Chickpea and vegetable soup

Minestre con ceci e verdure
The standard question whenever you meet an Italian housewife is ‘What are you making for dinner today?” They seek inspiration and want to share thoughts and ideas, and sometimes the implications are mildly surprising.

The other day a neighbour told me that this time of year her family’s daily main course consists of a hearty soup followed by some kind of fruit. They are basically living off the land, and only have to bend down to pick up squash, peppers, tomatoes, beans, chickpeas, mushrooms, eggplants, cabbage, onions, etc. Fresh, nutritious and tasty ingredients offering the additional advantage of unlimited variability. “Given such riches, who needs meat?” my friend asked. And I’m inclined to agree.

The only drawback is that a nice soup takes time to prepare. Dried beans or chickpeas have to be soaked for 24 hours in advance and boiled separately for an hour. And, although absolutely worthwhile, homemade vegetable stock amounts to an extra dish. Luckily, there are shortcuts like preparing double or triple portions of legumes and stock and preserving the rest in the freezer, or buying pre-cooked beans and good ready-made stock. Soup can be made on a sausage peg in a jiffy depending on whether you have got money or time to spare.

Ingredients
For the stock
4 onions
8 cloves garlic
½ celery root
2 carrots
1 fennel
2 bay leaves
1 tbsp pepper corns
1 tsp fennel seeds
Fresh parsley, thyme, rosemary, salvia, estragon
Salt
Olive oil
2 ltr cold water

For the soup
1 leek
2 carrots
2 stalks celery
2 squash
1 fennel
2 potatoes
1 ear of corn
1 bell pepper
2 dl boiled chick peas
Olive oil

Preparation
Soak the chickpeas for 24 hours; boil for 1 hour and drain.

To prepare the broth, clean and chop all vegetables coarsely.
Heat the oil in a big soup pot, and fry onion, garlic, celery root, carrots, fennel and spices for 15 minutes without letting them change colour. They give off most flavour when soft and mushy.
Pour in water, bring it to the boil, add salt to taste and let the stock simmer for 15 minutes, before adding the fresh herbs. Simmer for another 5 minutes. Remove the pot from the heat, skim off foam and leave it for another 15 minutes.
Strain and discard vegetables. (A higher concentration of flavor can be obtained, if you reduce the liquid by cooking the stock uncovered over high heat for a while.)

Scrub and chop vegetables for the soup in small squares. Cut the maize off the ear.
Fry leek, carrots, celery, squash, fennel and potatoes in hot olive oil for a few minutes.
Pour in vegetable stock, bring it to the boil, and let it simmer for 10 minutes.
Add maize, bell pepper, and pre-boiled chickpeas and cook for another five minutes.
Serve the soup steaming hot with lots of nice bread.

Tortellini with Jerusalem artichokes and zucchini salsa

Ravioli con topinambur e salsa di zucchine
In recent years the Nordic kitchen has won great international acclaim, and the best Danish chefs experiment wildly with sow’s ear snacks, pine needle salad and tasty dirt powder. Less eccentric chefs fuse traditional Nordic ingredients with Mediterranean methods of preparation, and with good results.

This recipe inspired by the semi-professional gastrocorner uses Jerusalem artichokes as ravioli filling but other vegetables might be used instead. I have added the zucchini salsa, which gives any type of pasta a fabulous lift. The result is an understated, mild, autumny and surprisingly elegant tasting dish.

Ingredients
For the pasta
4 dl pasta flour
2 dl water

For the filling
200 g Jerusalem artichokes
Butter
2 egg yolks
Fresh thyme

For the salsa
1 shallot onion
1 clove of garlic
3-4 zucchini
Olive oil
Fresh thyme

Preparation
Start by making the pasta dough. Make a volcano of flour on a clean table. Pour a little more than half the water in the middle of the mount and use a fork to stir it with the flour. Add more water gradually, till you have a tough dough. Use the heal of your hand for kneading, when the fork is no longer useful. Keep kneading for at least 10 minutes or use a pasta machine.

Run the dough through the pasta machine once. If the edges are frayed, add more water, and if the dough seems sticky, add more flour. Roll the pasta through the machine at least ten times at max width (to make up for ten minutes kneading).

Decrease the width of the pasta machine gradually, one step at a time. Cut the pasta out in circles.

Leave the pasta on wire rack covered by a clean tea towel.
Meanwhile prepare the filling. Clean, peel and chop the Jerusalem artichokes into smaller pieces. Fry them in butter over low heat with thyme until they become soft. Blend the Jerusalem artichokes. Blend in a couple of almonds or walnuts, if the mixture seems too runny.

