Recipes / My Bristol Recipes
My Bristol Recipes: The Cloak and Dagger’s wild garlic, ‘nduja and ricotta ravioli
It’s always a privilege to be invited into a professional kitchen, but I’m even more starkly aware of it when busy Easter bank holiday preparations are underway. The kitchen of The Cloak and Dagger on Cheltenham Road is a hive of activity, and chef Sebastian Devlin Merry whizzes past shelves studded with gastronomic gadgets and well-thumbed cookbooks.
Seb started a pop-up kitchen at The Cloak and Dagger in February 2020 – an incredibly testing time – but quickly decided to invest and become a co-owner of the business. The popularity of their takeaway roasts soared over lockdown, but now Seb is keen to show the people of Bristol the full breadth of his cooking ability. Having spent a decade working in some of London’s finest Michelin star restaurants including Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, and having made the semi-finals of Masterchef the Professionals, Seb’s cooking is experienced, original and creative.
Those that have visited will know that The Cloak and Dagger is about so much more than food. Underneath the restaurant area is a cavernous events space, which is host to live music, comedy, drag shows and more. The vision is that people will feel welcome to spend whole evenings here, and that the food and events should be on equal footing. I’m particularly impressed by how passionately Seb talks about making this space inclusive: “This is an LGBTQ+ friendly venue and we put a big focus on the femme, queer and trans experience.”
is needed now More than ever
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Today Seb will be showing me how to make his wild garlic, ‘nduja and ricotta ravioli. This is a dish that currently features on the menu at The Cloak and Dagger but only so long as it is wild garlic season. Seb prides himself on sustainable, ethical and locally sourced produce wherever possible. He foraged the wild garlic for this dish himself, and has also been growing vegetables on his allotment. The availability of the ingredients means the menu is changing and evolving almost constantly – no two meals at The Cloak and Dagger will ever be the same.
‘Nduja and ricotta ravioli is Seb’s second favourite-ever dish, surpassed only by linguine with clams. He discovered it whilst living on the western coast of Tuscany and has been making it ever since. Now you can too!
Makes two portions
Pasta dough – Seb recommends making this a day in advance
A few tablespoons of semolina to put the pasta on as you prepare it, but you can use pasta flour
325g double zero pasta flour
3 egg yolks (60g)
2 whole eggs
1 tbsp olive oil
Pinch of salt
The four ingredients for making fresh pasta.
To make the pasta dough, create a mound of flour on a clean, dry work surface and clear a well in the centre. Put the whole eggs and yolks in the middle of the dough, and stir with a fork. Start to gradually draw in the flour from the outside with the fork until it is all incorporated and you have a dough that you can roll by hand.
Knead the dough for 5-10 minutes until it is smooth.
The pasta dough can also be made in a food processor if you have one available.
Once kneaded, wrap the dough tightly in clingfilm and put it on a tray or in a container in the fridge. Ideally you don’t want the dough to touch the glass shelf as it will unevenly chill it and make it harder to roll.
Ravioli filling
250g of dry ricotta (if you can’t find dry ricotta then buy normal ricotta and leave it to dry out overnight in a colander in the fridge with a cloth underneath)
300g ‘nduja
2 cloves of garlic, grated
2 spring onions, finely chopped
Tablespoon toasted Nigella seeds
Tablespoon of toasted sesame seeds
Juice and zest of one lemon
Salt to taste
Combine all the ingredients in a bowl or kitchen aid with a paddle. Nothing in the filling actually needs cooking, so you can taste it to check for seasoning.
All the ingredients for the filling can be weighed and combined in one bowl!
Wild garlic sauce
500g wild garlic
100g butter
200g double cream (make sure you do grams, not millilitres!)
5g salt
Wash the wild garlic thoroughly several times.
Blanche the leaves in rolling boiling water until when you rub them together they start to disintegrate. This will take about 3-4 minutes and will stop the sauce from being too fibrous.
Once softened, plunge the wild garlic leaves straight into iced water for a few seconds until it cools. Then squeeze all the water out. You should be left with a mushy pulp of wild garlic.
Next, put the butter, cream and salt in a pan and bring to a boil. Once hot, pour over the wild garlic pulp and use a stick blend or blender to combine until smooth.
Assembly
Once it has rested overnight, it is time to roll out the pasta. This is best achieved with a pasta roller but can be done with a lot of time and care with a rolling pin if you are willing to put in the work!
In order to achieve the elasticity of the pasta, Seb recommends folding the pasta back on itself halfway through the rolling process and turning it, as it helps develop the gluten.
Seb is a pro when it comes to rolling pasta.
When it has been rolled, Seb suggests covering the dough in a slightly damp tea towel to prevent it from drying out.
Seb uses a cutter to create circle shapes from the pasta, one for the base and a slightly larger one to go over the top to account for the filling.
Seb uses a cookie cutter to create the shapes for the ravioli.
Seb uses a piping bag to adorn the centre of each raviolo with a tiny pyramid of filling. The more filling you use the trickier it will be to seal the pasta, so be conservative at least to begin with!
A piping bag makes for easy filling but you can also use a spoon.
To seal the ravioli, brush either water or egg wash around the filling and then cover. Use your fingers to push the two layers together whilst pushing out any air from the centre.
Squeeze the air out of the pasta to prevent it exploding when you boil it!
The ravioli will take 3-4 minutes to cook in a pan of boiling salty water. Seb recommends seasoning the water so it is as salty as the sea!
Heat the wild garlic sauce on lowest possible heat and then add the ravioli into the sauce with at least 3-4 tablespoons of pasta water and stir gently to combine.
Combining the sauce with the ravioli and some of the cooking water is called emulsifying and it ensures the sauce sticks to the pasta creating a silky texture.
Plate up with freshly grated Parmesan and lemon zest on top. Seb also recommends adding capers for a salty crunch!
Seb carefully plates up his creation.
This dish has a bit of a kick to it from the ‘nduja and is deliciously moreish. The wild garlic is subtle and the capers add a salty punch. I’d say it’s a little too salty for my taste, so I would lower the salt in the filling slightly – I wouldn’t want to remove the capers because they’re a brilliant addition and the texture works really well.
A dish that is definitely worthy of instagram…
This isn’t a super quick dish, but it is a creative way to use wild garlic and the end result is definitely worth it. Plus, wild garlic foraging and making your own pasta is a great weekend activity to do with family or friends.
If you make this, I’d love to see pictures! You can send me photos, questions and ideas for features on Twitter via @meghoughtongilm or on Instagram @meghoughtongilmour
All photos by Meg Houghton-Gilmour
The Cloak and Dagger, 182 Cheltenham Road, BS6 5RB
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