour and egg mix. you then slowly add in more and more of the flour as you dare - this should end up looking a little more like picture 5.

to get from 5 to 6 to 7, it depends on the consistency of your dough. if it seems really dry, add a little water, if it is too sticky, add some of the 00 flour. keep rolling it around until it starts to look more spherical. 

next is the kneading process. as best i could describe in picture 8, keep pushing the dough out and folding it back over itsel.. another technique is to fold it into itself or fold lengthways into itself. i just kept pushing and pulling it around for around 5-10 minutes until it felt really stretchy and the pasta dough kept trying to shrink back.

you then roll it as best you can that you could get into a pasta machine. at the widest setting, begin to roll through. though, even when it begins to get thinner, fold it over itself again. this will create the elasticity of pasta :) eventually you will be able to go smaller and smaller on the settings as it starts to look and feel like fresh pasta. i then put it though the linguine setting which was fiddly to say the least. but i was pretty happy with the results. leave to dry for an hour or so and serve with your favourite sauce. yum.