Nettle Ravioli

A bit of fancy for spring's first fresh greens. Stinging nettles are full of nutrients and blah blah blah. Most importantly, they are tasty! For seasonal cooking, what's left in your stores that can go with the first of the year's fresh food? I came up with this earthy, grounding recipe that's also a li'l bit fancy. The pine nuts can be replaced by other locally grown nuts like walnuts or hazelnuts. As with many substitutions, you may have to adjust the quantity a bit to balance the flavors to your liking.

Pasta dough

2 cups flour (or try 3 oz flour per egg)

3 eggs

pinch salt

Filling

50g by weight stinging nettle leaves, tough stems removed

1 clove garlic

25g by weight of pine nuts

1 egg

salt and pepper

a little oil

Sauce

1/4 cup (2oz/58gr) butter per 16 ravioli (for dairy free, substitute with olive oil)

1 clove garlic, pressed

1 Tbsp snipped fresh sage, oregano, Italian (flat-leaf) parsley, and/or chives or 1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves

Garnish

Ground black pepper

Grated parmesan

Pasta - part 1

1. On a board or the counter, make a mound of flour, sprinkle on the salt, create a bowl in the centre of the flour mound, crack in the eggs and start combining with your fingers. You should end up with a very dry dough, almost cracking. Cover and allow to rest for 1 hour. 

Filling

1. Simmer all the nettles in a little water for ten minutes then drain. 
2. Put the nettle on a strong paper towel or tea towel, fold the towel to make a bag around the nettle, and twist to squeeze out the excess water. The nettle should be a little clump of just moist, pressed material when you're done. Chop finely.
3. Roughly grind the pine nuts.
4. In a small bowl whisk the egg. Mix in the chopped nettles, pressed garlic, pine nuts, salt and pepper.
5. Heat a small non-stick pan, add a little oil, and dump in the egg and nettle mixture. Cook just until the egg starts to solidify.
6. Set aside while rolling out the pasta.

Pasta - part 2

1. After the hour of rest, knead the dough for about 10 minutes before rolling out the pasta.
2. Divide the dough into two balls and roll as thin as you can (1/8" or thinner) or run through the pasta machine up to the thinnest setting. If the dough is sticky when you're rolling it, there isn't enough flour, so sprinkle some on, fold, and run it through again until it becomes a nice smooth sheet.
3. To stuff the ravioli: lay out one sheet of pasta on a floured surface. Evenly space out small lumps of the filling allowing plenty of room of virgin dough to make a good seal. Brush around the filling with water.
4. Lay the second sheet of pasta on top, smoothing out and pressing gently to make the two sheets touch around the stuffing and seal with the help of the dampened bottom sheet (this last bit can also be done after cutting the shapes).
5. Cut out the ravioli in circles or squares with a knife or pasta cutter. Press out any remaining air bubbles and be OCD about pressing the edges a lot.
6. While bringing a large pot of salted water to a simmer, prepare the sauce.

The Sauce

1. In a medium saucepan, heat the butter to a froth and cook about 4-5 minutes. 
2. Add the pressed garlic and continue cooking and stirring over medium heat until the butter is lightly browned, another 2-4 minutes. 
3. Remove from heat and stir in the herb(s).

The Big Finish

1. Reduce the heat under the boiling water and let it slow to a gentle simmer. Carefully drop in the ravioli and cook until they rise to the surface and puff up (3-4 minutes). 
2. With a slotted spoon remove the ravioli and put directly in the sauce, covering each of them with the butter sauce before dropping in the next one.
3. Plate the ravioli, drizzle any remaining sauce on top, and garnish with fresh ground pepper and parmesan.

Split Pea and Greens Bharta

It's challenging finding recipes using split peas - I mostly get hits for different variations of pea soup (which is delicious, no doubt!). Putting on my researcher cap, I looked to the far East for inspiration and found this little gem. Meant to be eaten scooped with flatbread or raw veggie sticks. The challenging detail to get this recipe right is the amount of liquid required to create the right consistency - too liquid and it'll be soupy and difficult to pick up with bread or veggie sticks, too thick and it won't process properly. The end product is well worth figuring out these details. Note that it requires soaking time for the peas, which makes it a perfect candidate to eat with Staffordshire Oatcakes, which require at least an hour proofing time.

TIMING: 2hrs soak + 1hr25mins

For the Split Peas
1½ cup yellow split peas
3½ cup water (or more, if needed)

1. Soak the peas for at least 2 hours before boiling.
2. Bring them to a boil then simmer for 30 to 50 minutes, until the peas are fully cooked and tender (don't rush this step, the longer and softer the better).
3. Save 1 cup of the cooking water and drain away any excess, if there is any.
4. Season with salt and allow to cool while preparing the veg.

