Mother’s day is one of those days I don’t recall doing much for growing up. Now whether that was a sign of our family, SA being slow to pick up on commercial opportunities or that it just didn’t have the same kudos it seems to have developed, who knows? I am sure we made cards and probably even tried to make some sort of burnt toast horror breakfast for mum but more than that……Mum?????

Anyway, as well as being COD’s birthday last Saturday, it was Mother’s Day last Sunday. Sometime last week COD suggested we go our for ‘kiddie tea’ (read dinner at 4.30pm) but neither of us progressed this idea and I also wanted to see my mum so we ended up having ‘kiddie tea’ at home with grandparents invited. I am sure the ads all say that Mother’s Day is the day that Mum doesn’t have to cook, do laundry etc but that’s fantasy and honestly, my ideal Mother’s Day is one where someone else takes the kids and I get to cook. On my own. In my kitchen. With no ‘helpers’. That partly happened. I decided that it was time to tackle a dish I have been thinking about for some time. So, with eager helpers, Beetroot ravioli with salmon and greens was developed.

Beetroot Ravioli with salmon and greens

This dish is primarily based on Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s Beetroot soup recipe that I discovered way back in 2013. I have thought for some time that this ‘deconstructed’ would make for a great pasta dish. I have changed the recipe over the years so here goes….

This recipe serves 4 and makes beetroot soup for 3-4 as well. It also makes enough linguini for 2

Ingredients:

400g raw beetroot
6 medium tomatoes
1 clove of garlic
olive oil
500ml beef stock
2T ricotta cheese
handful of parsley
200g tip 00 pasta flour
2 large eggs
pinch of salt
seasoning
4 salmon fillets
purple sprouting broccoli
lemon juice
soy sauce

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.

1. Firstly, peel and roughly chop the beetroot. Put into a large pot and cover with the beefstock. Bring to the boil and allow to simmer until the beetroot is soft
2. While the beetroot is cooking, slice the tomatoes in half and lay seeds down into an ovenproof baking dish. Crush over the clove of garlic and drizzle olive oil over them all. Put in the oven to roast for about 20-30 mins
3. For the pasta – I use my Kenwood with the dough hook attachment but you can make pasta by hand. Put the flour and a pinch of salt into the food processor, crack the two eggs into the middle and set the speed to 1 for about 5 mins. Then turn the speed to minimum and ‘knead’ for a further 5 mins or until the dough is soft and stretchy. My Kenwood doesn’t do it particularly well at low speed (although that’s what’s recommended) so I always do a minute or two at about speed 4. Once a nice ball of pasta dough has been formed, pop in a covered bowl in the fridge until you are ready to roll it out.
4. By now, the beetroot and tomatoes should be about done. Take the tomatoes out of the oven and remove the skin – I find the skin bubbles up and can just be pulled off. Discard the skin and tip the rest (including the nicely flavoured oil) into a blender and wizz this up. Add in a bit of the stock the beetroot has been cooking in and I also popped in about 3 small pieces of beetroot. Season to taste. This is your sauce done.
5. To make the beetroot filling, remove the chunks of beetroot and wizz these to a smooth paste in a food processor. Retain the stock as you will use this for the soup afterwards.
6. Take out about 4T of the beetroot and add 2T of ricotta. Mix well, season and allow to cool. This is your filling.
7. Now, you can roll pasta out by hand but it is much easier if you have a pasta machine. I have a cheapie Amazon one (about £30) and it does the job. Roll out sheets of pasta as thin as the machine goes and lay out on a floured surface. I drop a small dollop of the beetroot and ricotta filling on one long sheet of pasta, wet the area just around each bit and lay a second sheet on top, squidging around the edges of the dollops as I go. I use a round cookie cutter to cut out the ravioli. You can of course use a ravioli tray if you have one. I found using my method, I was able to stamp out 20 ravioli rounds. I then used the leftover pasta to make linguini (you can hang and dry this on hangers. Like this). Remember to flour every available surface as you go or your ravioli will stick! Let the ravioli dry out while you get busy with the salmon.
8. Line a baking tray with enough tin foil to make a parcel around your fillets. Pop the fillets on the foil and drizzle over lemon juice  and soy sauce. Close up the parcel tightly and bake in your oven (180 degrees) for 15 mins.
9. Cook the purple sprouting broccoli how you choose. I steam it.
10. Get a large pot of boiling water ready on the stove and put the sauce back in a pot to reheat through. Chop your parsley.
11. When the fish has about 5 mins to go, drop the ravioli rounds into the boiling water and cook for 5 mins or so – the pasta must be soft so thicker raviolis will take longer.
12. Assemble your dish. About 5 ravioli per person with a decent amount of the sauce and top with a salmon fillet, broccoli and garnish with parsley. Enjoy. It was really yummy although apparently I need to be more liberal with salt……

    

13. As my small people said ‘yuk’ when I suggested they try beetroot, I just flaked some salmon and chopped broccoli through fresh linguini which takes about 2 mins to cook. They loved it!

    

To make the soup, combine the stock and leftover beetroot in a blender and blend until smooth. Add the stock sparingly as you want the soup to be really thick. This should last a few days in the fridge. Lovely with some crusty bread and either some of the left over ricotta or some feta if you have it. 

In other news:

• COD and I are going to C2C this weekend. In London. Without children. Carrie Underwood – I shall see you Saturday night! Cannot wait.
• We have sorted ACOD’s Christening which is going to be in Bristol Cathedral – how awesome is that? I was Confirmed in St Paul’s Cathedral. We like our fancy churches.
• How is it nearly school holidays again? Surely it’s too cold for the Easter hols?