Homemade Papadelle Pasta with Lamb Ragu

The dried pasta

We had this for dinner the other night and it was so yummy I thought I would post about it. I love making pasta but it's so messy I often just use dried. The difference in the flavour and texture of homemade pasta is wonderful especially if you use Tipo 00 flour and beautiful free range eggs from my friends farm. I just use the 100g flour to 1 egg ration, whizz it up in the food processor until it starts to come together i a bag ball, knead it a bit, rest it an hour or so and roll it out. Papadelle needs to be nice and thin so I rolled it to the last notch on the pasta making and hand cut it into wide strips before drying them on a rack.

For the ragu I browned off a couple of lamb shanks in some EVOO and removed them from the Le Crueset casserole. Then I added finely chopped- onion (one), carrot (a couple), celery (a stalk), fresh rosemary, 4 cloves garlic and a few Tbsp parsley and sauted that over a low heat until the onion has softened. Once that had happened in went some white wine (about a glass), some lamb stock (250ml), 2 tins of chopped tomatoes and it was all brought to a simmer before covering it with some baking paper (helps with reduction), popping the lid on and baking about 2 1/2 hours in a 140C fan bake oven. Once it's cooked shred up the lamb and toss in the pasta before finally topping it with parmesan cheese. Yum yum yum and easy!