Making fresh pasta for the first time

This weeks Recipe Challenge ingredients were mushrooms and lemons. Due to the fact that the recipe has to be one we have not done before, and we use a lot of lemons, I decided to use Mushrooms. This had the added challenge of cooking something everyone would like as the kids are not all keen on mushrooms.

Having never made fresh pasta, Kyla and I decided to have a go at this.

I made Mushroom and Pancetta Ravioli, with a goats cheese and basil sauce.
The filling had onion, garlic, pancetta, fresh oregano, portobello mushrooms, porcini powder, and a little goats cheese to bind it.
The sauce was made of a stock of porcini powder and water, with goats cheese and a dash of cream, and fresh basil added just at the end.




The ravioli were taking ages to make, and as time was marching on we became very hungry and decided to make half my dough into fettuccine, which we tossed with the remaining ravioli filling thinned with a little cream.

The verdict: taste 5/5, presentation 3/5, texture 3/5 the pasta was a little bit tough.

Making fresh pasta was fun but very time consuming... we did it the hard way, on the bench and hand rolled, while the Kitchen Aid languished on the bench watching wistfully. Jill's pasta machine stayed at her house as Kyla insisted that to use either would be cheating. I believe that next time we will cheat, twice.

While I was completing the mushroom challenge, Kyla was hard at work next to me, making her first batch of fresh pasta, also the hard way.
She made Pumpkin and Bacon Ravioli with Tomato sauce.

The verdict on Kyla's pasta?

Taste 5/5
Presentation 3/5
Texture 4/5 her pasta was better than mine, but the filling needed a little more moisture as the pumpkin was a fairly dry one.


All in all, we had fun and would try our hand at pasta making again, but like I said before, I would try it with the mixer and pasta machine next time!
Kyla is still claiming to be a hand made pasta purist... we shall see.