“Bottoni” Home made Pasta stuffed with Lemon and Ricotta Cheese, Broccoli, Sea-Urchins, Octopus “Cacciucco”

This month the Chef Rocco de Santis proposes a tasty recipe available in the Santa Elisabetta Gourmet Restaurant’s menu. The restaurant is located on the first floor of the Tower of Pagliazza in Florence Italy.

Ingredients

For the pastry:

• 250 ml milk
• 250 ml water
• 500 g cake flour
• 15 g salt
• 60 g butter
• 4 egg yolks
• 50 g parmesan

For the filling

• 500 g buffalo milk ricotta
• 15 g salt
• 50 g parmesan
• zest of a grated lemon

For the broccoli cream

• 500 g romanesco broccoli
• 1 clove of garlic
• salt as required
• vegetable broth as required

For the caciucco di polpo (octopus stew)

• 500 g musky octopus or small common octopus
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 peeled san marzano tomato
• red pepper as required

Method

Place the milk, water, butter and salt in a pan and bring to the boil. lower the heat and gradually add the flower a little at a time, stirring well.
When the mixture comes away from the pan, it is ready. Turn off the heat and leave it to cool.
Afterwards, transfer it to a food mixer, blend in the egg yolks ad parmesan on average speed, until the mixture is smooth and even. then, wrap in clingfilm and leave to rest for 30 minutes.

For the filling: strain the ricotta and add it to the rest of the ingredients, place in a piping bag and put to one side.

For the broccoli cream: wash and clean the broccoli, cut into pieces and blanch for a few minutes in salted water. Strain and brown in a frying pan with the garlic, red pepper and extra virgin olive oil. Adjust the salt and leave to cook on a medium heat until the broccoli are soft, but not overcooked. Blend with a mixer and place in a piping bag and put in the fridge.

Clean the octopus, cut into chunks and brown on a high heat in the oil, garlic and red pepper. Splash with a little white wine, then add the sieved san marzano tomato and leave to cook until very soft on a low heat. Use a thermomix to blend everything to produce an extract of octopus stew.

Now make the ravioli. Roll out the dough thinly, pipe on the filling and cover with more dough, thus creating pasta “buttons”.

In a frying pan, heat a little octopus stew, add the buttons that have been previously cooked and leave to absorb the flavour. Pipe a little broccoli onto a serving plate, arrange the ravioli and pour on the caciucco sauce, add some raw sea urchin and a few pieces of sautéed octopus to bring out the flavour of the octopus.

Decorate with chopped herbs and edible flowers.