This past summer, I made a stop for a few days in London on the way back from Greece to Toronto. I hadn’t been to England since 1990 and a return was overdue. One of my stops was to dine at Halepi, located in west London (walking distance from my hotel).
This restaurant has been serving Cypriot and Greek dishes since 1966 and they have seen Princess Diana, Steven Spielberg and Ozzy pass through their doors!
One of their specialties are Ravioli with Halloumi and I’m going to share my take with you. We’ll make an easy pasta dough with a ricotta/halloumi/mint filling, boil it and top with sizzling brown butter, grated Halloumi cheese and chopped pistachios.
Ravioles With Brown Butter & Halloumi
Course: AppetizersCuisine: CypriotDifficulty: Moderate6
servings1
hour30
minutes8
minutesIngredients
600 grams Tipo 00 flour
6 large eggs
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. sea salt
- Filling
2 cups grated Halloumi cheese
1 cup Ricotta cheese
2 large eggs
1 tsp. dried mint
fresh ground pepper to taste
- The rest of the ingredients
Chicken stock (you can use bouillon cubes)
sea salt
dried mint
ground black pepper
1 stick of unsalted butter
grated Halloumi cheese
1/3 cup chopped pistachios
fresh ground pepper
Directions
- For the filling, add grated Halloumi, Ricotta, mint, eggs and fresh ground pepper. Mix with a a fork. Add salt if needed. Set aside.
- For the pasta, add all the ingredients in your food processor and pulse until it looks like breadcrumbs. Empty onto your work surface and gather together with your hands. Knead with your hands until the dough becomes Wrap well with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Cut the dough into 4 pieces and flour your work surface and roll out into strips. Sprinkle flour on your dough balls and place a dough ball through your pasta machine set to the widest setting. Pass through three times on wide setting, again on the middle setting three times and pass three times through the smallest setting (sprinkle flour on your dough each time so it doesn’t stick). Repeat with remaining dough balls. They should be about 5 1/2 inches in width.
Place a tablespoon of filling on top half of the dough in 3cm intervals, wet the dough with some water on your finger and fold up the dough to envelope the filling. Use your fingers to remove any air around the filling. Use a past cutter/pasta wheel to cut into portions (or a glass to make half-moon ravioli).
Place finished ravioli on a tray with some sprinkled flour. You should yield approx. 40 ravioli. - Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add a bouillon cube, about a tsp. of ground pepper, a tsp of dried mint. Add salt to water if needed. Add your ravioli to boiling water and and cook your ravioli for 6-8 minutes.
Meanwhile, make your brown butter by placing butter in a small pot over medium heat. Watch over it until it turns to a light brown colour with a nutty aroma. Take off heat. - Remove the ravioli with a slotted spoon and place on plates or platter. Top with some grated halloumi and reheat your brown butter and pour over ravioli. Top with more grated Halloumi, fresh ground pepper and chopped pistachios and serve.
Recipe Video
Notes
- To Freeze, place tray of ravioli on a parchment lined tray and cover with plastic wrap and freeze. Once frozen, transfer to a container with a lid. Frozen ravioli will take about 10-12 minutes.
- Short-cut Ravioli: use wonton wrappers. Lay out wrappers on work surface, place filling in each and brush edges with water or eggwash and place second wonton on top. Press down firmly to seal and remove air pockets. Crimp edges with a fork.