Let’s start getting ready for Christmas dinner and learn to make the sea bream and sole ravioli, a flavorful seafood pasta, sure to impress! Find this and many more recipes with pictures on the Giallozafferano App (in English) http://itunes.apple.com/app/giallozafferano-recipes/id384387249?mt=8
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Add a little oil to a large pan, a clove of garlic, some parsley and sauté on a low flame. Stir a bit, meanwhile cut the sea bream and sole fillets into small pieces. Now add the fish, raise the heat a bit and let it brown. Now add the wine, a pinch of salt and let it evaporate. The mixture has browned and dried out, now transfer to a food processor fitted with the metal blade and add the potatoes, that have been boiled in lightly salted water; peel off the skin, remove any black spots and process, then we’ll decide whether to add salt, pepper and extra virgin olive oil, if the mixture is too dry. Now taste, add pepper, salt, if needed, and a little oil. The ravioli filling is ready. Put the ravioli filling in a pastry bag and set aside in the fridge, then move on to the fresh pasta dough: in a large bowl combine the flour, the 3 eggs, a pinch of salt and knead until it forms a smooth dough. Usually you need 1 large egg every 3,5 oz (100 g) of flour, but since I’m using medium eggs, I’ll add a little water instead, so the dough will be soft. Once the ingredients have come together, place the mixture on a pastry board so it’s easier to handle. Pull together any stray pieces of dough and knead until smooth. If it’s a bit sticky, you can dust the work surface with just a little flour. The dough is smooth and soft, but it needs to rest, otherwise it would be too elastic to roll out, so wrap in cling film and allow to rest for at least half an hour in a cool place, which means away from heat sources, meanwhile move on to the sauce. To prepare the sauce, take a large pan, add the oil, a clove of garlic and some parsley, sauté for a minute, then add the cherry tomatoes and cook until softened. Now remove the garlic and add the shellfish: first the clams, you have to discard any that are broken, rinse under running water and tap each one against a wooden board: if a little sand comes out, discard it; this regarding carpet shells, if you’re using smaller clams instead, you just need to rinse with water and discard any that are broken. Now add the mussels that must be cleaned as well, so scrape the barnacles off the shells and remove the beard or byssus, then add to the pan with the clams and cook until they open. Raise the heat a bit; once they open, add the tiger prawns. Cook for 5 minutes at the most, then turn off the heat; salt to taste, if needed.
The dough has rested enough, so remove the cling film, take one piece at a time and keep the rest covered with cling film, to prevent it from drying out. Dust with flour and take a pasta machine; start at the widest setting, a few times, dusting the dough with flour every now and then, then gradually lower the setting rolling the dough thinner and thinner, my dough is 1 mm thick, more or less. So start at the widest setting until it’s as thin as possible. Make sure the dough doesn’t rip, but it should be firm, elastic and thin. Now take the filling mixture out of the fridge. Here I have 2 sheets of dough about the same size, brush the first one with water to help it stick better, after adding the filling. Now place small mounds of the mixture, leaving a space of about ¾ inch (2 cm) between each. Now cover with the second sheet of dough and press with your fingers to remove any air pockets and seal the ravioli. Perhaps leave the sides open to allow the air to escape, then use a pastry crimper to seal and cut out the ravioli at the same time. Repeat until the dough and the filling are used up. We’re ready for boiling the ravioli, I put them on trays lined with a floured cloth. The pot of salted water is boiling, so drop them in and wait for a few minutes. When the water returns to a boil, reduce the heat, so that the water is at a soft boil, rather than a rolling boil. Meanwhile return to the sauce, remove the shells from the pan, reserving some for garnish. Set the prawns aside, as we’ll toss the ravioli with the sauce, and keep both the prawns and the reserved shellfish warm. If the sauce is too dry, you can add a little of the pasta cooking water; taste for salt before adding, as the clam and mussel juice may be salty enough. When the ravioli are cooked, add to the pan and toss with the sauce for a few seconds, just until blended, then add the pesto sauce and we’re ready for serving this amazing dish.
