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Ravioli alla panna, a traditional Italian (Roman) dish at least since 18th-century! |
The Mozart Pasta Series No. 2 1. Ravioli with Cream Sauce (1790) or Ravioli alla Romana or Ravioli alla Panna |
The famous recipes from the 18th-century most famous kitchens of the Italian aristocracy of Rome and Naples and other cities, at whose salons Mozart & Leopold often spent their time in 1770s. |
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DIFFICULTY: Ravioli with Cream Sauce, ah, che bontà!!! |
1. RAVIOLI WITH CREAM SAUCE (1790) In the 18th-century the use of panna (cream sauce) with Ravioli was considered typical of Rome! For this reason, this dish was called Ravioli alla Romana, i.e. Ravioli Roman Style. For pasta all'uovo, the rule is 1 egg (fresh, entire) for each 100gr of flour or semola di grano duro (durum wheat flour). For the flour, the best result is with a mixture of different types of flour: Type 00 (W90/180) + Type 1 (W230/250) + Semola is a typical mixture for ravioli. INGREDIENTS: flour (500gr; Type 00 with a bit of semola or better a mixture, see supra) eggs (5; fresh, entire, yolk & white together) salt (2 tablespoons for 500gr of pasta) RAVIOLI FILLING ricotta (250gr; fresh, better if from cow milk cream, unsalted; ricotta = a typical italian fresh sweet whey cheese) spinach (500gr) butter (a piece ca. 50gr) pepper (crushed) nutmeg (some grated) cinnamon (some grated) salt (a pinch; adjust to taste) real Parmigiano Reggiano (ca. 100gr, grated) egg yolks (2 fresh) RAVIOLI CREAM SAUCE cream (500ml; Italian type da cucina, i.e. for cooking = with fat 20-25%) butter (ca. 150gr; fresh, unsalted) flour (ca. 25/60gr; just to get the cream smooth and viscous, but neither liquid nor runny) salt (adjust to taste) FOR GRATINATURA real Parmigiano Reggiano (abundantly grated) butter (ca. 100gr; fresh, unsalted) METHOD: 1. Create the mixture of flours. Then dig a crater at the centre of the hill of flour. Put the 5 eggs at the centre of the crater. With a fork, start mixing the flour with the eggs, by beating the eggs with the fork and then adding in the flour, step by step. Keep doing this, until you see the dough nearly formed. Leave the fork, now, and work the dough with your hands, until the punto di pasta: i.e. in ca. 15m of working the dough with your hands the dough must become not too tender not too hard with a very smooth surface. If the dough is too hard, just add 1 or 2 teaspoons of water, until tender. If the dough is too tender/soft, just add 1 or 2 teaspoons of additional flour. 2. When the pasta all'uovo is ready, create a ball of dough covered in flour and put it into a bowl, covered with a plastic film. Let it rest, until ready to be used. 3. Now prepare the filling. 4. Cook the spinach in boiling water. 5. When ready, put the spinach in a press, and press them very well, so that they lose their water. Then cut them into very small pieces. 6. Put the pieces of spinach into a pan with salt, pepper, nutmeg, butter. Sautée them, until ready. When ready, add parmigiano and cinnamon. Adjust salt and pepper to taste. Now let the spinach get cold. 7. When the spinach are cold, put them into a bowl with the ricotta and the yolks. Mix all the ingredients, until the filling is ready. At the end, adjust salt and pepper to taste. TIP FOR THE FILLING According to your taste, you can change the quantities of ricotta (250gr) and spinach (500gr). It depends on your choice to have a filling with more ricotta (e.g. 350gr) and less spinach (e.g. 400gr), etc. 8. When the filling is ready, from the dough you must create a very thin paper of dough, by using the rolling pin. 9. Cut the paper of dough in 2 halves. Now put small mounds of filling upon the 1 half of dough paper. Then cover the 1 half of dough paper with the mounds of filling with the second dough paper. With you hands close the space between the 2 layers of dough very well. Now use a speronella to cut out the ravioli. Remove the ravioli, just formed, from the table and put them on a wooden surface with some dry semola on it, ready to be cooked. 