Traditional Ravioli and Danielle's Bruschetta

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Today we are making home-made raviolis. Tom Bauer wanted to know how to make them, so Nana and Papa have opened their home to the grandchildren to teach them the age-old tradition of our family’s ravioli recipe. This is a big job for just 2 people, so many hands make light work, although every time we make them my mom tells us, "And my mother used to do this all by herself."

Papa has had several “teaching” opportunities for the grandchildren in the past; like the time he called us all together for a painting party. The adults painted his office/spare bedroom while the kids made raviolis. Then there was the time we cleaned and re-carpeted the garage. Of course that was followed by a large Italian feast. This past Christmas, several grandchildren gathered to help Nana put up Christmas decorations.

These are events we will cherish forever, as they make us who we are. We love our family, warts and all, and we have fun together when we do these things. We catch up on the events of each others’ lives, which is truly important when life changes so quickly.

Starting yesterday, Nana and Papa mixed the ricotta filling so that it could sit overnight and all the flavors meld.

This is a large recipe. The ratio of filling to dough was exact amounts so we didn’t run out of one before the other. This recipe made 260 raviolis! Enough for a party or two!

Filling:
8 lbs. Ricotta cheese (Drain in a colander overnight)
1-1/4 C grated Romano cheese (approx)
1 T salt
1 C Chopped Parsley
2 T black pepper
6 Eggs
(Dad puts just a sprinkle of cinnamon and nutmeg, something his mother used to do)

Mix together and taste. This mixture should taste stronger than how you would like it to taste, as the flavors decrease as the ravs are boiled in water. Add whatever is needs, ie, salt, pepper, romano cheese, parsley.

Dough: (Make 3 batches)
4 C Unbleached flour
2 Eggs
6 oz. warm water
Pinch salt

Add all ingredients in a food processor and mix until it balls up. Place on floured surface and knead until soft. If after kneading for a minute it is too wet, continue to add flour a little at a time. If it is too dry, wet your hands and continue kneading. Poke with your finger. It should bounce back if it is ready. After this, cover with a bowl and let rest ½ hr.

This is a picture of how soft it should be.

And then it should bounce right back.

The dough must be rolled through the pasta press into wide enough strips to fit over the ravioli press. The press can be purchased at any Italian store.

Passing the dough through the pasta press can be a tricky thing. This is the trick:

Cut off a small piece of dough, then put it through the press on the #1 twice, the largest number. If it has holes in it, you can fold it in half after the first #1 and then go through #1 again. Add flour if it feels wet or sticky, then put it on #2. The same for #3 and #4.  By the time you get to #4, it should be light, not too thin and not too thick.

Tom Bauer here:
Next on the blog is Tommy aka “Tommy TB” ha haaaaa! This was my first experience with ravioli and let me just point out that this was no cake walk. My skills were used to put all the ingredients necessary for this meal into the blender which would eventually turn into dough. The dough was then transformed into long strands of flour coated noodles. Rule of thumb, “don’t be afraid to use too much flour, it will only help the people who turn the dough into the actual ravioli. (Brianna, Kristina, Aunt Cor, Aunt Gina and Danielle). Uncle Paul is a master of his craft and put a lot of emphasis on keeping the dough straight when it goes through the roller. One thing that took precedence was the great conversation. I don’t know how your family operates but it takes more than two to tango with ravioli and that’s exactly what we did. Overall, an awesome experience and I’m very excited to see how this mix of goop attacks my taste buds. Tommy TB over and out!

So the process is 2 people roll the dough out in a long strip, wide enough to fit on the ravioli press, top it with ricotta filling, then layer another strip of dough on top and roll to seal.

And now for Kristina:
Hey there, Kristina here. Today my job was to fill the raviolis once Papa and Tommy were done rolling the dough out. Brianna also was “helping” me fill the ravs, even though she just sat there and looked pretty while holding a spoon pretending to fill. The job of filling the raviolis is very important, because you don’t want to fill them too much with the ricotta. If you do fill the ravs too much just be prepared to get hollered at by everyone saying, “That’s too much! You don’t want them to explode.” Also, you really want to make sure that you don’t fill the ravs too much, because once you cook them they could open up and explode and then all your long, hard work goes down the drain. The key to filling is to take a spoonful of the ricotta and take a little more than quarter size and place it into the middle of the dough. Once you fill them you want to carefully take the end of the dough and place it over the top of the raviolis and then using a rolling pin, roll over the entire tray to cut the shapes out.

Counting up by 20s, Nana brings the ravs over to the dining room table which is covered with a sheet filled with flour. There, they will set for 1 to 2 hours. The longer, the better. 

Here's 260 raviolis

And Danielle:
Danielle here. Hola, it’s my turn now. I had the job of the hole poker which was really hard. It consists of Nana turning over the raviolis and pushing them out of the metal press. Then I went and put them neatly on the pan and poked holes in the middle of the ravioli so they don’t explode. It was hard work….

All I can say is these were the most delicious tasting raviolis I have ever tasted.  They were light and airy and fluffy and tasty.  Of course, they were topped with mom's famous gravy.  Unbelievably delicious!

And not a single rav exploded!

Somebody say Amen!

Danielle's Bruschetta

After the last ravioli was put on the table we all sat down and watched T.V. and then Adam yelled out that we should have Bruschetta. I immediately said that I would make it if we had all the ingredients. I thought I’d put my skills to use since I didn’t really have a big job making ravioli.

We raided the refrigerator and found 3 tomatoes, garlic, and frozen fresh basil. We luckily had a fresh loaf of bread that was going to be used for dinner so we stole that too. Those are some of my favorite ingredients. It makes for a perfect simple and light appetizer. I love the smell and taste of basil; it reminds me of summer for some reason and when you mix it with tomatoes, it’s like summer in a bowl. Garlic, who doesn’t love it? You can never have enough garlic….

Bruschetta

1 loaf of bread
3 tomatoes, chopped
2-3 cloves garlic (depending on your liking) minced
Fresh basil
Pinch of salt and pepper (or more to taste)
2 teaspoons of balsamic vinegar

Loaf of French bread, cut into thin rounds.

Brush some olive oil on the bread rounds. Then bake them in the oven for about 5 minutes (keep an eye on them).

When the tomatoes and toast rounds are finished, add the tomato mixture to the top.

*You can also put sliced boconcini on the bread and top it with the tomato mixture.

You can also top with romano cheese.