I am submitting this recipe for Crayfish Ravioli With A Bisque Sauce to Presto Pasta Nights, which is being hosted this week by Emma of Soupier
Today’s inspirational recipe from Lavender and Lime ♥ Crayfish Ravioli With A Bisque Sauce ♥ #LavenderAndLime Share on X
Like most countries in the world where commercial fishing exists, the recreational fisherman is the one to suffer from a lack of fish close inshore and from the fact that the commercial fisherman get the majority of what is available in our seas. This is a two sided coin for us as a lot of our friends are commercial fisherman, and they rely on quota’s and the weather for their income. At the same time, we fish for recreational purposes. 30 minutes by sea from Gordons Bay where we live is a bay full of crayfish. The commercial fisherman can go everyday and take out crayfish much smaller than the recreational permit allows. Ten years ago, the season for the recreational catchers was from the 15th of November, everyday until the end of January, and then weekends and public holidays, until the end of April. This year our recreational season opens on the 15th of November and we can go out everyday (weather permitting of course) until the 15th of January, and then we can only go out again over the Easter weekend. We are allowed four crayfish per person on the boat, with a maximum of 5 people per boat. So, we can basically catch 20 crayfish per trip. We are allowed out once per day with time constraints. The license for catching crayfish is extremely cheap (R94 – less than €10) but there are costs involved in going out fishing, which means that even though we have easy access to this luxury, it is not a cheap meal. It is however cheaper than if we were to buy the crayfish that the commercial fisherman catch – and they come back with thousands a day. When the season was longer I used crayfish in my macaroni and cheese but now, I take care to make a special meal with the crayfish. This is one of those meals. You can substitute the crayfish for any shell fish, so use whatever is easily accessible to you.
Crayfish Ravioli With A Bisque Sauce
Ingredients
for the pasta:
- 200 g pasta flour
- 2 eggs
- 1 pinch salt
- 30 mls tomato purée
for the filling:
- 2 crayfish tails, meat only, (retain the shells)
- 10 g parsley, chopped
- 1 small chilli, seeds removed
- 1 egg yolk, (keep the white for sealing the ravioli)
- salt and freshly ground black pepper to season
for the bisque sauce:
- 15 mls olive oil
- 2 shallots, diced
- 2 ribs celery, sliced
- 1 carrot, cut in a small dice
- 2 crayfish tail shells
- 60 mls white wine
- 125 mls stock
- 5 mls olive oil
- 1 clove garlic, sliced
- 125 mls water
- 15 mls cream
Method
for the pasta:
- mix the ingredients to form a dough and knead for 10 minutes
- add more flour if too sticky, and water if too dry
- roll into a ball, cover with clingfilm and leave to rest in the fridge for half an hour
- roll the dough out to number 6 on a pasta machine
- cut out your ravioli shapes ready for the filling
- lightly dust with flour
for the filling:
- place all the ingredients into a blender and mix into a smooth mousse
- to make the ravioli:
- place one teaspoon of the mousse in the centre of each disc
- lightly beat the egg white and brush along the edge of the disc
- place a second disc on top of the disc that has filling on it
- seal properly, ensuring you get all the air out
- cook in boiling salted water for 3 minutes once you have added the cream to the sauce
for the bisque sauce:
- heat the oil in a large frying pan and add the shallots, celery and carrots
- allow onions to soften
- add the shells to the pan
- when the shells change colour add the wine and the stock
- leave to simmer until the sauce has reduced by half
- allow to cool and blitz the ingredients until they are well blended
- put the teaspoon of oil into the pan
- soften the garlic and add back the crayfish mix
- add the water and bring to the boil
- pass the ingredients through a chinois
- clean out the pan and add the sauce back
- leave to simmer for 5 minutes
- add the cream and allow to thicken
Notes
Nutrition
Tandy, what an incredible meal – I hope you and Dave enjoyed this by candlelight!
I am intrigued by the tomato puree in the pasta – I’ve never done that before.
🙂 Mandy
We eat by candlelight every night! It is so easy to add different tastes and colours to pasta, do give it a try 🙂
I love the idea of fishing for your crayfish – sounds fantastic. I remember as a young photographer in Covent Garden we would drink at a famous bar called “Zanzibar”. When the live crayfish were delivered we would have races with them on the bar, before they headed off to the kitchen.
we will have to try racing the crayfish next time Roger 🙂
mmmm…a decadent flavour..and a wonderful pasta dish.x
thank you Yvette 🙂
This sounds like a very special meal and so beautiful as well.
thank you so much Karen 🙂
What luxury – what a lovely meal! So how much would one of your crayfish weigh? Just to get an idea as the ones we get here are tiny!
I will weigh them the next time we catch as we only keep the tails in the freezer 🙂
The pasta is a lovely colour, I can still taste the lovely crays we had at your place last year 🙂
hope you will visit again soon for some more!
Every part of this dish sounds fabulous!! I’ve never made my own pasta, but I may need to learn to after reading the filling you put into this!! And the sauce sounds so delcious!!!
you will love making your own pasta, and the fillings list is endless 🙂
These are beautiful! 🙂
thanks Jen 🙂
Be still my heart. This crayfish ravioli dish looks like the perfect dinner when you want to stay in and watch a romantic movie. I love this
thank you Kay 🙂
Wow, four crayfish isn’t a lot, but I have to say you made the most of it. This looks fantastic.
thanks Greg, our crayfish are fairly large here – but not as big as the ones from Maine 🙂
Wow, Tandy, such an elaborated dish…looks delicious and full of flavors. Beautifully done!
Hope you are having a fantastic week 🙂
thank you Juliana – this week is perfect so far 🙂
Complex, Tandy, but I know already it will be totally worth it. Thanks for this: I’ll use it to romance Phil on Saturday night 🙂
Lots of love and work went into this dish. Making your own pasta is always time consuming but so worth the efforts. Take Care, BAM
thanks BAM – I love making my own pasta as I find the end result so rewarding 🙂
A delightful & festive home-made pasta dinner! I love this unique recipe a lot 😉
Yum!
thanks Sophie 🙂
Might like to mention to remove the shells before blitzing the sauce.
Thank you John, but I always blitz mine with the shells and then pass through a sieve.
Are those Crayfish you’re talking about actually lobster? Around here we call the freshwater Crayfish by several names., Crayfish, Crawfish…and the old folks called them Crawdaddies…Anyway, sound delicious.
Bless You
paul
They are Rock Lobsters and not carwfish 🙂
I am just drooling over this. It is so refined. I’ve never been fishing, I do stick to buying my shellfish so this would be quite expensive, but still totally worth the splurge!
for a special occasion, this is so worth it 🙂 Thanks for the visit!
how many does this serve Tandy? I have 5 adults?
… and 1 further question, for the bisque I assume when you ‘blitz the ingredients’ this includes the cray shells?
Thank you 🙂
Hi, yes, I blitzed the shells as well 🙂
Hi, this served 2 of us 🙂