Hug in a Bowl

Emily has been under the weather today, it has been very cold here! So for dinner, there was only one thing for it, French Onion Soup. This is a simple yet delicious soup, silky smooth and a good defence against the cold.

Add a large knob of butter to a large sauce pan and once melted, add the onion. Toss over 2 tbsps of sugar and cook the onions until they are soft. Pour over enough beef stock to cover the onions and simmer for an hour.
You can also aff lovely, light and fluffy dumplings. Simply add 100g of flour with 50g of Suet. Add a pinch of salt and, if you want, 50g of fresh herbs. Add 5 tbsps of water to the dry mix and stir well to form a dough. Once combined, roll the dough into balls and add to the soup to cook for 25 minutes, they will double in size and will be deliciously fluffy.
I have also sliced and toasted some read, rubbed with garlic and topped with some melted cheese. Out this at the bottom of the dish if using, and pour the soup over.

This really is a favourite of mine, and one of my mums many soups I remember eating when I was a little boy. The onions melt in the mouth and the sweetness combines really well with the fresh, fluffy dumplings. 2 clean dishes later, and Emily is a happy girl, so job well done!

French Onion Soup with dumplings

Pasta for dessert??????

Ok the thought of pasta for dessert will probably turn many of you away. For those of you who are a little curious, read on…..

For some time now I have been curious about a sweet ravioli with a lovely fruity filling and a sweet sauce over them all. I have made pasta tons of times, so why not add a good deal of sugar to the dough and just see what happens? Tonight I finally put my curiosity to bed and made a sweet ravioli with a sweet creme fraiche filling and a blueberry sauce.

The filling was simple, creme fraiche combined with a tbsp of sugar mixed well together. The blueberry sauce again was simple, blitzed blueberries with a tiny bit of water and a tsp of sugar. The pasta, fairly straightforward. 100g ’00’ flour, 1 egg and …… 50g of sugar!?!

Make the pasta dough as per usual, wrap in cling film and lay aside for an hour. Once rested, put the dough through a pasta machine through every thickness level until you have a very thin sheet. Cut 12 equal squares, and place a tsp of the creme fraiche in the centre of 6 squares.
With a pastry brush, brush the edge of the pasta and stick the 6 other squares on top to form ravioli. I have a special pasta cutter that my mum gave me, I used this to sedate the edge of each ravioli to sea the sweet mixtures inside. Sweet mixture? Am I mad?

Boil the pasta for 3-5 minutes max before placing in a serving dish. Top with a drizzle of the blueberry sauce and a sprinkling of Parmesan (well icing sugar). So my dish does actually have the key elements of a fine pasta dish, nice freshly made pasta, a nice filling and a sauce to cover. Now comes the tricky bit, eating it! Sweet pasta????

To be perfectly honest, it didn’t taste as ridiculous as i thought it would. The dough was a little weird, but the combo of the creme fraiche and blueberry sauce was really very nice. So although I will not be making this too often in the future, my curiosity has been satisfied. I do recommend you try this at least once. It may not be your cup of tea, but you never know.

Pasta will forever be a part of my life, my culinary DNA but it will most likely be savoury from now on. You just never know until you try things, so I am glad I tried this. And additionally, god I’m getting much better at making ravioli. Next time I will reunite this food for the soul with some ‘normal’ ingredients.

Anyway, I hope I have not lost your confidence. Traditional, rustic cooking will resume tomorrow and I can’t wait.

J