More ravioli

Pasta has endless worlds. You can come up with any new sauce and the same shape will acquire a completely different taste. And even if many don't believe it, each pasta shape does have its own combination. You couldn't possibly serve pesto with farfalle, or ragu' with linguine...simply wrong! (By the way did you know that at some point (a long time ago hopefully) Brits thought that pasta grew on tree?).

Yesterday I tried to impart this basic concept to the girls I am teaching Italian cooking to - who by the way are as expected all much taller than me...the only one who has my height is a 12 years' old girl...In any case I hope they took me seriously despite my lilliputian stature and believed in the Pasta Bible first commandment.

To show me that he has got the concept clear, R. gave me a present (I wonder what he had done...), a book called "The Geometry of Pasta". I will need to make my way through it - and you will surely know all about it.

So on Saturday I thought of having a variation of ravioli (see a few posts back) and fill them with pumpkin - how seasonal! The varieties of pumpkins that you can find are extraordinary - I must remember to take a picture tomorrow at the market.

Pumpkin Ravoli

For 4 people

300g pasta flour

3 eggs

2 tbsp olive oil

700g pumpkin

150g parmesan

100g bread crumbs

50 grounded almond

salt

1. Make the pasta. In a well of flour, crack the eggs and with a fork beat them slowly catching slowly the flour around it so that it gets incorporated. Add the olive oil so that it becomes smoother. At some point you won't be able to mix the flour using the fork, so just use your hand making a kneading movement. The result is a ball elastic and firm. Cover it in cling film and leave in the fridge to chill for half an hour.

2. Prepare the pumpkin. Cut it in piece removing the skin and the seeds/filaments. The pieces should be of around 4-6 cm wide and 5cm long (please don't take the tape measure though!). Leave them on a tray with a couple of tbsp of oil and some salt and roast in the oven at C200 for around 45 minutes.

3. When the pumpkin is soft, remove it and blend it to make a mash. Drain it in case there is excessive water. Add to this mash the bread crumbs, grated parmesan and grounded almonds. The filling has to be compact.

4. Remove the pasta from the fridge. Take part of it and make a patty. Pass it through the pasta machine using the widest slot and then passing it again (and flouring both the pasta and the slots) thinning it down using thinner and thinner slots. You can fold the pasta if gets too long and pass it again, it will make it even more elastic.

5. Create long strips (5cm wide) and using a tea spoon place a small amount of the pumpkin filling on the strip leaving 2 cm between each. Fold the side of the strip onto the other side to close the filling in it.

6. Using a finger, press the pasta in between the filling balls down and then cut both in between and on the sides. Seal each raviolo using the ridges of a fork.

7. Place the ravioli aside on a floured surface to avoid they stick together.

8. Cook the ravioli in boiling water (and a tbsp of a salt) for a couple of minutes. Apart melt in a pan 100g of butter with a few sage leaves. Drain the ravioli using a slotted spoon.

9. Dress the ravioli with the butter and sprinkle with more grated parmesan.

We don't want Christmas decorations!

Yesterday I made my monthly appearance to the shops in the centre of town. You must know that where we live it feels like a real village community despite being only 15minutes walk from the main market square of Cambridge. Shops are local (the photo above was taken in the organic UrbanLarder) and don't belong to big chains (I am ignoring the newly opened Tesco, for me that doesn't even exist), people are friendly and recognise you so will say hello and smile. This heaven is called Romsey Town.

Well my decision to have only monthly visits to Cambridge is a clever one. But I wish I had stretched it to two months..... Christmas decorations are out already!! On 26th October. I couldn't believe it. This year they haven't even waited for Halloween ...one switches from beach barbeque sets with colourful Pimms' glasses to fake snowy peaks and made-in-China baubles. I find it slightly worrying.

I find Autumn colours so inspiring... I'm sure we could fill our shopping windows with leaves, pumpkins, and mushrooms (without turning the shop into a garden centre). As I said before, I will never ever again buy strawberries in January and my kitchen will be filled up with seasonal smells. So today I made the Autumnal soup par excellence.

Autumnal soup with Ricotta

100g butternut squash (or pumpkin);

100g parsnip;

50 celeriac;

half onion;

1l vegetable stock;

100g ricotta;

1tsp chopped thyme and rosemary (each);

100g kale;

1 tsp soy sauce

1. Make the soup. Peel all the vegetables and chop them small so that they cook quickly.

2. Chop the onion very finely. In a pan (the size depends on the amount of soup you want to make) cook the chopped onion in a couple of spoons of oil until golden. Add the herbs and toss well. Add a tsp of salt.

3. Make the stock and pour it onto the cooked onion. Let it babble for a minute. Add the vegetables and close the pan with the lid.

4. When the vegetables are cooked, blitz to make it smooth (to the horror of my husband who calls this a "baby-meal").

5. In a separate pan, warm a table spoon of oil and when it's hot (you can tell when the oil starts babbling - I wouldn't suggest to stick your finger in it!), drop the kale all at once so that it sizzles quickly. I love this sound! Let it crinkle for a minute, add a splash of soy sauce. Remember that soy sauce is quite salty so you won't need to add extra salt to the kale.

6. Spoon some of the soup into a bowl and add the ricotta and incorporate it with a spoon. I also added a few leaves of basil as I still have some persevering plants on my window sill.

7. Add the sizzle kale on top of the soup.

As always, I'm too greedy and never remember to take a photo before I start tucking into my dish! So you might notice bits of soup already on the sides of the bowl....I think I also exaggerated with the kale on top of the soup....

The weather is still good enough to enjoy lunch in the garden. The leaves on our patio are still hanging on there but I feel not for long. The colours are great though. There are even some enduring flowers which kept me company while I was devouring my soup...