Zucchini salsa is prepared in much the same way. Peel, chop and fry the onion and garlic, add cleaned and chopped zucchini and fresh thyme and let it simmer for 5-10 minutes. Blend to a smooth salsa and taste with salt. If you want a more creamy texture, you can stir in a tbsp of parmesan and ricotta or mascarpone

Fill the pasta circles with a tsp of the Jerusalem artichoke mixture. Boil for 3-4 minutes in a large pan filled with salty water and serve with the zucchini salsa and sprinklings of fresh thyme.

Potato dumplings with tomato and mozzarella

Gnocchi alla Sorrentina
Those of us who just can’t get enough of the classic tomato, mozzarella and basil combination found in insalata caprese and pizza margherita really love this dish of boiled gnocchi covered in a tomato sauce with floating islands of mozzarella. From this point of view it is surprising that none of my (innumerable) Italian cook books include the recipe, but perhaps it’s considered too simple to mention.

I encountered the version below at Trattoria L’intruso on SS156 in Giuliano Di Roma FR), it was downright gorgeous, and can be prepared at home in less than 30 minutes with the same result.

Ingredients
500 g potato gnocchi (a good ready-made brand may do)
10 tomatoes
8 bocconcini di mozzarella di bufala (or two ordinary mozzarellas)
Fresh basil
Salt and sugar

Preparation
Bring a pot of water to the boil. Cut a cross in the skin at the bottom of each tomato with a sharp knife and scorch the tomatoes in boiling water for 15 seconds. Set the tomatoes aside to let them cool, before removing the skin, chop them up.

Heat the tomatoes in a saucepan with a little water , if necessary, to make a homogeneous sauce. Add salt, sugar and basils to taste, and cook for about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile prepare the gnocchi in accordance with the prescription on the package. They are usually boiled in salted water for a couple of minutes.

Grease an ovenproof dish with olive oil. Place the boiled gnocchi in the dish and cover with tomato sauce. Top with bocconcini or mozzarella quarters, and heat the dish in the oven at 190 C (375 F) for about ten minutes until the mozzarella has melted. Top with a sprinkle of fresh basil before serving.

PS. I sometime make gnocchi alla sorrentina without an oven, and it works all right. Just place a pot with gnocchi, tomato sauce and mozzarella over low heat and cover with a tight fitting lid to make the mozzarella melt.

Spaghetti in sweet pepper sauce

Spaghetti al peperone dolce
I first encountered this dish at the highly recommendable Osteria Michiletta in Cesana and was duly impressed that something so apparently simple could contain so much taste.

Back home I have tried to copy the experience and after numerous attempts that turned out too hot, too sweet or otherwise too much, I think I have finally found a reasonable wannabe recipe. The challenge consists in getting the unmistakably Italian, hot-n-sweet smokey flavour just right to memory, but maybe the taste experience has been spiced up with the atmosphere and the treat of on authentic, unpretentious slow food restaurant with no printed menus.

If any of you have got a recipe that is closer to the real deal please let me know.

Ingredients
4 red bell peppers
1 dried Calabrian pepper
1 clove of garlic
olive oil
1 dl vegetable stock
½ dl white wine

Preparation
Soak the dried pepper in boiling water. Remove the seeds, skin and stem. Take care to get all the seeds out. Otherwise the sauce may become too hot. If you have not got a string of dried peppers from Calabria, substitute with one additional bell pepper and a small dried peperoncino.
Grill the bell peppers until they blacken. Allow them to cool in a plastic bag, before you rub off the skin and remove the seeds.
Heat the olive oil and give the chopped garlic a quick fry. Add peppers and chase them around in the casserole for a couple of minutes.
Add the wine an allow it to evaporate before you pour in the broth.
Cook under lid for 10 minutes, before you blend the peppers to a smooth, thick salsa.
Serve with spaghetti, maccheroni or tagliatelle.

Quiche with tuna fish

Torta salata al tonno
The French claim to have invented this dish, which they call a quiche. In England and America it might be known as a pie, and the Italians would talk about a torta salata. No matter the name, open savoury pies with egg and cheese filling make great finger food. Perfect as a fast food sandwich substitute, in a picnic basket or as a car or tv dinner. The children just love it.

But don’t buy the pastry ready-made. It clings and crumbles and contains far too much fat, compared to the home made version, which can be ready for use in no time at all.

