Food

@dancing james @Tijmen

Re ravioli:

I don't have a recipe book to recommend, but here is my simple concept for coming up with new recipes, as well as a few I've done before.

Approach: use a light, rather bland, cheese, such as ricotta, add some vegetables, better if lightly cooked and squeezed of as much liquid as possible, add seasoning and herbs, again, nothing overpowering, but nutmeg should always be there. Whiz in a food processor without overdoing it. The sauce should complement the taste of the stuffing, or be light to not interfere.

Some past noteworthy combinations:

• Spinach and ricotta: this is the simplest and most common of the stuffings, it helps if you can source quality ricotta. You can use frozen spinach leaf, sautéed with a crushed garlic clove to dehydrate them (garlic to be removed before blending). Simply season with nutmeg, salt and pepper. A simple sauce of shallots, tomato sauce and a few basil leaves to appreciate at best.

• Squash and potatoes: boil some potatoes and roast a diced squash or pumpkin, add thyme, nutmeg, salt and pepper. It's important the squash looses as much water as possible. Wiz all together (no cheese needed here). A shallot, blue cheese and walnut sauce (with/without cream) would be best.

• Seafood: this could work with different types of seafood, I did it with Salmon, but would work well with prawns or cod. Sauté the seafood with shallots, then wiz with ricotta, salt, pepper and nutmeg. A sauce of shallots, carrots and courgettes would work well with this, you can blend 50% of the sauce to make it creamy if you want. (A squid ink dough works well also visually as opposed to the pink of the salmon).

A sage and butter sauce is always an option to avoid overpowering the taste of the stuffing.