Crafting Altura's Stuffed Pastas

by Caitlin Collins

Pasta-making is an art requiring patience and practice, but stuffed pastas can be especially challenging. Luckily, our pasta expert Tim Stewart is great at crafting stuffed pastas such as ravioli.

Altura currently has two stuffed pastas on the menu -- foraged mushroom ravioli and squab mezzaluna. Watch Tim as he carefully makes our house pastas!

FORAGED MUSHROOM RAVIOLI
Stinging Nettle, Hedgehog Mushrooms, Wild Onion Oil

The foraged mushroom ravioli is currently being served in a stinging nettle dough. The nettles are chosen mostly for their vivid green color, but you can also smell them in the dough. Nettle flavor also comes through more strongly than other greens such as spinach, though it is still fairly faint.

Tim takes the rolled-out dough made of nettles, egg yolks, and flour, and feeds it through the pasta machine. "The first thing I'm trying to do is get my dough in one solid sheet, and the second thing is to get it all the same width, about the width of the pasta maker. Once my sheets are together, my next task is to make it uniform," he says.

The ravioli filling is currently made from hedgehog and black trumpet mushrooms with ricotta cheese, butter, and parmesan. Tim painstakingly places the filling on the pasta: it can't be too much or it will squirt out when sealed, it can't be too close to the edges.

Tim then folds the pasta closed, lightly creasing where each pasta will end.

A circular shaper helps to get all the air out so the ravioli won't pop while cooking. Then Tim dimples the top of each ravioli to make sure it's properly sealed (if not, the filling will spread out into the dough), and to create a shape that better holds sauce.

The ravioli is then cut and ready to cook!

SQUAB MEZZALUNA

In Sugo with Washington Truffle and Wild Onion

Mezzaluna is Italian for "half moon," which exactly describes this ravioli's shape. Currently, the squab mezzaluna is being served in a duck sugo with Washington truffle and wild onion. "Sugo" is the word for a ragu with a broth-ier texture.

Tim has to make dough for the mezzaluna as stiff as possible, otherwise it won't adhere when it is sealed.

Once the pasta is perfectly smooth and the same size from the pasta maker, Tim folds it into squares.

Tim starts by cutting it into four pieces, lightly imprinting the dough with the scalloped cutout for the ravioli.

The filling of confit squab, roasted squab breast, squab sauce, and thyme is added to the center of each scalloped cutout, the whole thing receives a light spritz of water, and then Tim folds the pasta over to seal the top. Then he folds it over and seals it, working left to right, pushing the air out.

Tim cuts the pasta out with the scalloped cutter and dimples the center of each mezzaluna to ensure that the filling is sealed properly.

Tim crafts our pasta everyday in Altura's kitchen. Come try our freshly made mushroom ravioli and squab mezzaluna for yourself!