Rosa Vizzini, mother to High Priest Silvio of Strand´s Shadows in Istur, has become something of a local legend for her delicious pasta. Here´s the recipe for her best known creation. Since Mama Rosa takes it upon herself to make sure her neighbors and all the priests at her son´s temple stay well fed, she tends to make these in very large batches. We´ve included a smaller recipe here. But considering the effort involved, we ourselves often multiply the recipe by as much as 4 times -- the uncooked ravioli store well in the freezer, separated by layers of wax paper. Two of our favorite fillings, veal and cheese, follow the dough recipe.
Ingredients:
- Dough:
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1/2 stick butter
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 cup boiling water
- Put flour in large bowl. Add butter in thin slices, and salt.
- Stir in the cup of boiling water, and mix together with a large fork. When this has formed a mass, take out of bowl and place on well floured board.
- Knead until it becomes a soft, sticky dough that can be rolled out.
- Form dough into a ball and place back in bowl. Cover with plastic wrap while you make filling.
** This dough is very sticky! You´ll need lots of extra flour to coat hands and work surfaces. If you´re making more than one recipe, you can double the dough. If you need more than that, we advise making the dough multiple times -- trying to make too much dough at once makes a big mess.
---- Veal filling: (this is one of many options -- experiment! crab meat and cheese is a good combination. Chicken and mushrooms, etc.)
- 1/2 stick butter
- 1 medium onion, finely chopped
- 1/2 pound ground veal
- 1 egg lightly beaten
- 1/4 grated Parmesan
- 1/4 cup bread crumbs
- 1/4 cup chopped parsley
- pepper and salt to taste
- Melt butter in skillet. Add the onion and sauté for about 5 minutes.
- Add veal and cook until meat is no longer pink, stirring constantly.
- Remove from heat and stir in egg, cheese, breadcrumbs and seasonings.
- Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Let cool before stuffing ravioli.
----
- Cheese Filling:
- 4 ounces grated Parmesan
- 6 ounces grated Provolone
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 3 eggs, lightly beaten
- black pepper
- pinch of nutmeg
- 1 tsp dry basil
Mix together. Keep cold until ready to use.
---- Making the Ravioli:
We recommend buying a ravioli press from your local kitchen store. They´re about $7.00 to $12.00, depending on where you get it, and generally make 8 - 10 ravioli at a time. It´s basically a big piece of metal with holes in it, as well as a plastic piece with depressions for the filling.
Take small portion of dough and roll out enough to cover the ravioli press. The dough should be thin. Form depressions with plastic insert, and add filling (about 2-3 teaspoons full per ravioli). Roll out another portion of dough and place on top.
Run rolling pin over the ravioli press. The ridges in the metal will cut the ravioli for you, and you´ll be able to dump them out. Place ravioli on floured cookie sheets until they dry a bit.
Store in freezer or fridge between layers of plastic wrap.
If you don´t want to get a ravioli press, the procedure is still the same. You´ll just have to cut the ravioli on your own. The down side of this is it will take longer. The up side is that you save $7.00 to $12.00 dollars.
With or without the ravioli press, this takes a bit of time, and tends to get everything, including you, covered with flour. But the ravioli are well worth it -- especially if you make extra to freeze. We´ve had batches last for six months. (Okay, so there was no room for anything else in the freezer. You can´t have everything.)
