Little Gifts # 2

Yesterday, I, being a very considerate grandmother had a discussion with the little boys in my family:

I to Drew (age 3), what would you like for Christmas dinner?

Drew to me: (no hesitation), spaghetti and meatballs!

I to Drew: okay honey, great, no problem

I to Mr. Ryan (age 5), what would you like for Christmas dinner?

Mr Ryan to me:  (brief contemplation),  jellybeans and bananas

I to Mr. Ryan: okay honey, great, no problem

There will be multi-colored jelly beans for Christmas dinner, placed just so in an elegant bowl.

I will make spaghetti for Drew and my Mother's homemade raviolis for the grownups among us.

The ravioli's come out extra large and are one of a kind orgasmically fantastic.

They are surprisingly simple to make as long as you have a big enough table that won't mind flour all over it.

Compliments of my Mother, Rose: this makes 40--50 raviolis.

The filling:

Mix two pounds of ricotta cheese with four eggs

add 3/4 to one cup of grated Romano cheese and mix it all together until it doesn't run. Look for the mixture to stand up a bit 

The dough:

You will be eyeballing this: approximately 3 cups of flour and six eggs mixed together with a fork until all the flour is mixed in and doesn't stick to your hands. You don't want it too moist so add the 4th, 5th, 6th egg one at a time and stop when you have dough. Make it into a ball.

The creation:

Spread cornmeal around a cookie sheet (so the raviolis won't stick)

Generously spread flour all over your table

take a section of the dough (start with a quarter of it until you get the hang of it) and roll it out with a rolling pin. Keep using flour liberally so nothing sticks.

Roll thin enough.

Now comes the creative part and the hardest to tell not show: place a spoonful of the filling on the dough, spacing each spoonful about three inches from the edge of the dough and about three inches apart from each other.

Grab the edges of the dough and flip the dough over the mixture and kind of tuck it in.  You want the row of raviolis to be about about three or four inches wide and three or four inches long, in other words, so use the side of your hand and push down to  separate the mixture mounds from one another. you should have about four raviolis from each row when you do this.

With a pizza cutter or knife, cut into squares and then use a fork to press together the three sides of dough.

Place the cut raviolis on the cookie sheet and continue this process, row by row, mound by mound

I tell you true that flipping the dough over the mixture just right is a learned skill and the most fun.

You can refrigerate the raviolis even overnight. Cook in a large pot in boiling water for about 15 minutes or until the raviolis rise to the top of the pot

Have the spaghetti sauce and Parmesan cheese ready

It's obvious I will have no career writing cookbooks. But if you try this you will figure it out and I guarantee these raviolis will set your heart ablaze.

love

kj