7. The best stew with potato and rocket pasta cushions

This is the last recipe from the fresh pasta chapter. There isn't any particular reason why I keep this last. It just happened to be, simple as.

I have made fresh pasta several times now and I've mentioned it every time that it's so much fun. Time consuming, yes, it can be. But not at all difficult. Two ingredients: flour and eggs, and a little bit of knead work, that's all it takes to make fresh pasta dough.

This morning I started by making the beef stew which was very straightforward. The only different ingredient was Jamie uses white wine instead of the regular red wine. The stew was simmered for a couple of hours until all the meat falls apart.

Whilst the stew was cooking, it was the perfect time to make the pasta dough. A fellow blogger recently suggested me to try adding a little bit of salt and extra virgin olive oil when making the dough to give extra flavour, and so that's what I did today. I left the dough setting in the fridge and then got on with my day.

I was looking for a present for my friend's birthday and I am rubbish at buying presents. I went from one shop to another and finally found something decent after a couple of hours.

I went home and watched a DVD I just bought, Doubt. Meryl Streep is such a great actress. She could play anything and anyone. I mean if someone is making a biography film about Arnold Schwarzenegger, I reckon she'll be an awesome Arnold. Not that I am a fan of Arnold, but if Meryl Streep is playing him, I'll definitely go to watch it.

I baked some potatoes to make the filling for the pasta. After an hour, I took them out from the oven and let them cool a bit before scooping and mashing the flesh into a bowl. Add a handful of parmesan cheese, grated nutmeg, chopped rocket leaves, butter, lemon zest, lemon juice and stir well. Set them aside and I then rolled the pasta dough.

Pasta cushions are raviolis, aren't they?, but shape a little differently...

These cushions were then boiled for three minutes and then served on top of the stew with a little sprinkling of finely chopped parsley.


Jamie says this dish reminds him of his childhood, tucking into a big plate of stew and mash. And even though it's an Italian dish, there is something very English about it.

I was being very modest on the picture above. I actually had two servings of that. :)

Have a great weekend.