Recipes by Simone Saglia, Images by Brydie Thompson
Like so many Italian dishes, this classic relies on beautiful, fresh ingredients, making summer the perfect time to enjoy it, with fresh tomatoes, basil and eggplants in abundance.
Pasta Dough
1 cup boiling water
4 cups flour (500g)
pinch of salt
Make a well with the flour and salt then pour the hot water in. Knead until you have a smooth dough. Cover and rest until ready to use.
Filling
500g ricotta
4 sprigs thyme
1 tsp salt
⅛ cup extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
Remove the thyme leaves from the sprigs and chop, discarding the sprigs.
Add the thyme to the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Check and adjust the seasoning before placing it in a piping bag. Set in the fridge until ready to use.
Use a pasta machine or rolling pin to roll out the dough to a quite thin pasta sheet (roughly 1.5mm thick).
With the help of a cutter (round or square or preferred one), mark one half of the sheet.
Pipe out the filling inside the mark then gently fold over the other half of the sheet.
Press around the filling with fingers then cut the ravioli out and place on a tray until ready to cook.
Sauce
olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 punnets of mixed yellow and red cherry tomatoes
1 cup water
2 eggplants
salt & pepper to taste
Grated Parmigiano
bunch of basil
Sauté the chopped onion in a pan with a dash of olive oil and a pinch of salt for about five minutes.
Add the cherry tomatoes and the cup of water and cook for five more minutes.
With a stick blender, puree to form your base sauce.
Cure the eggplant before frying by cutting the eggplant in cubes and tossing it in a bowl with a handful of salt. Place it in a colander for half an hour to drain the water.
Pat dry with a towel and fry in hot oil.
To assemble
Cook the ravioli in salted boiling water for 3 minutes, then strain and toss in a pan with the tomato sauce and add grated Parmigiano cheese. Plate the pasta topping with a handful of fried eggplant some cherry tomatoes and a few basil leaves broken by hand.
Simone and Kylie Saglia own The Trading Post in Paengaroa, where Simone cooks authentic Italian food, including many beautiful handmade pasta dishes. We went along to learn to make two gorgeous summer pasta dishes from Simone, who says he never gets bored making and rolling pasta.
Simone grew up in Alba, a town famous for its truffles, surrounded by the Barolo, Barbaresco and Nebbiolo wineries. We’ll discover both the truffle of Alba and some of the region’s famous wines on our Taste of Northern Italy tour in September. But if you want to join us before then, Simone has created a gorgeous three-course menu for our Nourish Taste of Northern Italy Long Lunch on Saturday 15 February. Details below.
The Trading Post
1 Hall Road, Paengaroa
