Eat your greens… that is, your Christmas Trees. My Christmas Tree Prawn & Herb Ravioli with Nutmeg Butter Sauce are adorable, and so so delicious. I could eat that herbed prawn filling on repeat… and the pasta is so beautifully tender.
I made the pasta dough and minced prawns with my new KitchenAid (isn’t it the most gorgeous colour?), using two of their attachments: the Metal Food Grinder and 3-Piece Pasta Roller & Cutter. These attachments extend the capabilities of the mixer; making the KitchenAid a really multi-purpose appliance.
I’ve used the food grinder to grind meat for mince, make sausages, or as a potato ricer. I use it to mince prawns in this recipe, but have also used it to make beef and lamb mince. It comes with fine, medium and coarse grinding plates (which are easily interchangeable to suit whatever you’re making), as well as sausage stuffing tubes and a dial to adjust speed. I’m always oddly mesmerised watching the ground meat squiggle out the other end.
I use the pasta roller attachment to roll out my spinach pasta dough. The attachment comes as part of a set of 3 – a roller, plus spaghetti cutter and fettuccine cutter. I don’t know why I was tricked into thinking pasta rolling would be a super laborious task, because this was so quick and simple. Just feed the dough through and continue folding, feeding and adjusting the dial until you reach your desired thickness.
The attachments fit easily on to the front of your KitchenAid – simply unscrew the knob, remove the logo plate and slide in the attachment. So easy!
I cut my ravioli using a large tree cookie cutter. Make sure you don’t overfill your tree shapes, as you don’t want them to explode! I serve them in a beautiful simple, fragrant nutmeg butter sauce. What an epic dish, and they are so much fun to make.
You can find all of KitchenAid’s attachments on their website – head to https://kitchenaid.co.nz/collections/stand-mixer-attachments-accessories to find them all!
Christmas Tree Prawn & Herb Ravioli with Nutmeg Butter Sauce
Course: Mains, Recipes, Sides4-6
servings35
minutes30
minutesIngredients
- Spinach Pasta Dough
150g frozen spinach, thawed and left to drain in a sieve
2 large eggs + 2 egg yolks
300g flour
1/2 tsp salt
- Prawn & Herb Filling
250g frozen raw prawns (weight with the shells on)
1 large onion, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp finely chopped chives
1 tbsp finely chopped parsley
1 tsp fennel seeds
1/2 tsp salt
- Nutmeg Butter Sauce
150g butter
2 tbsp finely chopped parsley
1 tbsp finely grated lemon zest
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
Directions
- Start by making the pasta. Squeeze out as much moisture from the spinach as you can. Add to a blender along with the eggs and egg yolks, and blend for 2 minutes until smooth.
- Add flour and salt to the bowl of your KitchenAid Mixer fitted with the flat beater attachment. Briefly mix to combine. Pour in the spinach mixture and mix on medium-low to form a shaggy dough. Remove the flat beater attachment and attach the dough hook.
- Knead on medium-low for 3 minutes, until the mixture has formed a smooth and stretchy ball. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and set aside for 30 minutes while you make the filling.
- Peel the shells from the prawns and discard, or save for another use.
- Fit your KitchenAid Mixer with the Metal Food Grinder Attachment, fitted with the medium grinding plate. Place a bowl underneath the mixer to catch the mince.
- Turn on to medium-low and slowly feed the prawns through the chute. Add all remaining ingredients for the filling, along with a good season of pepper, and mix to combine. Set aside in the fridge.
- Fit your KitchenAid Mixer with the Pasta Roller Attachment.
- Unwrap your pasta dough, divide the dough into two and roll out to a rectangle narrow enough to fit through the roller attachment. With the thickness set to 1, feed the pasta through the roller. Fold one end in towards the centre, then fold over the other end like a business letter. Repeat this process at least 2 more times. Repeat with remaining portion of dough.
- Increase the setting on the roller to 2, and feed the dough through again. Repeat, incrementally increasing the setting, until you reach setting 6.
- Lay your strips of pasta on a clean work surface. Using a large tree cookie cutter, gently press tree shapes next to each other down one strip (don’t press all the way through – you are just scoring the dough as a guide).
- Spoon 1-2 tbsp of prawn filling in an oblong shape down the centre of each tree, leaving plenty of room around the edges. Use a finger to brush water around the filling and edges of each tree.
- Lay your remaining dough strip over top, and firmly press down around each lump of filling. Use your cookie cutter to press out the trees, ensuring the filling is centred in each tree. The dough will seal as you press the cutter all the way through.
- Add butter to a large pan and melt over medium-high heat. Add remaining sauce ingredients and toss to combine. Reduce heat to low while you cook the ravioli.
- Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil. Add your trees in batches, and cook for 3 minutes until just tender, flipping halfway. Transfer to the butter sauce as you cook the remaining batches.
- When all of the ravioli has been added to the sauce, add a good splash (about 75ml) of the cooking water. Toss to combine, and increase heat to a bubble. Let the sauce simmer for 2-3 minutes until thickened to your liking.
- Divide ravioli among your serving dishes and pour over the sauce. Garnish with finely chopped herbs, lemon zest and finely grated parmesan. Serve immediately.
