I thought that I would share with you this delicious recipe for some homemade ravioli. Mrs Woolshedwargamer has a friend from whom she acquired a kilo of blue cheese that I split into 100g lots and froze so we can use it over time rather than pig out on it all at once.

First off you need to make some pasta. This is actually very easy but I guess you could buy pre-made pasta sheets but not in my house!

This is a very simple pasta recipe.

200g flour (I used half and half standard flour and wholemeal), 2 eggs, pinch of salt.

Mix in a bowl until the eggs and flour have pretty much combined then turn onto a floured bench and knead the crap out of it. If you find it is a little dry just wet your fingers in some water to add moisture to the pasta dough.  This can take a while but keep at it until it is nice and elastic. Wholemeal flour makes the job a little harder I have found but not overly so. Once the pasta is made set aside.

Now make up the ravioli filling. For this I use 100g of blue cheese, an egg, 50g of walnuts, 1/3 tsp of nutmeg and 1/3 tsp of ground black pepper. Combine in a bowl and set aside.

Now you have to roll your pasta. If you have a pasta machine then this is an easy job. If, like me, you don’t have one then use a rolling pin to roll out a piece of your pasta dough (I do it in thirds).  Once you have rolled your pasta to a thickness of about 2mm use a cutter to cut rounds of pasta. HINT: Try to roll in one direction as much as possible. I used a large glass to cut my pasta. The left over bits you could recombine and roll out to make more ravioli or do what I do – save so that you can cook them up in a pasta dish in coming days. I ended up with 100g of leftovers this time so not an insubstantial amount.

Lay out your rounds of dough and put a dollop of your filling mixture on each one. Wet around the edges with water and fold over and press shut.

Now you have to make the sauce. While you are doing this bring a large pot of salted water to the boil to cook your ravioli.

The sauce ingredients are four garlic cloves (more if vampires are a nuisance in your area), a handful of sage leave (we have fresh sage growing so it was a matter of picking some fresh leaves), 20g walnuts, a wedge of butter (50g or more depending how rich you like your sauce), salt and ground black pepper and a splash of olive oil.  The wine is for lubricating the cook. Chop the garlic, sage and walnuts. Heat the oil and butter in a pan and add the and dry ingredients and simmer gently.

While the sauce is simmering away gently drop the ravioli into the boiling water – cook them until done – if you have rolled your pasta nice and thin they will only take about five minutes tops. Usually when they are all floating on the surface they are done but test one to make sure it is how you like them.  I use a slotted spoon to remove from the water and then toss them gently in the sauce to coat the ravioli. Turn the lot into a serving bowl and spoon on remaining sauce. Put a few shaves of parmegiano on and serve with a light salad to make you feel less like a pig for scarfing down the incredibly rich ravioli. We served ours with a nice cheap New Zealand Pinot Noir. Even our cheap ones are bloody good.

The recipe I used made 27 large ravioli. This is easily enough for four people if served with a salad.  If you have a pasta machine you may have a ravioli attachment for making the traditional small ones – this would work the same.