October 27, 2009 - 9:12am
Ricotta Ravioli "from the old country"
We always have some Italian dishes during our holidays. Whether it is Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve or Easter, there is always ravioli on our table as a first dish. We would set up an assembly line with all of us pitching in to make hundreds of them before Thanksgiving so that we could have them for Christmas also. They freeze very well, but don’t ever defrost them before cooking them, just put them into a large amount of salted boiling water directly from the freezer.
http://turosdolci.wordpress.com/2009/10/27/ricotta-ravioli-from-“the-old-country”/
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regular or impastat cheese ?
Whole milk ricotta cheese. In Italy they often have sheeps or goats milk cheese. I use either the sheeps or cows milk cheese.
we sure love ravioli! We've talked recently about experimenting with these at home, and I'm hoping your recipe and instructions will give us the confidence to finally take the plunge. Thank you for sharing this with us.
My wife and I are somewhat lactose intolerant so a cheese filling is not ideal. Are there other meatless filling recipes, using perhaps mushrooms or something, as well? Also, do you use regular AP flour, or would you recommend something stronger?
OldWoodenSpoon
I live in Switzerland and buy my flour in Italy. I buy 00 flour. You can stuff them with anything you want. Mushrooms, lobster, squash etc. You don't have to get fancy with the filling, prepare a mixture of mushrooms chopped, cook them a little with olive oil with some parsley and then put the filling in the ravioli. Squash also with some cinnamon and butter, you would have to keep them in very small cubes because it would be too soft if you puree it. Use a mixture of olive oil and butter with sage and pine nuts as a sauce. Or just butter. With lobster again, slightly cook the lobster in a little, chopped into small pieces in some butter. Cook down the shells and make a sauce with a little Champagne and cream. Try whatever you think might work including spinach or other vegetables as a filling. You can even use pears with chopped walnuts with a butter sauce. One of the restaurants we go to in Como makes them this way and I love them. Good luck!
Patricia
One of my fav. is Chicken Pesto
2bunches basil
bunch parsley
2 bags fresh spinach
Chicken breast poached in whisky and water
garlic
2 eggs
1/2c. parm. cheese
Blanch herbs and spinach. Put in ice bath. Drain and wring out to remove as much water as poss. Chop greens and chicken add diced garlic eggs and parm cheese. Salt and Pepper to taste.
If you want to cheat and not make dough, use wonton wrapers.
Wonton wrapers seems to be the rage in makeing ravioli these days. They do work but they are not the same. But I'm all for expermenting and whatever gets people to cook and works then great. I've have tried them, you can fry them also and make ravioli dolci by using a little jam as filling. Sprinkle them with confectionary sugar.
Thanks for the recipe, I'll give it a try.
Regards,
Patricia
I'm going to have to make some pasta so we can try that. It sounds fabulous. I don't want to cheat though, and I love making dough. We even have a machine but I'm not sure if I'lluse it, or maybe do it by hand. We shall see. If I can make time to pull this all together I'll post some pictures. They won't be as good as the originals by turosdolci though.
I don't know what kind of machine you have but I often use a mixer and also use a pasta machine to roll the dough out. Using a pasta machine to roll the dough out makes the dough a little more consistant in thickness. It if fast and easy and I also do it this way. If it works for you great. Try it by hand also. To tell you the truth it is easier then cleaning up all the equipment after. Both ways work.
Thanks for the comments, Good Luck!
Patricia
when I said that, but I will try it by hand as well. I have an "Imperia" that my parents bought me in Italy 25 years ago, and I agree; that thing is not very easy to clean! I'll experiment and see if I can do an acceptable job by hand. If not, then I'll have to resort to the pasta machine. I've always made my pasta dough by hand though, without help from the mixer, and I'll stick to that until my arthritis won't allow it any more. Thanks for the additional tips!
OldWoodenSpoon
I looked at the recipe and I'm wondering how you divided the dough before rolling? You must divide into a small enough portion to roll out thin dough for 4 or so?
Eric
Sometimes I make the rectangle very long. When I use my pasta machine I also make quite long pieces. You can do it anyway you want, there is no set size. The pasta machine gives you a more consistant thickness. Sometimes when I make it by machine I cut it in half as it is a little easier to fold the dough over the filling in smaller units. If you roll it out in a machine the dough has to be much dryer or you will have a problem getting it through the rollers.
Regards,
Patricia