TV chefs love to show off their pasta-making skills, but in reality, pasta-making is actually quite straightforward. You don’t even need a pasta machine! In this recipe, we simply rolled out the pasta with a rolling pin, then cut it up. You can make the dough a few hours in advance, as it needs to sit for ½ an hour before rolling anyway.

Adapt the filling as you wish. Make round parcels, triangles or whatever you fancy. You should easily be able to make 8 giant parcels from the mix – indeed, you may have some dough and filling left over to make a few more to store for a light lunch the following day.

Other Ingredients

2 large eggs
8-10 fresh basil leaves
70g-90g Ricotta cheese

Method

1) Put all the dry ingredients into a bowl, or if you prefer into the centre of a large board/clean work surface and make a well in the centre.
2) Crack the eggs into a bowl and mix roughly with a fork or whisk.
3) Gradually add the eggs to the flour, stirring the mix as you go.
4) Knead into a dough.
5) Once kneaded, cover with cling film and let the dough stand for œ an hour.
6) In the meantime squeeze out excess liquid from the sun-dried tomatoes and roughly tear into pieces.
7) Using a coffee grinder/liquidizer or pestle & mortar crush the tomatoes into a rough paste. Add the basil and ricotta and whizz/mix thoroughly.
8) Retrieve the dough. Using fine semolina and 00 flour to dust the board and rolling pin, roll out the dough as thin as you can manage.
9) Use a ruler to measure out 3 inch/7-8cm squares and cut with a pizza wheel/pastry wheel or knife (You can use a round cookie cutter if you wish instead.)
10) Using an egg or water wash, brush the four sides of each square/oblong.
11) Next drop a couple of tea-spoons of the filling mix into the centre of one half of your squares.
12) Place the spare ‘lids’ on top and with a fork press around the edges to join the top and bottom of the pasta together. Trim if necessary. You may want to leave the parcels to rest for ½ so the joins have time to set.
13) Put a saucepan of boiling water onto the hob and bring back to the boil. Turn down to a simmer and add the ravioli. After a few minutes boiling the ravioli should start to float to the top. Once the colour of the pasta starts to pale and you can feel that it is soft remove all the parcels from the water as quickly as you can to avoid them becoming overcooked.
14) To make the sauce, gently warm a packet or two of English Tomato and Cheviot Cheese Soup in a saucepan.
15) Plate up each pair of cooked ravioli, pour over the sauce. Garnish with pine nuts & some basil leaves/tips. Now serve.
16) Grate some Pecorino or Parmesan Cheese into a bowl. Take to the table for those who like a little sprinkle!