For the Veg Mixture
1 onion, finely chopped
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 jalapeño, finely diced (or a pinch of red pepper flakes)
1 tsp salt, to taste
8 to 12oz fresh greens (spinach, chard, kale, turnip greens, nettles, etc) finely chopped.

1. Dry-sauté the onion until translucent and golden, about 10 minutes. No oil is required, but you do need to stir frequently to avoid sticking. The onion will soften and a fond will develop, which will largely come up from the liquid expressed from the greens when you add them. If it's all sticking too much, add a splash of water.
2. Add the garlic and cook another 30 seconds, then the hot pepper, greens and salt. Stir to combine and cook until the greens wilt. 

Final Steps
2 tsps dried mint
Water
½ tsp salt or to taste
zest of 1 lime or lemon
2 tsps black pepper

1. Once the greens are perfectly cooked, purée the split peas until smooth or, if you'd rather do it by hand, press through a fine sieve with a wooden spoon. It will be quite thick so, if you're running it through the blender, add water to help it move in the machine. Ideally it should be able to just make a vortex in the blender - it will look too wet but will stiffen in no time.
2. To the just-blended peas briefly add and purée the greens, just to get a rough chop, or chop very fine by hand and thoroughly stir in. If using a machine, do it just so that the veg has passed through once - a little chunky is fine. use some of the pea cooking water to get things moving - the veg mix is quite dry.
3. Combine the lime or lemon zest, pepper and mint and mix into the paste.
4. Adjust the seasoning to your taste. Both peas and any added water absorb the effect of salt on flavor, so it's important to taste and adjust the salt until the flavors pop to your liking.
5. Reheat and serve.

Zuppa di salsiccia

This is such a lovely and simple soup. I have a note on this at the bottom, but it bears mentioning several times because it really makes a difference - save your Parmesan rinds and add to the soup while it simmers. It's delicious! I called this soup simply Italian Sausage, Chard and Cannellini Bean Soup, but Ben felt that it didn't have enough mystique. So I called it Zuppa di salsiccia, which Google Translate says means Sausage Soup.

1 or 2 Tbsps olive oil or bacon fat
1 lb spicy Italian sausage
1 onion (6oz/170gr) chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 cup white wine
6 to 8 cups chicken stock
OPTIONAL: Parmesan cheese rind
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp ground fennel
4 cans Cannellini beans, drained OR 16oz dry beans
Tender leafy greens such as Swiss chard or Turnip greens or young nettle tops, about 250g
Salt, to taste (if you follow the NOTE, consider adding less salt, since the Parmesan rind will add saltiness)
freshly grated Parmesan cheese

1. If using dry beans, soak them the night before.
2. Drizzle the oil in a soup pot and squeeze the sausage out of their casings into it, then turn on the heat. When the sausage meat starts to sizzle, add the onions and mix to break up the sausage, then let cook until onions are soft and the sausage begins to brown. You will notice a stage when a lot of liquid is liberated from the sausage and the onion - the browning begins once this excess water is cooked off. (If you want to reduce the fat, you put the cooked sausage and onion mix in a colander and rinse with hot water).
3. Scrape the browned sausage bits off the bottom of the pan as the mixture cooks. Add the garlic and sauté 1 minute more. 
4. Deglaze the pan by adding the white wine and cook until almost all gone, then add the chicken stock, making sure to scrape off as much of the sausage that may still be sticking to the bottom of the pot. If using, add the cheese rind. Increase the temperature to bring to a boil.
5. Meanwhile, add the beans, the fennel seeds and the basil. If using dry beans, cook the soup for one hour or until the beans are tender.
6. Wash the chard, and cut out the stems. Slice the stems very fine, and add them to the soup. Once it starts to boil, reduce the temperature and let it simmer for about a half hour.
7. While the soup simmers, lay out the chard leaves on top of each other, fold lengthwise once or twice, and cut into thin ribbons, about ¼" wide.
8. When the soup has simmered at least 30 minutes, add the chard ribbons and simmer for another 10 minutes more, or until the chard is softened and the flavours have come out. Serve the soup hot, with freshly grated Parmesan cheese - the cheese adds to the flavour of the soup (see NOTE).

NOTE: If you happen to have a Parmesan rind in the fridge, add it to the soup when you first start simmering for added flavour.