Three-way wild mushroom ravioli

By: Rohan Anderson
From: A Year of Practiculture
Serves: 4
Photographer: Rohan Anderson & Kate Berry

There’s something special about the mushroom season. You tolerated the heat of summer, you got excited by the autumn break, and you worked your butt off preparing for winter – then it finally arrives. It’s time to rest and eat well. The forest mushrooms still hang about well into winter – heck, I’ve even picked some in early summer. It isn’t the season itself that determines the mushrooms’ arrival, it’s the weather conditions. One autumn when rain was absent our mushroom season arrived very late and it was a poor year for mushroom meals. Some years the conditions are just right and we get most of our favourite varieties in the bush well into winter. One of the three mushrooms in this recipe, the wood blewit, is actually more of a later variety, which typically arrives when the temperature is colder and there’s plenty of moisture about.

If you’re lucky enough to have a successful mushroom hunt and find all three species, then try this recipe, but it works equally well with just slippery Jacks and saffron milkcaps (pine mushrooms). If you’re in the right place at the right time, do try the three-way.

Ingredients

Quantity	Ingredient
50g	butter
1-2 tablespoons	olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
90g	saffron milkcap mushrooms, chopped
90g	wood blewit mushrooms, chopped
90g	slippery jack mushrooms, chopped
4	garlic cloves, finely chopped
handful	thyme sprigs, leaves picked
125ml	white wine
	salt, to taste
	pepper, to taste
90g	pecorino, grated
300g	fresh ricotta
a dollop	mascarpone
	freshly cracked mountain pepper berries, to taste

Ravioli

Quantity	Ingredient
300g	organic plain flour, plus extra for dusting
4	large eggs

Method

Start by making the filling. Heat the butter with the olive oil in a frying pan over medium–high heat. Fry the mushrooms, garlic and thyme for 10 minutes, or until the moisture has evaporated, then splash over the wine and reduce. Season with salt and pepper.
Remove from the heat, transfer to a mixing bowl and add half the pecorino. Blitz using a hand-held blender, then fold through the ricotta. Cover and set aside while you make the pasta.
Now make the ravioli. Pour the flour into a large mixing bowl and make a well in the centre. Break three of the eggs into the well. Using an expensive kitchen device (i.e. your clean hands), mix and twirl the egg around in the flour until completely mixed, then knead on a floured bench for 5 minutes, or until a smooth dough forms. Wrap in plastic wrap and set aside to rest at room temperature for 1 hour.
Roll the dough into a sausage-shaped log and cut it into small chunks. Run each chunk of pasta dough through a hand-cranked pasta machine, first on a wide-open setting, then slowly progressing to a tighter setting. You might put each piece of pasta dough through six to eight times, until you have a large strip of flat pasta. Lay the pasta on a flour-dusted bench.
Beat the remaining egg in a small bowl and grab a small pastry brush. Arrange a few spoonfuls of the filling at regular intervals on one half of the pasta. Brush the egg wash over the exposed pasta, then fold over the half without filling to cover the filling, and seal well, pushing any captured air out of the pocket of filling. Use a pasta cutter to cut out the pretty little gems. Repeat with the remaining pasta strips and filling.
Bring a saucepan of salted water to the boil. Cook the ravioli for 5 minutes, or until al dente. Remove from the hot water with a slotted spoon and pop straight into a mixing bowl. Add the mascarpone and the remaining pecorino and toss gently to cover.
Drizzle over some olive oil, and season with salt and mountain pepper berry.