Haggis ravioli is my ,perhaps strange, attempt to bring together my love for Scotland and my Italian roots into one dish.
Things at my end have been rather up and down recently and I have realised like never before how much I am missing Italy. I guess I am maybe getting older and less adventurous; or maybe it is the somewhat forced hiatus of my visits due to a certain world pandemic, which shall remain unnamed. Whatever the reason, I am finding myself looking forward to cooking more and more Italian food and have also recently started attempting my own pasta. Oh the childhood memories of sitting at grandma's dining table, watching her rolling endless batches of perfectly shaped lasagne & tagliatelle. It warms up my heart and makes me feel closer to my family, until I can hug them all again! I decided to venture into making some ravioli, which, I later discovered, was the pasta my mum decided to make the night before I was born - coincidence? Since I have now been living in Scotland for close to 10 years (what? where has time gone?) I thought I might attempt filling my ravioli with some lovely Scottish Haggis.
Yields 3- 4 portions
Ingredients:
- 300g of plain flour or 00 flour (you can base your flour quantity on the amount of eggs you have - the ratio should be roughly 100g of flour per egg)
- 3 eggs
- 1 haggis (traditional or vegetarian to your preference)
- coarse sea salt
- olive oil (if frying your haggis)
- butter
- black pepper
- Parmesan cheese
MAKE THE PASTA DOUGH:
To make the pasta you can use a large wooden board or you can prepare your dough in a large bowl - I used a bowl in order to minimise the overall floury mess in my kitchen, but traditionally the dough would be fully made on a wooden board.
Place your flour into the bowl and make a well in the centre; crack your eggs into the well and using a fork scramble the egg together. Using a wooden spoon start tipping some of the flour on the rim of the well into the eggs mixture and start amalgamating. Add more and more flour until you can confidently cave in the walls of the well - be sure that your egg mixture isn't going to run out on the sides.
Place your dough onto a lightly floured surface (if you had it in a bowl) and lightly knead the dough together so that it starts to feel uniform. Clear your board of excess debris and leftover flour; proceed to knead your dough for approximately 10 mins - you want to use the heel of your hand to pull the dough away from you and your fingers to pull it back. You want to work quickly as pasta tends to dry out - wet your fingers if necessary to bring back some moisture.
Leave the dough to rest at room temperature for approximately 30 mins by placing it in a bowl with lid or covering with clingfilm to stop it from drying out.
PREPARE YOUR FILLING:
Whilst the pasta dough is resting, you can prepare your filling.
Haggis can be cooked in a variety of ways and you will find the instructions on the back of the packaging. Depending on how much time your have at disposal, I would suggest to boil it but you also have the option of using the microwave if you have one (it is the quickest method overall).
Once your haggis is cooked, I would suggest to crumble it out into a container so that it is ready for filling - the haggis will need to cool down in order to avoid melting through the pasta, however you don't want it to dry out so I would suggest to monitor and cover with a lid if necessary. Set aside and return your attention to the pasta.
SHAPING THE PASTA:
Once your pasta has rested, you can now start to shape it. First step is to create rectangular sheets which will be the base and the cover of our ravioli - I tried to aim for a 5 cm width for my sheets.
To shape my pasta I have used a pasta maker - the process is fairly simple and much easier than stretching your pasta out with a rolling pin (which is however the traditional way of doing it!). Divide your dough into equal portions - you don't want your portions to be too big as the dough will stretch out quite thinly; you also want to remember to keep your portions even, so that you can match the bottom sheet with a top sheet.
Pasta makers will generally come with instructions on how to reach your preferred thickness, so make sure you have a look at the manual before you start. And remember to keep the remaining dough covered to prevent it from drying out.
Grab one portion of dough and using a lightly floured rolling pin, roll it out into a rough rectangle by turning your dough and rolling out from the middle. Place the dough into the roller at 0 and roll it through - you repeat the process until the dough is rolled out into the correct shape - remember to fold your dough and roll it through various times until it's smooth and shaped. Now you start thinning it out using the dial on your pasta maker until you reach the thickness you are looking for. I have made my sheets to a 6 on my pasta maker.
Set the sheet aside on a flour surface and repeat the process to create the matching top sheet.
Now for the filling: using a teaspoon place a small portion of crumbled haggis onto the bottom pasta sheet; start from one end but remember to leave a gap from the edges of the sheet (visualise a square around your filling - you don't want the pasta to not cover it). Place the filling along the sheet leaving a gap between portions.
Once the sheet is portioned, delicately place the top pasta sheet over the filling. Use your cupped hands to ensure no air pockets are left between the filling and the pasta and to ensure the sides are all sealed.
Using a ravioli cutter (or your can cut free-hand with a rolling cutter) cut out the ravioli shape ensuring the filling is as central as possible. Place aside to rest
Continue this process until you have gone through your dough and filling - you can re-roll any off-cuts into sheets if necessary.
COOKING THE PASTA:
Bring a large saucepan of water to the boil. Add a handful of sea salt and add your ravioli in batches to not overcrowd the pan. Cooking time will depend on the thickness of your dough - mine was roughly 4-5 mins.
Whilst cooking the ravioli, melt some butter in a saucepan to use as a condiment. If you have some, I would suggest adding some sage leaves to the butter as it melts, to flavour it.
Using a slotted spoon, drain the ravioli and place on a plate. Pour the melted butter over the pasta. To serve, add a grid of black pepper and a dusting of Parmesan cheese.
Buon appetito!
If you end up giving this recipe a go, I would love to see a snap of it. Simply tag @giadasplate on Instagram or send me a DM.