Janice Tripepi

“Mum, I really need some family time” was all that this Mamma needed to hear on the other end of the phone last week.  Us girls tend to think that boys are big and strong and don’t have their hearts broken too often.  It’s just too easy to buy into the Cowboys  don’t cry crap.  No matter which person ends a relationship, there will always be a little carnage and an entire family mourns the loss.

Max was counting the days to his brothers’ arrival and insisted on fetching Daniele at the airport.  They are very close these two and when one hurts, they both feel it. Once all the hugging was done and dusted and words of wisdom dispensed with we all gathered around the dinner table to put the Tripepi Band-Aid, Ravioli,  over the wounds and in no time at all the house was filled with fond laughter and a good giggle was had by all.

The truth of it all is simple.  When a relationship ends, there just is no need at all for any finger pointing.  It’s just the way that life goes sometimes and the need for us to label on person as the ‘goody’ and one as the ‘baddy’ is ridiculous.   Special people come into our lives for a reason and some people stay longer than others. Hold on to and cherish the good parts and discard the rest, and above all, find a way to stay friends.

Wild Boar Ragu
Ravioli

Black Lava Salt.

I have said this before and will say it again; Italian Mamma’s are very good at stretching food to feed many mouths and use most meals more than once.
Most dishes will allow for the reinvention of left overs into another dish.  Think of the infamous Italian Frittata made from left over pasta which is either served with a salad for veggies for lunch or as Max loved, to take Frittata Rolls to school for lunch the next day.

Ravioli is just one of the many filled pasta’s.  You can fill ravioli with just about anything, but when you have made a roast as the Wild Boar I posted last week, it’s a great idea to keep a few slices and some of the sauce back to chop up finely and use as a stuffing for ravioli.  If you are not going to be making pasta any time soon just pop them into a packet and freeze ready for when you need them.  Many restaurants are serving ‘Arancini’ or ‘Suppli” these days – a ball or dome of rice wrapped meat that is crumbed and deep fried.  Another great way to use left overs.

Clickhere for the Wild Boar Ragu Recipe

Wild Boar Ragu

Ravioli Dough

Feeds 4

Ingredients all lined up and ready!

Pasta dough.

Ingredients

3 eggs

300g flour

2 – 3tsp olive oil

2tsp salt

Click here for a step-by-step guide to making fresh pasta.

Mix your flour, eggs, salt and olive oil in your mixer or by hand on a floured surface.

Knead the dough until it forms a smooth ball, wrap up in cling film and refrigerate for half an hour.

Cut your dough into manageable sized balls, flatten with your hand, dust with flour and put through  your pasta machine 3 times on number one, folding the piece of dough twice between rolling.

Roll the floured dough through your machine.

Now, put the dough through your machine on each setting until you get to number 8.  You need the sheets to be as thin as possible
as you are going to put two together to form the ravioli and no one likes thick
heavy ravioli.

Once each sheet is done, place it on a clean table cloth somewhere safe.  My Dalmatian Bubbles just loves to steal
sheets of fresh pasta off the table!

Lay the sheets out on a table cloth!

The Filling

Chop the meat very finely.

Cut your left over roast meat up very finely and make sure that it’s not too saucy.

Lightly beat one egg in a cup to use to glue your ravioli together.

Cut squares of the pasta using a cookie cutter or a pasta wheel.

Place 1/2tsp of meat in the centre of a square of pasta and brush the outside with beaten egg.

Place half a teaspoon of meat in the centre of your square.

Place another square of dough on top of this and seal the edges taking care to squeeze out all of  the air.  If you don’t do this, the ravioli will often burst when you boil it.

Place another piece on top, squeeze out the air and close the sides up.

Set aside on clean tea towel.

Set the ravioli aside on a tea towel to dry.

The Sauce

You have so many choices here.  I prefer to keep a sauce with ravioli quite light.   I served these ravioli with the sauce that the Wild Boar was cooked in.

All I did was sieve out all of the liquid from the left over sauce using a Chinois Sieve, reduced it slightly in a frying pan, added a dash of cream and seasoned with some black pepper.

To Serve

Bring a large pot of salted water to a rolling boil, pop in your ravioli and cook for around 10 minutes.  You need to take one out and taste it to see if the pasta is soft enough.

When the ravioli is cooked, pour into a colander and drain off all of the excess water.  Toss in some sauce and serve with a garnishing of fresh herbs.  I used
fragrant rosemary and a little dash of beautiful black lava salt.

Fresh Wild Boar Ravioli with a creamy light sauce.

Serve garnished with fragrant fresh rosemary.

As always

Buon Appetito

Xxx

jan