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Salvo’s Pork Escalopes with Sweet and Sour Peppers

Posted: May 11, 2010 at 2:38 am

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 800g pork fillet, cleaned (200g per portion cut into three medallions and flattened to ¼ inch)
• Flour (to dust)
• 50g salted butter
• 1 small glass dry white wine
• 800g–1000g potatoes
• 5g chives, chopped
• 1 garlic clove, chopped
• 2 sprigs thyme
• 400g red peppers, roasted, peeled and sliced
• 10g salted capers
• 50ml white wine vinegar
• 1 tsp caster sugar
• 10g flat leaf parsley, chopped
• 25ml vegetable stock
• 500g courgette, sliced lengthways, ¼ inch thick
• Small bunch mint
• Italian extra virgin olive oil
• Salt and pepper

Method: How to make Salvo’s escalopes of pork fillet with sweet and sour red peppers and capers

1. Wash and drain the salted capers. Soak for at least 2 hours in lots of water making sure to change the water twice.
2. Peel the potatoes and gently boil in salted water for 10 minutes until just tender, keep warm.
3. Sauté the garlic in olive oil until soft, add the thyme sprigs, red peppers and capers. Finish with wine vinegar and allow to reduce to almost nothing. Balance any acidity with the sugar to taste. Add the parsley and 5 or 6 tablespoons of stock.
4. Season the pork medallions and dust in flour. Pan fry in oil and half the butter for about 2 minutes until medium rare. Dust the pan with flour to absorb the fat in the pan, add the white wine and reduce by half, add the sweet and sour red peppers. The pork will have cooked through by now so finish the dish with 25g of cold diced butter stirred in off the heat to give a little richness to the sauce. Moisten with a bit of extra stock if you need more sauce.
5. Take the par cooked potatoes – roughly crush them and add salt, some good extra virgin olive oil and chives.
6. Brush the courgettes with a little oil, griddle until cooked but maintaining a bite. Season and dress with chopped mint before serving with the pork and potatoes.

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Salvo’s Spinach and Ricotta Ravioli

Posted: May 11, 2010 at 2:30 am

Serves 4

Ingredients

For the pasta:

• 200g 00 flour
• 100g Durum wheat semolina flour
• 3 eggs
• 1 egg, to seal
• Durum wheat semolina flour for dusting pasta dough

For the filling:

• 1 clove garlic, finely sliced
• 40g fresh grated Parmesan
• 400g fresh spinach leaves
• 250g ricotta
• 1 egg yolk
• A pinch of fresh grated nutmeg to taste

For the tomato butter sauce:

• 4 fresh plum tomatoes
• 1 clove garlic, finely sliced
• Small bunch fresh basil
• 125g butter, diced and cold
• Lump of fresh Parmesan for shavings
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Salt and pepper

Method: How to make Salvo’s spinach and ricotta ravioli with tomato butter sauce

1. For the pasta dough combine 3 whole eggs with 200g 00 flour and 100g for semolina flour and knead until silky smooth texture is achieved. Pop in the fridge for an hour to relax.
2. For the filling sauté the garlic slowly then turn the heat up and add the washed spinach. When it’s wilted, squeeze dry and chop roughly. Add spinach to a large bowl with the ricotta, grated Parmesan cheese, egg yolk and freshly grated nutmeg.
3. Roll out pasta to its thinnest point using a pasta machine. Cut pasta into 1½ inch squares and place a tablespoon of filling on each one. Egg wash the sides and fold over to make filled triangles.
4. With the folded side facing you (and the pointed bit facing away from you) grasp the 2 corners of the triangle and pinch them together, this should give you the ravioli. Put them on a tray dusted liberally with semolina flour.
5. To cook them, drop gently into boiling water seasoned with salt; when they float to the surface after 2–4 minutes they are ready to lift out and be turned gently through the sauce.
6. For the tomato butter sauce: blanch, peel, de-seed and dice the fresh tomatoes then simmer slowly in olive oil with the garlic. Once the tomatoes are cooked add the freshly torn basils leaves and remove from the heat.
7. Gently add the cooked ravioli to the pan followed by the cold butter to emulsify. Season with salt and black pepper then serve the raviolis with the sauce and garnish with basil and Parmesan shavings.

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Prosecco’s Crab Ravioli With a Saffron and Cream Sauce

Posted: May 11, 2010 at 2:04 am

Serves 4

Ingredients

For the filling:

• 100g white crab meat, picked
• 100g 50/50 white crab meat and brown crab meat, picked
• 100g ricotta
• ½ large white potato, cooked in seafood stock with one clove of garlic, mashed
• Flat leaf parsley, finely chopped to taste
• Fresh nutmeg to taste
• 1 tbsp of dry white breadcrumbs, if needed to dry mixture
• 1 egg, to bind

For the pasta dough:

• 250g 00 flour
• 250g semolina flour
• 4 whole eggs

For the saffron and cream sauce:

• Pinch of saffron
• 200ml double cream
• Flat leaf parsley chopped to garnish
• 2 large ripe plum tomatoes – peeled, de-seeded and diced
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method: How to make Prosecco’s crab ravioli with saffron sauce

1. Mix up the cooked crab meat with the ricotta, potato cooked in fish stock, parsley and freshly grated nutmeg. Season to taste and if the mixture is still very moist and not holding its shape on a spoon add a small amount of breadcrumbs. Use a little egg to bind if necessary. Season with salt and pepper and spoon into a piping bag ready to use.
2. For the pasta, mix the sieved flours into a large bowl. In a separate bowl beat 4 eggs and combine with the sieved flour and mix together to form a dough. Take the dough onto a floured board and knead until a smooth texture is achieved, then wrap in cling film and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
3. Once the dough has rested roll it out and pass through a pasta machine – starting with the thickest setting first, working your way down to the thinnest setting to form two thin sheets of pasta. Dust the sheets with flour to stop them from sticking together.
4. Once you have two equal sheets of pasta pipe a cherry tomato size ball of the filling along one pasta strip with plenty of space between, and then lay the second sheet of pasta on top and press out all the air from around the filling to form a water tight seal that will stop the ravioli from bursting in the boiling water. Cut out 12 ravioli with a fluted pastry cutter, approximately 2”/5cm diameter, and place on a tray dusted with semolina flour.
5. Put a large pan of salted water on the hob to boil. In a separate pan warm the saffron gently and add the double cream, season with salt and pepper and allow to heat through for 3 -4 minutes. Whilst the sauce heats through place the ravioli in the large pan of boiling salted water and cook for 2-3 minutes until the pasta is cooked but still al dente.
6. Drain the cooked ravioli and serve 3 ravioli per person, spoon over the sauce and garnish with the diced tomato and a pinch of freshly chopped parsley.