Ricotta, pancetta and grilled artichoke ravioli in a sage brown butter sauce

Anecdote

This dish was inspired by Alessia, who is currently spending quarantine in Naples with her family. I met her in Beijing whilst studying at Peking University almost three years ago. Through the magic of the internet and the universe, she was planning to make Chinese dumplings this weekend and I wanted to try and make ravioli. The doughs aligned. She proceeded to impart her ravioli wisdom, so much so it gave me the confidence to give it a go.

First year university me would be proud. There's a time and place for packet ready-to-boil Sainsbury's spinach and ricotta ravioli doused with hot sauce, but this girl is moving on up.

Ingredients

Serves two (though you should just make it again the night after as you have all the ingredients already and you should use them up, it's for the best)

Dough:

• 100g 00 flour

• Pinch of sea salt

• 1 egg (preferably with an extra yellowy yolk)

Filling:

• Ricotta - 125g (half the 250g Tesco pot) - see why I think you should just make again the day after...

• Cubed pancetta - around 100g (one of the packs of Sainsbury's Italian Cubetti Di Pancetta). They come in packs of two...so again, enough for another round...

• One artichoke heart - I used the chargrilled ones in a jar from Sainsbury's and they worked well. As there will be plenty left you can just nibble throughout the week as once opened, you can keep in the fridge for a week. I'm sure tinned ones drained from the water are also perfectly fine

• Cracked black pepper

• Grated parmesan

• Some grated lemon zest (optional)

Sauce:

• 25g of unsalted butter

• 6 ish leaves of sage

• 1 garlic clove (optional)

Finish with cracked black pepper and grated parmesan.

Recipe

Dough:

1. In a big bowl, mix the flour and pinch of salt. Make a well in the middle, crack the egg in and start beating the egg and slowly incorporating the flour bit by bit.

2. When it is mostly coming together, transfer to your clean kitchen surface and start kneading. (You can also make the well on the kitchen surface but your egg can run over your flour fort...)

3. Knead for about 10 minutes. Put your back in.

4. Cover in clingfilm and rest for 30 minutes.

Filling:

1. Whilst the dough is resting, you can get started on the filling.

2. On a medium heat, chuck the pancetta in a pan (you don't want the pan to be too hot as the fat won't render out properly, you're looking for crispy crispy here so be a tad patient).

3. When it's a super crispy, transfer the meat to a bowl. Reserve around half for the sauce. The other half is to be chopped finely and incorporated into the filling. Leave any excess oil in the pan, that will be used for the sauce.

4. Finely chop the artichoke heart and add to the ricotta along with the chopped pancetta. Mix well, then add a few cranks of black pepper and a generous grate of parmesan (and lemon zest if adding). Give that a further mix. (Took the photo before I remembered to grate the parmesan...). Taste it, it might need an extra pinch of salt.

Time to get (the dough) rolling!

1. Roll out the dough into a small rectangle. I used a pasta machine and fed it through all the different settings until it reached the thinnest setting. If you're doing it manually, you'll just have to use your inner strength. I believe in you. (Make sure to flour your surface!)

   

2. It looks like a long pasta sheet carpet and then you place the ravioli filling (shape into rough balls with two small spoons) on that carpet, with space in between. They now look like runway models or social distancing seen outside a supermarket. The latter is a bit more fitting at the moment.

   

3. There are many ways of making ravioli but the "fold onto itself method" (not the technical name) was attempted here. Essentially you wet your finger in a bit of water and "mark" the outline of the ravioli to create a seal when it's folded over. It then looks like you're putting a blanket over their heads.

   
   

4. They will look ridiculous at this point. But fear not. Cut them off into their individual squares (ish), and make sure they are not stuck to the table (just gently lift them).

   

5. As you can see, there are massive air pockets. I got a tiny paring knife and pricked the pocket in 1 or 2 different air pocket spots. Then I pressed the air out and made sure to close that teeeny hole. Don't be an idiot like me and close the hole before pressing all the air out.

   

6. Transfer the ravioli babies to a floured plate, ready to be plopped into a salted pot of boiling water

7. Whilst the water comes to a boil, heat the pan that has the pancetta fat/juices. Add the nob of butter and let it brown over a medium high heat (around 5 minutes). If you're adding the whole clove of garlic, add it around 3 minutes in (when the butter is getting a bit brown). The sage leaves go in at this point too.

8. The ravioli only take 2-3 minutes to cook (until they float and are nice and plump) and then they are ready to be transferred to the pan. Take a bit of pasta water with it and gently swirl around in the pan so the butter coats the ravioli.

9. Plate up (you can discard the clove of garlic or eat it, you do you) and generously grate the parmesan and crank that black pepper.

10. Dream about pasta that night and repeat tomorrow.