Rachel Khoo's Pan-fried dumplings

Instructions 

Tip the flour into a bowl and make a well in the centre. Pour in the just boiled water and stir together till you have a very crumbly, lumpy dough. Knead until it comes together into a ball. If the dough is very dry add a tablespoon of water. Transfer the dough to a flour-dusted work surface and knead for about 5 minutes until the dough is smooth and springs back when touched. 

Roll the dough in a little flour and place it in a freezer bag. Seal the bag and leave it to rest  at  room  temperature  for  at  least  15  minutes.  Prepare  the  filling.  Finely  chop  the leftover Sunday roastand spinachand mix together with the grated cheese.

Lightly  dust  the  work  surface  and  a  large  plate  with  flour.  Divide  the  rested  dough  into quarters. roll one quarter into a long rectangle about 5cm wide and 3mm thick. Place a heaped teaspoon of the filling 2.5cm from the end and fold the end over to coverthe filling. Press down firmly, making sure to press out any air pockets. Use the biscuit cutter to cut out a half-moon shape and trim the excess pastry. Place the ravioli on the plate dusted with flour. Repeat with the rest of the dough and filling, squeezing together the leftover bits of dough and rerolling. 

Heat  the  oil  in  a  large  non-stick  pan  until  smoking  hot,  then  add  the  ravioli  in  batches. Turn down the heat and cook for 2 minutes or until the base of each is golden. Add 150ml water,  cover  with the  lid  and  cook  for  8  minutes  until  the  water  evaporates. Serve immediately.

You can serve these just as they are, or garnish with some spring onion, sliced on a bias, and a little chilli sauce. 

Tips 

1. You can use plain flour here or ‘00’ pasta flour if that’s what you have. 00 is very finely milled. In Italy, a single 0 flour is quite coarse in texture, like very powdery semolina, whereas triple zero is much finer like cornstarch. But everyday flour is usually classed as double zero, or ‘00’.
2. Kneading the dough rigorously is really important here, and key to getting a supple and silky dough. You’ll know when it’s been kneaded properly as it’ll be pleasingly smooth  to  the  touch  when  you  press  it  with  the  tip  of  your  finger  the  indent  will bounce back leaving just a slight indentation. 
3. No salt is added to the dough here as it attracts moisture, causing white spots on the dough. This is why it’s best to season the pasta via very salted boiling water when it comes to cooking it. And seasoningthe filling well as opposed to the dough helps too.
4. It’s important to finely mince up (with a knife is fine) the filling for the dumplings otherwise you will likely trap air in the inside the dumpling. The air expands while cooking and can cause the dumpling to burst. 
5. Resting dough is really important to relax the gluten. It will make it much easier to roll out. 
6. I use just a rolling pin to roll this out as it’s much easier to work with than pasta dough  as  the  flour  is  more  hydrated  and  elastic,  while  fresh  egg  pasta  is traditionally just enriched with eggs. 
7. Getting  the  temperature  perfectly  correct  for  cooking  the  base  of  the  dumplings can be tricky, so sneak a look at the base of one while after a minute or so, they can catch quite quickly.