For the dough: 4 cups of all purpose flour, 4 eggs, and 4 egg shells (both halves) of water I dump everything in my Kitchen Aid stand mixer and with a dough hook knead the dough until it is smooth. (Basically 1 cup flour, 1 egg, 1 eggshell water per person)
Ma did things the old-fashioned way. She dumped four cups of flour on her bread board, made a well, added the eggs and water. She mixed and kneaded the dough by hand until she had a smooth dough
After the dough has been kneaded and is smooth, it's wrapped in plastic wrap and rested for 30 min.
Ma let her dough rest in a large soup bowl with another large soup bowl on top like a lid.
Oh, before mixing the dough, I dumped the Ricotta cheese in a strainer with a bowl to drain. While the dough was resting I plopped the cheese in a clean, dry bowl and mixed in 1 egg, salt and pepper, and mozzarella cheese (maybe half a cup)
After the dough has rested, it is divided and rolled into 4 balls. One dough ball is placed on a lightly floured bread board. The other dough balls are placed in a covered Corning ware dish.(Ma's). Again, Ma used the covered soup bowls so the dough balls wouldn't dry out.
The dough ball is rolled out
until it is very, very thin. You need to be able to see through the dough. Here. I can easily see the wood grain of my board so I'm pretty sure the dough is thin enough.
With a teaspoon, I plop the ricotta cheese mixture in a row, leaving some space between.
Then I carefully fold the dough over the cheese.
When I was little, Ma had a juice glass that she used to cut the ravioli. The glass had pictures of girls in old-fashioned hoop skirts. I used to call the glass (there was only one) The Old Susannah glass. Sadly, the glass broke, and I always teased Ma that she broke my inheritance.
I used a glass that my dad gave the girlies, they each got one. A Mickey Mouse glass and it's the perfect size.
It's not so much a traditional ravioli, but more like a mezza luna, a half moon.
3 sides of the ravioli are carefully crimped with a fork. You need to make sure you don't make holes in the cheese or it will ooze through the dough. The fold side doesn't need crimping.
Ma didn't like people in the kitchen while she cooked. The kitchen was divided by a counter. One side, a very efficient U-shaped kitchen, and the other the eating area. I could watch her from the eating area. By the time I was 6 or 7 years old, my job was to crimp the ravioli. Ma didn't like doing that job. It also meant she could churn out the ravioli quicker if she didn't have to stop and crimp them.
The scraps of dough are set aside.
The ravioli are placed on a sheet pan that was lightly oiled. An experiment to see which worked better. It's easier to remove the ravioli if the sheet pan or board is lightly floured.
Oops! Someone forgot to add the mozzarella to the ricotta cheese. No wonder why the ricotta mixture seemed runny! I blamed the brand of ricotta cheese, as it wasn't the brand Ma used to use. And I'm glad I wasn't serving these to company.
After the ravioli are cooked, the scraps will be gathered up and cooked. Waste not, want not. Ma called these Shooshelies. That's what it sounded like in the Italian dialect her family spoke. Shooshelies. Shoe strings. The Brother didn't like ricotta cheese so when Ma made ravioli she cooked the shooshelies for the Brother for his meal.
Fresh pasta cooks a lot faster than commercial boxed pasta. Maybe 5 to 6 minutes. You know when the pasta is cooked when it floats to the top of the boiling water.
Ravioli drained, plated, smothered in gravy (sauce) and sprinkled with Pecorino Romano freshly, grated cheese. Mangia!
Drop by hosts,
Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page.