Ingredients
For the pastry
4 dl flour
100 g butter
salt
Water

For the filling
4 eggs
1 dl cream (or milk)
2 small cans of tuna
1 dl mozzarella and parmesan cheese
20 olives
salt, pepper

Preparation
Pour the flour in a bowl, add and little salt and cold butter, and chop the butter in small pieces with a knife.
Rub flour and butter between your fingers till they resemble white bread crumbs
Use 1 tbsp cold water to collect the pastry.
Grease a pie tin and line it with pastry. (It may be easier to handle, if you wrap the pastry in plastic, before it is rolled out):
Prick the pastry with a fork, cover with baking paper, fill with dried beans, and blind bake for 20 minutes at 180C/350F.
For the filling, beat eggs with cream. Mix with 2 small cans of tuna, cubed mozzarella and grated parmesan.
Take the quiche out of the oven. Remove greaseproof paper with the dried beans.
Pour filling in the pre-baked pastry shell. Sprinkle with black olives, and return the quiche to the oven.
Bake for another 20 minutes until the filling is golden.
Serve cold or tepid with a nice green salad.

Italy food recipe pasta with spinach and ricotta

Tortelloni di spinaci e ricotta
Several legends recount the medieval origin of tortellini shaped pasta, and most of them focus on the similarity between the stuffed dough and the navel of a beautiful woman. A sweet tale on a fascinating sight and even more appealing dish, especially when prepared by a Bolognese nonna and served in a strong but clear brodo broth.

I find broth making too much toil and trouble and concentrate instead on tortellini – or tortelloni as the bigger, lazier version is called. Even without the soup this pasta become really good when filled with a cream of spinach and ricotta and served with melted butter and crispy fried salvia leaves.

Ingredients
Serves 4
For the pasta:
4 dl of Italian flour
2 dl of tap water

For the filling
150 g fresh ricotta
100 g fresh spinach
1 dl grated parmesan
1 tsp grated nutmeg

Preparation
Make a volcano of flour on a clean table. Pour a little more than half the water in the middle of the mount and use a fork to stir it with the flour. Add more water gradually, till you have a tough dough. Use the heal of your hand for kneading, when the fork is no longer useful. Keep kneading for at least 10 minutes or use a pasta machine.

Run the dough through the pasta machine once. If the edges are frayed, add more water, and if the dough seems sticky, add more flour. Roll the pasta through the machine at least ten times at max width (to make up for ten minutes kneading).

Decrease the width of the pasta machine gradually, one step at a time. Cut the pasta out in circles.

Leave the pasta on wire rack covered by a clean tea towel.

Rinse the fresh spinac, and put it is a casserole with the water that clings to the leaves. Heat the spinach for a few minutes until the leaves have collapsed. Let the spinach cool, before you wring out excess water, and bleen spinach with ricotta with grated parmesan and nutmeg.

Put the mixture in a plastic bag, cut off one corner, and place a top of filling one half of the pasta cicles. Fold the other half of pasta over the filling, fold the edge upwards and unite the ends of each semi-circle to make an imitation navel.

Fill a large pan with water and bring it to the boil. Add 1-2 tbsp salt. Boil the ravioli 3-4 minutes until they are al dente. Drain and place in a warm service dish with a dripping of smelted salvia butter.

Healthy chick pea salad

Insalata di ceci e peperoni
For some reason Salento farmers (cf. blog post Ballo di Mario) are really proud of their chick peas. Expats who have returned home for the holidays order car loads of chick peas to take back Torino, Germany and Switzerland, and the mugnaio gives you an approving nod, when you ask for ceci locali. Even when the mulino is packed with impatient customers, he has all the time in the world to explain, how the black chick peas are in fact the best, whereas brown peas should be discarded. As with all Italian food matters, chick peas can be closely related to rocket science, if you take your produce seriously.

This recipe underlines the exquisite taste of local chick peas, and it can be served as a ‘piatto unico’, if you have not got time (who has?) to prepare a full Italian meal. All you have to do is to serve the salad with a piece of meat or toss it with some canned tuna.

Ingredients
3 dl chick peas
Fresh laurel, thyme and rosemary
1 clove of garlic
1 red onion
2 bell peppers
Fresh basil or parsley
1 tbsp mustard
6 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp white wine vinegar

Preparation
Soften the chick peas in water overnight. Change the water and boil for 1 hour with the herbs. (Unlike other kinds of dried beans and peas, chick peas do not splatter, if they are overboiled.)
Prepare a dressing by gradually stirring olive oil into the mustard. When you have a thick even sauce, add vinegar.
While still hot stir the drained chick peas with dressing
Clean onion, garlic and peppers and chop them finely and mix with the chick peas and dressing. (If you can get hold of peppers in different colours, this rustic salad can be turned into a veritable party dish).
Top with basil or parsley, and the salad is ready to serve.

