Kitchen Queen Contest Entry #7 -
Ms. First Nations' Raviolis with Sauce!!!
This makes enough to feed three people, with leftovers for lunch!
RAVIOLIS WITH SAUCE!!!
FILLING: Make one day ahead of time and refrigerate, then bring to room temp for use.
-1 ten 0z. bag of spinach, cleaned and stemmed, chopped fine (use a cuisinart...do not puree)
-1 eight-oz ball mozzarella cheese, shredded
-1/2 cup myzithra cheese, grated
-1 tbl. garlic, pureed (more or less, to taste)
-3/4 cup white onion, pureed
-1/3 cup dry bread crumbs (more or less, to perfect consistency)
-Sour cream or whole milk yogurt to moisten
-1 tsp dry oregano, or to taste
-Salt and pepper to taste
Mix ingredients by hand. The consistency should be just moist enough to hold together when formed into a ball, so err on the side of dryness to begin with.
...not quite this dry. But I found a picture of a Croc on fire, and fire makes things dry, and...yeah.
PASTA
Three cups of WHITE all purpose flour
-1 whole egg
-5 egg yolks
-2 tbls olive oil
-Milk to moisten (aprox. 1/2 cup...the amount added will depend on the humidity of the room)
Dump all this into the Cuisinart . Screw you Marcella Hazan. You say it's not authentic if you don't mix this by hand on the counter, fine; then you can just come over to my house and do it yourself. Yeah I thought not.
Dump this out onto the counter and lightly knead, adding milk or flour as needed until it forms a heavy, non-sticky dough. Cover and let set at room temp at least 1 hour. (This needs to be at room temp to 'work' properly, too, so if you have to refrigerate it, take it out a couple of hours beforehand and let it sit until it's up to speed, which is about 75km. It's better if you make it the day you use it, though.)
...this picture bears no relevance to the following.
Now:
Cut dough into 4 pieces. Have plenty of flour on hand for dusting.
-If you have a pasta machine, roll the dusted dough through the 5 setting, fold over, (just this once!!) and run it through again. Take that sheet and thin it through the 3 and then the 2 and set aside on the floured board.
-If you just have a rolling pin (or a wine bottle, like I used for 16 years) then take each piece one at a time, and roll out as flat as you can, fold it over once and then roll it out once more until it is just shy of transparency.
Now simply blop lumps of filling onto one half of the sheet of dough, leaving about 2 inches between each lump. Spray a little water on the filling side, then flap the other half of the dough over the top of it and press all around the lumps with your fingers. Now cut them out any which way, which is very tasty and picturesque and leaves no waste.
Cook in boiling salted water for 2 minutes, drain, then serve immediately with a sauce. OO look, here's one:
AWESOME SAUCE for all your awesome needs
Make this one day ahead of time.
BLEND (in a blender, geeze):
-Olive oil - choose a green, bright, fruity one. The more gunky the better in fact.
and
-Plain old tomato sauce out of the can (be fancy and use San Marzano, although it doesn't matter in the slightest)
with
-A tiny, tiny dab of mayonnaise to emulsify it all. You want a thinnish carrier, like a salad dressing or a soup consistency.
Dump in a bowl and add:
-Chopped black NICOISE olives, (rinse BRIEFLY to remove some of the salt)
-Chopped green MANZANILLA olives (again, rinse BRIEFLY to remove some of the salt)
...and yes, the variety matters.
-Minced garlic to taste
-lemon zest, about 1/2 tsp
-Freshly ground black pepper to taste
Go light with the sauce. These are all very strong flavors. You just want to smooch the raviolis with a little pizazz.
-
Top with chopped roasted hazelnuts. THIS MATTERS. You'll see.
And there you go! Is done! Eat it now!
