"Pasta-Hütchen"

Fresh water prawn with aubergine-ricotta ravioli and zucchini-dandelion leaf pesto

The recent days here in Switzerland have been stormy...very, very windy and rainy. So, a perfect weather to stay indoors and do "handicrafts" in the kitchen. Last Saturday Mauro showed me a nice way of making raviolis and I thought to give it a try. I acctually don't know if this shape of pasta is called ravioli in Italy or if it has an own name...knowing the Italians, probably. They have got a name for every possible pasta form and shape. Well, my mother-in-law called it a "Pasta-Hütchen" = a little pasta hat and I find that a great name :D

Pasta dough

200 g wheat flour

50 g Hartweizendunst (Knöpflimehl)

1 medium egg

25 ml olive oil

water as needed 

I have already once wrote about ravioli making. You can find the post here: nettle-ricotta ravioli

 

Some of the ingredients needed: The dandelion leaves are from my garden.

For the zucchini-dandelion leaf pesto I used the common dandelion from my own garden. It's best to use very young leaves because the older ones will have too bitter taste. I also soked the leaves in cold water for about 20 minutes. I read once somewhere that this should reduce the bitterness. If it's true or not, I don't know. I grated the zucchini semi-fine and salted it. There is lot of water in zucchini so after letting it stand salted for about 20 minutes I squished the extra water away. After that I just threw all the ingredients into the mixer and mixed it all into a smooth paste. Tastecheck and ready.

Zucchini-dandelion leaf pesto

1 zucchini

handful of common dandelion leaves

100 g roasted pine nuts

salt

pepper

olive oil

1 clove of garlic

(sugar)

 

Zucchini-dandelion pesto coming up...

...this is how it looks ready.

Grilling the aubergines for the filling

Aubergine-ricotta filling

 

For the ravioli filling I used the recipe of the Aubergine dip which you can find here. I did the dip with two small aubergines and after it was ready I mixed it with 250 grams of ricotta. I also added some breadcrumbs to get a thicker consistence. Easiest way to divide the filling is to use a piping bag.

 

The aubergines contain lots of water, so one should place them on sieve after grilling and let them stand about 20 minutes to get rid of the extra water.

Funny was having a bad day. She wanted to go out to the field but it was too windy and rainy.

 So now when all the needed components are ready it's time to get to work. Making these little hats is quite time consuming but I think it's worth it. The result will be a tasty and beautiful dish. We served our little hats with a one big fresh water prawn per person. We could buy them at the reduced price so why not ;D

Rollling the dough. The easiest way is to use the pasta machine.

The fastest way to divide the filling is to use a piping bag.

Brush the top of the dough with eggwash and then press all four corners together on top. After that press the sides together and ready is the "Pasta-Hütchen"/little pasta hat.

Top view

It's some what time consuming to produce all this.

Xhosa was also irritated of the weather.

We had our pasta with fresh water prawn.

Huge, isn't it?

And ready to enjoy. It looks a bit like a dragon or some kind of a fish, doesn't it?

Close up

The pesto is underneath and prawn on top. The raviolis are around. I also cooked some zucchini balls for the dish and decorated it with dandelion and sellery leaves. I think that this dish looks like spring or early summer...really love the colours.