Serves: 6 as a starter

This is a bit of an adventurous dish, though ironically it’s the simplicity of the whole thing that is the point.

This dish from Martin Teplitzky – son of the great Gretta Anna – is all class.

Nat did this as a first course for a long-lunch we had over the past Christmas and my goodness, what a treat:

The double whammy here is that you both need to make pasta dough and then expertly transfer egg yolks into each ravioli. I think we lost only two yolks.

Though its a fun dish to make – I helped with the pasta part – and it looks wonderful. (Yolks at room temperature are much easier to handle: pro tip.)

And as I said, it’s just the wonderful simplicity of it all.

Thankfully I nailed the other part of my limited brief which was to have a solid white wine chilled and ready.

Enjoy. (I did. Very much.)

Ingredients

18 egg yolks
1 tbsp olive oil
3 thin slices prosciutto, finely chopped
50gm Parmesan, finely grated
Finely chopped chives, to garnish

Asparagus and Lemon Butter

150gm butter
Grated zest and juice of 2 lemons
1 bunch asparagus, spears trimmed and cut into thirds
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Egg Yolk Ravioli (Makes about 18)

300gm type ‘00’ flour
Pinch of salt
3 eggs, at room temperature
Semolina flour, for dusting

Method

1. To make the ravioli, sift the flour into a bowl and add the salt. Make a well in the centre of the flour and break the eggs into it. Using a fork, gently beat the eggs and gradually allow the flour to mix with them. Continue until the sauce is too think to work with the fork. Tip out onto a smooth surface and work the dough until all the flour is absorbed, then continue to knead the dough for 5 – 10 minutes until it becomes smooth. (You may need to dust the work surface with a little semolina flour if you find the dough sticking a bit.) Wrap the dough in plastic film and place in the refrigerator to rest for 10 minutes.
2. Dust the work surface with semolina flour, then cut off about a quarter of the pasta dough, being sure to wrap the remaining dough in a tea towel to prevent it from drying out. Flatten the first piece of dough and pass it through the widest setting on a pasta machine. Drop the setting down a notch and roll out, and again drop the setting a notch and repeat. At this point, take your dough and fold it over twice. Pass it through the pasta machine. Repeat this process 5 times on this setting, folding air into the pasta. Once you have done this, drop the setting down another notch and roll through once, then drop the setting down once more and roll your pasta dough through. You should now have a lovely thin sheet of pasta ready for cutting or filling Repeat with remaining dough it give 4 sheets of pasta.
3. Using a cutter, cut the pasta dough into 18 discs about 8cm in diameter for the base of the ravioli, and 18 discs about 9cm in diameter for the top. Carefully place an egg yolk in the middle of an 8cm disc and wet the edges with a little water on the end of your fingertips. Place a 9cm disc on top and press the edges together, being careful not to puncture the pasta with your fingernails, and making sure you remove any air pockets from inside the ravioli. Repeat with the remaining pasta discs and egg yolks.
4. The ravioli can then be dusted with semolina flour and placed in the fridge or thrown straight into a saucepan of salted, boiling water. Remove the ravioli when they float to the surface, after about 2 – 3 minutes.
5. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a frying pan over a medium-heat and sauté the prosciutto until crisp and golden, then drain on paper towel.
6. To make the asparagus and lemon butter, simply melt the butter in a frying pan over a medium heat, add the lemon zest and juice and gently sauté the asparagus for 2 – 3 minutes until they turn bright green and have softened a little. Season with salt and pepper.
7. Drain the ravioli, divide evenly between the plates. Drizzle the asparagus and lemon butter over top and serve with prosciutto and Parmesan, then scatter over finely chopped chives.