10.When all the ravioli are ready, fill a deep pot with water. When the water start boiling, pour the 2 tablespoons of salt into the boiling water. Immediately pour the ravioli in the salted boiling water, maintaining the flame very vivid for ca. 8-10 minutes, until the ravioli are ready... (it depends on the type of flour mixture you have used, but they must be never never overcooked! If they must be put in oven, it's better to remove them from water, when they are nearly well cooked, but not completely). 11. When the ravioli are ready, remove them from the boiling water and put them on a clean towel. Then, in a pan, prepare a cream sauce with cream and butter and some flour, until you get a cream viscous and smooth. Adjust salt to taste. 12a. GRATINATURA Then, in a Terrine for Oven, create a first layer of ravioli. Cover it with some cream sauce. Create a second layer of ravioli and cover it with some cream sauce and so on, until you have used all the ravioli. 12b. On the last layer of ravioli and cream sauce, cover everything with the grated Parmigiano and some pieces of fresh butter. 12c. Put the Terrine in hot oven for the gratinatura (i.e. au gratin). The ravioli are ready, when the superficial layer with the Parmigiano has a golden colour and the cheese is substantially melted. Pay attention that under the surface the sauce must remain creamy, thick and viscous and never dry. 12d. Now you can serve. 13. MANTECATURA: ALTERNATE VERSION WITHOUT GRATINATURA With ravioli, tortellini, cappelletti, paccheri, and rigatoni, in particular, and also with maccheroni, tortiglioni and penne, you can omit the parts on GRATINATURA, and serve just with a final MANTECATURA passage. 14. This use of skipping the GRATINATURA is very common in modern Italian cuisine, while in 1700s the GRATINATURA passage was a favourite one for the tables of aristocracy and middle-high class people. 15. In the Italian manuals of cooking of the 18th/19th-century, for common people, you are told that you can serve pasta soon after a simple MANTECATURA passage without the GRATINATURA in the Oven. 16. For the MANTECATURA passage, just carefully pour the ravioli into a wide saucepan, with the cream sauce. Stir well and carefully, until the ravioli are all covered in cream sauce. 17. Now serve the ravioli, adding some grated Parmigiano on the top of the ravioli in the dish. |
RAVIOLI ALLA ROMANA Fate una sfoglia di pasta da tagliolini [...] Abbiate della ricotta fresca, mescolateci allorché saranno freddi un poco di spinaci allessati, spremuti, tritati, e passati bene sopra il fuoco in una cazzarola con un pezzo di butirro, sale, pepe schiacciato, e noce moscata, aggiungeteci un pugno di parmigiano grattato, sale, pepe, e cannella fina; per ogni libbra di ricotta tre rossi d’uova crudi; mescolate il tutto insieme; formatene dei Ravioli non tanto grandi colla pasta suddetta, e tagliati collo sperone. Quando saranno fatti tutti metteteli nell’acqua bollente giusta di sale, in un quarto d’ora saranno cotti, indi scolateli sopra un panno pulito, conditeli nella Terrina suolo per suolo con parmigiano grattato, e butirro squagliato [mescolato con un buon Culi di prosciutto, o un brodo di Garofanato, terminate col parmigiano, e butirro. Fate prendere colore ad un forno caldo, e servite subito]. Alcuni tramezzano i Ravioli, Gnocchi ec. con fiore di latte, mescolato con un pezzo di butirro maneggiato con un pochino di farina, lo fanno stringere, e bollire sopra il fuoco giusto di sale, lo passano al setaccio, e ne formano una specie di Besciamella liquida: condimento ottimo in tutte queste sorta di vivande. PASTA ALL'UOVO Impastate della farina con quattro, o sei uova, e un poco di sale, secondo la quantità della pasta, che volete faro, maneggiatela, che non sia tanto dura, nè tanto tenera; fatela un poco riposare, stendetela poscia collo stenderello fina come la carta, o tutta in una volta, o in diversi pezzi. Lasciatela alquanto asciugare... |