Test Your Master Chef Skills with our Monkfish Ravioli with Basil Oil and Tomato Olive Puree

ravioliIf you feel like expanding your culinary aptitude and the tastebuds of your guests, give our monkfish ravioli a try. Although it is unfairly underrated it makes a delicious meal and is also fairly forgiving to cook with. Not only does it take on other flavours with ease, but it also does not dry out too easily. This dish will challenge and delight.

Ravioli Dough Ingredients

  • 6 cups all-purpose flour
  • 6 eggs
  • 3/4 cup water
  • 2 teaspoons olive oil

Filling Ingredients

  • 400g of monkfish, fresh or frozen
  • 100g pancetta or diced bacon
  • 2 tsp chopped, fresh dill
  • 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
  • 1 Tbs unsalted butter, softened
  • 2 spring onions, finely chopped
  • salt and pepper for seasoning
  • 2 Tbs freshly grated Parmesan

Basil Oil Ingredients

  • 60g of fresh basil, stems reoved
  • cup and  a half of extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 Tbs course sea salt
  • 1 tsp red wine vinegar

Tomato and Olive Puree

  • 2 tins of chopped and peeled Italian tomatoes
  • 4 cloves of garlic
  • 1 cup of pitted black Kalamata olives
  • 2 Tbs olive oil
  • 1 cup low sodium chicken stock
  • 2 anchovy fillets
  • 2 Tbs fresh origanum, chopped
  • 1 Tbs balsamic vinegar
  • 1 Tbs brown sugar

Method for Ravioli Filling

  1. Finely chop the bacon or pancetta and the monkfish. Combine with the rest of the ingredients and mix thoroughly until you have a fairly sticky consistency. Refrigerate.

Method for Tomato and Olive Puree

  1. Heat oil in a pan and add your fresh origanum, olives, anchovies and garlic.
  2. Fry for approximately two minutes before adding your tomato and stock. Cook for roughly half an hour to 45 minutes until a thickish chunky tomato sauce remains.
  3. Stir in your sugar and balsamic vinegar and take off the heat. Wait to cool and place in a food processor. Process until a very smooth paste is formed.

Method for Basil Oil

  1. Heat up a pot of salted water and bring to the boil. Prepare a bowl of ice water on the side.
  2. Blanche the basil leaves in the boiling water for 5 to 10 seconds, remove from the boiling water and place directly in the ice water. The basil leaves should turn a brighter green.
  3. Drain excess water off basil leaves and place in blender with olive oil, salt and vinegar. Blend till extremely fine and smooth. Place in coffee strainer and filter the oil through.

Method for Ravioli

  1. Place 6 cups of flour in a large mixing bowl and make a well in the centre.
  2. Beat the eggs, water and oil together and pour into the well. Knead together until a smooth and elastic ball of dough is formed and leave to rest for 30 minutes in the fridge.
  3. Remove the dough from the fridge and cut in half. Lightly flour a clean surface and roll out each half of dough until about 1 to 2mm thick.
  4. Decide on the desired shape and size of your ravioli (small cookie cutters to saucers can be used to determine the shape). Make marks on your base sheet of this shape, fitting as many onto your sheet as possible. Do not cut through.
  5. Spoon one to two teaspoons, depending on the size of your ravioli pieces, of filling in the centre of each shape. Brush the base sheet around the filling with ice cold water and place your top sheet over it. Press down around each ball of filling and cut into your desired shape.
  6. To cook, poach in lighly salted boiling water for 3 to 4 minutes or until the ravioli floats to the top of the pot. Remove from the water with a slotted spoon, making sure that excess water drains off.

Assembly

Place 3 to 4 of pocket ravioli on each plate, spooning over 2-3 tablespoons of warm tomato puree. Splash around the plate with basil oil. Garnish with two leaves of fresh basil and some shavings of fresh parmesan.

View more from our ‘Dinner Party Recipes‘ series.

 

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