How not to make ravioli
Finally got Sophia Loren’s book, very nice, interesting stuff that I’ve not already seen in Hazan. And it’s fun to read, anecdotes, funny things and a lot of reveries. Some deep pontificating on the value of family meals etc.
Anyway there’s a photo of her making fresh pasta, and so I just randomly jumped up and made some. I have some whole milk ricotta and basil lying around, so I figured basil is green like parsley so I could make the classic ravioli with basil. Got it going in the pasta roller, and I had some reasonable pasta. Then I had to do some stuff around the house and I left the stretched pasta out on the counter.
No no — it dried up. And making ravioli with dry, brittle fresh pasta is hard. And I couldn’t think of a way to soften it. And so many of the ravioli broke, and the whole thing got too wet when it was boiling. Moral: when making ravioli, don’t wait around after rolling out the pasta, since you’re depending on the stickiness of the dough.
The sauce was a variation of the quick tomato sauce, just some canned tomatos with olive oil and some garlic that I cooked for maybe 10-15 min, not to the point where the “fat floats” as Hazan says. It was nice, bright, especially helped with the soggy ravioli problem.
Filed under: italian, italy, tomato sauce | Leave a Comment
Tags: ravioli, ricotta, tip, tomato
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