Apple Bites

It is amazing how suddenly the refrigerator becomes full of bits and pieces that you thought were important to save and yet get overlooked. Every so often I decide that I’ll only use what’s left there to make a meal. I had some pasta left, some pesto, cooked granny smith apple and some fontina cheese. These were all from an apple ravioli dish. There wasn’t enough left to make a meal but enough to do something.

I rolled out the pasta thinly, cut it into rounds and then pressed them in miniature muffin trays. A small dollop of pesto went at the bottom. The apple went on top of this to about half way up and the fontina cheese went on top.

They went into a 180ºC oven for about 20 minutes when the pasta had crisped up and the fontina was well melted.

While the pasta was not overly crisp as a pastry it worked quite well producing little tangy pop-straight-in-the-mouth tarts.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔

Apple Ravioli with Fava-Pistachio Pesto

From Pasta Modern, Francine Segan, Stewart Tabori & Chang, 2013.

When the author makes the statement to the effect that if you were to try no other recipe in a particular chapter then this was the one that you should try then obviously this is the one you would make—and I did. The only problem with this is that unless you make all the others in the chapter you have nothing to compare it with. It was good and it was different but now, I guess, I’ll have to try all the others.

I did not follow the recipe for the pasta as I had some left from a previous cooking bout that I had not used up.

The filling for the ravioli was made first. I peeled and chopped 3 granny smith apples and cooked them in a saucepan with some butter and 5 chopped sage leaves. Wben the apple was cooked though had not broken up to a puree I took it off the heat and left it to cool.

I made the pesto. Rather than just a basil pesto this one had a broad bean (fava) base. I cooked a cup of broad beans for a couple of minutes. They were then cooled and the beans popped out of their skins. They went into a blender with 30 basil leaves, a handful of pistachios, a handful of pine nuts and salt and pepper. They were blended until beginning to form a paste, then olive oil was blended in until there was a sauce that I felt comfortable with.

The pasta was rolled out and cut into 10cm rounds. In half of them a tablespoon of the apples was placed in the centre. This was topped with a tablespoon of cubed fontina (the recipe called for taleggio but this was unavailable). A little drizzle of honey topped the mixture. Another round of pasta closed off the ravioli and the edges were sealed with white of an egg.

The ravioli were cooked in boiling salted water until done and then served with the pesto.

This was a most unusual combination of flavours that were a pleasant surprise. The tartness of the apples, overlaid with the touch of sage, went well with the cheese. The pesto was really good. The broad beans gave it that extra difference, a solidness, and it matched the tart apples surprisingly well.

Taste: ✔✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