So… what are we talking about? Well… ravioli!

Ravioli is a kind of filled pasta as long as the more famous tortellini. The main difference between the two is the shape and between the two i have chosen to prepare ravioli simply because it looked easier

The dough is exactly the one described in the previous part of the article. I did my best to make it as thin as possible using a rolling pin. Two sheets of dough of approximately the same size are needed.
We need something to fill ravioli with and ricotta is the most important ingredient. In my case i added some eggs and some nutmeg. Other typical fillings include spinach or Parma’s ham. Yummy! Remember to add some salt since ricotta is far from being a tasty cheese (Actually it is not even a cheese. Oh well!).

Now, using a tea spoon, place the filling trying to follow, as much as possible, a regular square pattern. Remember to leave some space between each little portion.

At this point we need to place the second sheet of dough over the first one. The important thing is to use your finger to make the two layers stick where there is no filling. This is a very important step since we don’t want ravioli to break or open when we will cook them in boiling water.

Now use a knife (or the traditional zigzag-wheel) to cut ravioli. You need to cut along the “pressed” areas. That’s it!

Now we just need to cook our ravioli in abundant salted boiling water. They taste great with a ragù (meat sauce) or simply with some butter and fresh leaves of salvia.

Buon appetito!

Unsharp knives are much more dangerous than sharp ones!

For two main reasons that combine:

• it’s easy to loose control of an unsharp knife
• using unsharp knives you need to apply more strength

So be careful and keep you knives sharp!

So this is what we need:

• 400 grams of flour
• 4-5 eggs (depending on their size)
• salt

Yeah, that’s it! First of all find a suitable place to work. I found it pretty confortable to put everything in a big pot like this:

Now it’s time to get your hands dirty and mix all the ingredients for several minutes until you get a nice and uniform dough.

Now you will need to let the dough rest for about half an hour. No yeast is involved in the process so this is just to let the ingredients get together and let the dough cool down a bit. Now cut your dough in 2 or 3 equal parts and use a rolling pin to obtain a thin sheet of dough out of every of them. Remember to sparke some flour both on the surface you are going to use and the rolling pin to avoid the dough to stick. Take your time during this process and work with patience.

Once the sheets are ready cut them in stripes about 7 or 8 millimiters wide (0.3 inches). Sperkle the result with more flour. This shape of pasta is called “Tagliatelle”.

Now let your tagliatelle dry a bit. To do this you have to let them hang from, for example, a wooden stick or anything else that will do the trick. After a few hours your homemade pasta wil be ready to be cook in abundant boiling salted water for a few minutes. The boiling time depends on how thin you were able to stretch your dough so just taste every once in a while.

Tagliatelle taste really good, especially when dressed with ragù (meat sauce). The recipe for the sauce can be found in my recipe for lasagne! Well, here is the result:

Remember to add some parmisan cheese! And now enjoy the result!

In the beginning it will taste sour but with time it will taste sweeter and sweeter. Another good trick is to look at the color: when it will start getting orange it means it’s ready. Just taste it and decide if you want to cook it even longer. It’s up to your personal taste.

This is what you will need:

• spaghetti
• a can of chopped tomatoes
• one onion
• some beef minced meat
• a slice or two of mortadella (ham will be fine as well)
• a slice of bread for toasts
• some milk
• one egg
• salt, pepper

First of all use a blender to mix the ham, the bread and half a glass of milk. Add the result to the minced mead, the egg and some salt and pepper. Mix it all together with a fork until you get something even and homogeneous. Prepare the meatballs.

In the mean time chop and onion and let it gently fry in a pan with some olive oil. Now add tomato and some salt. When it will start to boil add the meatballs and turn them upside down every twenty minutes for 3 or 4 times. The cooking time depends on the size of your meatballs, but remember that the more the tomato will cook the better it will taste!

Now you are ready to cook spaghetti. Use A LOT of water and don’t break the spaghetti! Don’t worry if half of them is out of the water: in a minute everything will be ok Cook them for 8 minutes and remove the water. Add the spaghetti to the sauce and stir gently.

Here you go! Ready for a romantic dinner!

Well, what do you need to make some good lasagne?

• pasta for lasagne (possibly the one that does not need to be precooked)
• meat sauce:
  • 1 onion
  • olive oil
  • minced meat (i prefer beef, but you can mix some pork as well)
  • a can of tomatoes (no oregano, no basilicum, just tomato)
  • one stock cube
  • a glass of wine (red is better but white will do pretty good as well)
• bechamel sauce (no, it’s not mozzarella! )
  • 200 gr of butter
  • flour
  • 1 liter of milk
  • salt
  • nutmeg
• Parmesan cheese

So, let’s start by chopping the onion and putting it on a pan. Add some ovile oil and warm it up until the onion takes a nice gold like color. At this point we are ready to add the meat and let it cook. As soon as there’s no raw meat left it’s time to add the stock cube, and half a glass of wine. Once all the wine has evaporated we can add the canned tomato and a glass of water. Mix it up and cover with a lid. Here is the first trick: let it cook for AT LEAST one hour, but two would be better. The reason is that tomato changes taste as it cooks and the more you are patient, the better it will taste. You may think it won’t make a big difference in the final result, but it’s details that make a perfect balance in taste.

The next step is the bechamel sauce. Start by melting the butter in a big pot. Then add flour until you get a pretty solid ball. Now it’s time to slowly add warm milk. Add half a cup each time and mix until all the milk gets absorbed. Note that the temperature of the pot should not be too high now. You will be surprised by the absorption capabilities of the mix so be prepared to mix it all for quite some time. The final result will be a pretty liquid sauce. We need it to be liquid because pasta is going to literally cook into this sauce.

So, it’s layers time! Start with a thin layer of sauce and then create layers with this order: pasta, bechamel sauce, meat sauce, Parmesan. At least 4 layers are necessary for a good result.

Put everything in the oven for half an hour and then let it rest for about one hour. There you go! Lasagne are ready!

Yum! Lasagne!!!

It’s a challenging task, but it’s can also come in a handy! We all have friends and it’s so nice to meet them for dinner but… Well, restaurants are simply too expensive, and cooking according to those nice coated pages recipe books can be almost as expensive.

What i will try to do here is to share what i have learnt in all these years. I’m Italian so most of the recipes i will present here have such a background, but i also like to experiment and try new things so i might surprise you sometimes.

I hope you will have fun, both reading this blog and in the kitchen! Here it comes the first recipe!