Ingredients
Serves 41 basic pasta recipe
For the filling
200g freshly cooked and picked crab meat
2 tsp roughly chopped capers
1 tsp finely chopped (deseeded) chilli
1 egg white
Small handful of fennel tips or dill washed and roughly chopped
Sea salt and freshly cracked pepper
For the sauce
500ml bisque or best quality fish stock
20g butter
4-6 zucchini flowers, inner stems removed and flowers roughly torn
A few mini zucchini cut into coins (or 1 large)
Small handful of flat leaf parsley, washed and finely chopped
Cut into coins
Extra virgin olive oil
Method
To make the filling place the picked crabmeat into a bowl along with the capers, chilli, egg white and the fennel tips. Mix thoroughly using a spoon and season carefully to taste with salt and pepper.
Roll out a pasta sheet, about 80cm in length if using one of the small models of pasta machine.
Fold the pasta in half lengthways over itself so it's half the length of the original sheet and then unfold it again so you have a fold that represents half of the sheet, this gives you the base and the top of the ravioli.
Place a teaspoon of the crab mixture onto the bottom pasta sheet leaving about 4-5cm between each little mound of crabmeat.
Once this is done use a pastry brush to dampen the pasta (using a little water or egg wash) between the crab filling and then fold the other half of the pasta sheet over the filling to cover it.
Use your fingers to press the pasta down around the filling making sure you get rid of any air, as it will expand in the water and making your ravioli explode in the water.
Use a knife to cut in between the filling so you have the ravioli. Alternatively you can use a pastry cutter to make little round ravioli.
Bring a large pot of water to the bowl, season generously with salt.
To make the sauce place the bisque or stock into a pan large enough to hold all the ravioli and bring to a gentle simmer, add the zucchini coins and after a minute or so remove from the heat and add the butter. Shake the pan around to infuse the butter into the sauce so you have a lovely smooth texture.
Plunge the ravioli into the boiling water and cook for a round 1 minute or until the sides of the ravioli are tender. Remove with a slotted spoon and add to the pan with the sauce. Place the pan on a very gentle heat for a minute or so to warm the sauce through the ravioli, turn the ravioli in the sauce so they are coated on all sides. Finally add the zucchini flowers and the finely chopped parsley into the pan and then immediately arrange between your plates.
Serve with a small amount of extra virgin olive oil over the top and a little freshly cracked pepper.