After spending about 20 minutes leafing through this cookbook that I picked up from my local library, I was inspired by one of a dozen recipes and set my heart on a weekend project. However, I began to despair when I realised I must have gotten rid of my pasta machine in one of our very frequent moves around Australia. Luckily, Kevin reminded me that, in fact, our pasta machine is still with us, and was relegated to a bottom unused cupboard of my kitchen.

Alas I spent yesterday trying to approximate the work of this famous chef with her scalloped edged anolini. For the first go, I think I did OK.

It’s a quite comforting, meal, and I chose to serve these little meat filled dumplings in a beef broth, instead of with a sage-butter sauce like recommends. I think it works really well.

Ingredients:

500g beef stew meat

2 cups stock

2 tsp sea salt

2 tablespoons tomato paste

2 cloves minced garlic

1/4 cup breadcrumbs

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese (grated) + more for sprinkling

1 recipe for fresh Egg Pasta (Jamie Oliver has one here)

Directions:

Add stock, tomato paste & garlic to saucepan, bring to the boil. Salt stew beef with 1 tsp salt and add remaining salt to broth (depending on how seasoned your stock is). Allow to braise for 1 1/2 – 2 hours on medium low.

When beef is falling apart, place in a food processor, and add breadcrumbs & cheese and process into a uniform consistency. Reserve beef juices in pan – they will be used for the broth later.

Roll out egg pasta into sheets using a pasta machine and cut into rounds, or if you have a scalloped edged cutter use that one – mine was 2.5 centimetres.

Begin to stuff shells and press together with your fingers. You may want to sit down, turn on some music and prepare for some zen, as this process is rather long and tedious.

Cover anolini as you go to keep them moist.

Once finished shaping anolini, prepare beef broth by adding extra beef stock to reserved braising juices. Season to taste, and strain any bits from the broth to ensure a clear broth, keep on low heat while you cook the anolini.

Bring a large pot of water to the boil and add anolini. My anolini took approximately 5-6 minutes to cook. They will look puffed up and float to the surface of the water when they are done.

Add anolini to beef broth and serve with grated Parmesan.