Celeriac ravioli (V)

One of those wonderful recipes that is delicate and punchy at the same time. The first time I made it for Tobias and me to try, it got the rare thumbs up from us both, to reproduce it exactly as it was for the supper club - no alterations.

Serves 4 as a main course

For the filling

2 small or one large celeriac root

10 cloves of garlic

2 onions

olive oil

2 tsp honey

a few sprigs of thyme, leaves only

For the pasta

200g pasta flour

2 eggs

For the sauce

80g butter

a pinch of crushed dried chilli flakes

a sprig of rosemary, finely chopped

100g walnuts, half crushed

Heat the oven to 220°C. Peel and cube the celeriac, peel the garlic cloves, peel and roughly chop the onion. You are going to be pureeing this lot later on, so no need to be too careful or uniform about the size of your pieces. Put the vegetables in a roasting tin along with the thyme leaves and a pinch of sea salt. Drizzle with the honey and a little olive oil and toss to coat. Roast until the vegetables are soft and coloured in places - around half an hour - then tip the lot into a food processor with a glug of olive oil and whiz until you have a rough puree. A few lumps remaining are fine - they add a bit of interest.

Make the pasta in accordance with the instructions here and roll out to the thinnest setting on your pasta machine.

Cut the pasta sheets into squares of about 5 cm each side. Lay half the squares out flat on a floured surface and put a teaspoon of the celeriac mixture in the middle of each one. Top with the remaining squares and press down the edges to seal the pasta squares together, enclosing the filling. Trim the edges with a pair of kitchen scissors, and place the filled ravioli on a floured board, not touching each other. As I have previously, disastrously found, they will stick to the board and each other given half a chance, so don't omit to flour the board.

Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil; whilst it's heating, put all the ingredients for the sauce into a smaller pan and set over a low heat.

Put the ravioli gently in the boiling water. Cook for around 2-3 minutes, then fish them out with a slotted spoon and divide between 4 plates. By this time the butter for the sauce will have melted. Give a quick stir to coat all the nuts with the butter, then spoon generously over the ravioli. Serve immediately, with optional parmesan on the side (though I prefer it without).