Went for a pasta making lesson. Made spinach, crab ravioli in seafood sauce, potato gnocchi with pesto and a sort of alio olio linguini with Chili, lemon and bottarga (not very successful the last one).
My fav was the ravioli and the gnocchi a close second. I think I will try both again.
Lessons learnt.
1. Don't overwork the dough. Else it will crumble.
2. When doing a pasta olio style, should add bit of stock at the last bit, else the pasta will be too oily (the pic below has too much water in it - a bad example).
3. For the first time, I have done a roux and bechamel sauce. Fairly useful techniques.
Seafood sauce for the ravioli - worth repeating.
1. Get some shellfish (big prawn heads, crab, crayfish etc).
2. Fry the shellfish on high heat for a while. Then add onions, leeks, garlic and herbs (thyme, Bay leaves etc). Turn the heat down a little, then fry for a while till fragrant.
3. Add about a finger of brandy and flambé it.
4. Then add water and some tomato paste.
5. Bring to a boil and simmer (I think 30-40 mins) with cover opened to let it reduce.
6. Sieve stock through strainer.
7. Put stock back in clean pot, bring to boil again and add some roux (previously prepared).
8. Stir until sauce has thickened. Salt and pepper to taste.
When making the ravioli, add the cooked ravioli to the sauce to warm through. Then serve.
I think this is not bad and easy to make as well. Chef said the inside should be more salted, but I thought it was ok. Next time, just add more parmesan I think.
This looks bad. The linguini strands are all broken up and there's too much water. Curiously enough, it wasn't so bad that my partner finished it all up.
PIle of gnocchi
Ravioli and the pile of semi broken linguini.
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