Slightly green and on the nose…

Another chapter down. I’ve been marking off chapters as I complete the final recipe in each and last night, as planned, I finished off the fresh pasta chapter.

Raviolini of Celeriac and Thyme

It was quite a good one to finish on – I had to make green pasta. GREEN pasta. So cool.

All I had to do was add some pureed steamed spinach to the first step of the pasta dough. Piece of cake.

Oh. Maybe not.

There was no mention of having to add a little more flour to the dough, to compensate for the added liquid, but I did anyway. Well, even my attempts to out-smart Jamie were not enough. Excess liquid there was and my usually superior pasta-making skills were put to the test. It was a gooey, green mess and it was sticking to my bench, to my hands, to the spoon I was using to scoop more flour. Kermit was right, it’s not easy being green.

But I got there in the end. A lovely ball of green silky pasta dough. Into the fridge it went. And while I made an attempt to de-slime my kitchen, I simmered the celeriac with thyme leaves, S&P and garlic and chilli, til soft. The smell of the celeriac was quite a surprise. It’s really earthy. Kind of like Jerusalem artichokes. It smelt like I was making mud pies.

Once the celeriac was cooked, I mashed it all up to a puree, ready to fill the raviolini.

Then I rolled my pasta out. Again, I hit a bit of a snag. But I guess, what would be the fun in making fresh pasta for the very last time (I really feel no need to ever make fresh pasta again, but I do need to be clear and say that I actually have enjoyed making it for the experiment, I just don’t feel the need to do it any more. It’s no longer a necessity, so to speak). So even though I had put silky smooth pasta dough into the fridge, half an hour later, it came out a little bit sticky. And even though I floured it up some more as I rolled it through the machine, I had a few tearing issues and a few holes that needed to be patched along the way. But thankfully, there were no explosions when the ravioli hit the water and that was all I was worried about. I would not have been pleased if I’d made it through the whole chapter only to have an explosion at the end.

I quickly sautéed the cooked raviolini in melted butter, then served up sprinkled with parmesan. The green pasta was good. The celeriac filling, not so much. Funnily enough, it was a little too earthy for my liking. But it’s done. And so is the homemade-fresh-pasta chapter of my life.

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