Polenta and mushrooms

Polenta con funghi
The wonder of polenta is its versatility. In the postwar period, cornmeal porridge sexed up with salted anchovies was one of the staples feeding north Italian peasants, and daily use nourished the imagination. Polenta started to appear in a number of dishes with various cheeses, butter and sauces and leftovers were recirculated as crostini or polenta fritta.

This recipe can be served as a main course of polenta porridge or – if you scale down the amounts and grill the polenta slices - as a crostini antipasti. And even though it is extremely easy to prepare, it is also top tasty.

To make crostini, make sure the polenta has set properly and been coated in olive oil, before you try to place it on a grill pan or the barbecue. Otherwise you may end up with a clumsy looking greasy mush.

Ingredients
1 litre water
3 dl (instant) polenta
Salt

200 g mushrooms
2 tbsp dried chanterelles or other wild mushrooms
4 dried tomatoes
1 clove of garlic
Olive oil
Thyme, Rosemary, salt and pepper

Preparation
Soak the dried mushrooms in water, before they are chopped.
Soak the dried tomatoes in boiling water, unless you are using the semi-dried or ‘sott’olio’ variety
Clean and chop the fresh mushrooms, the garlic and the fresh herbs finely.
Heat the oil in a drying pan, and fry all ingredients together for about 10 minutes until all the water has evaporated.
Cover the mushrooms, while you heat the salted water for polenta in a thick-bottomed casserole.
Sprinkle in the polenta, when the water boils. Lower the heat and stir vigorously with a wooden spoon (instant polenta can have a tendency to form lumps, or burn you when the boiling bubbles burst, so take car and remove the pan from the heat for some time while you are stirring).

For primi piatti: Spoon the polenta on to a plate, top up with mushrooms and serve.

For crostini di polenta: Spread the polenta porridge on a sheet of baking paper, flatten it with a knife dipped in cold water, and leave it to cool for at least an hour and preferably until the next day. Cut the cooled polenta in squares, triangles or circles, brush them with oil, and grill them on each side for 3 minutes in the oven. Place a spoonful of mushrooms on top of each polenta slice.

Pasta with broccoli

Fusilli con cime di rapa
You always know, you have paid too much for your market vegetables, when the vendor insists on giving you a lot extra ‘come un regalo’.

A couple of weeks ago, I arrived at the market after 10 am, which is too late for the best buys. To make matters worse, I did not have time to walk around from one stall to the other comparing the price and quality of various greens. Instead I found an uncrowded greengrocer, who seemed to have all the fruits and vegetables I intended to buy, and placed a total order.

Seeing his smile get bigger and bigger, as we worked our way through eggplants, onions, oranges, peppers, potatoes and squash, I knew, he was up to something, but I was not fast enough to say no, when he offered me some end of season ‘cime di rapa’ ‘per niente’. Two seconds later, he had emptied a table of yellowing (and to be quite honest a bit tired looking) broccoletti that were handed over in a crammed carrier bag.

There must have been 3-4 kilo, but luckily most of the flowers, stems and leaves were past their sell by date, and ended up in the bin. The good bits were prepared in the classic puglian way and served as a surprisingly good primo with an interesting hot, salty and slightly bitter taste.

Ingredients
500 g broccoli, broccoletti or cime di rapa
3 cloves of garlic
1 big dried or pickled pepperoncino
Lots of olive oil

Preparation
Clean and was the broccoli.

Boil the greens in a saucepan for 10 minutes.

Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and fry sliced garlic and pepperoncino lightly, before adding broccoli. Stir in a bit of boiling water and mash up some of the flowers if necessary to make the veg a little saucy.

Add salt, pepper and more chilli to taste af serve with boiled pasta – preferably orecchiette – but other shapes like fusilli, conchiglie or farfalle will not spoil the dish.

Lasagne

Admittedly, I am not the lasagne wizard of this family, but through the years I have learned a few tricks for making a lasagne so outstanding that it is way beyond dishes of the same name offered in most Italian restaurants.

The word lasagne derives from either Arabic (according to Clifford A Wright) or Greek (according to Wikipedia), but the dish itself originates in Italia.

A written recipe has been found in a fourteenth-century cookery manuscript from the Angevin court in Naples, according to which the sheets of lasagne should be boiled and layered with ground spices and grated cheese. Later people have defined the spices, elaborated on the cheese and added meat, but the basic principles remain the same.

If you are using pasta secca it needs to be properly soaked in besciamella and tomato sauce, and the result improves if the dish is left to rest for an hour, before being heated in the oven.

If you prefer to make your own pasta follow proceedings here, but stop before the sheets of dough are cut up in circles or squares.

Ingredients
300 g of lasagna
1 portion sugo di pomodoro
1 portion salsa besciamella
Oregano
100 g grated mozzarella

For the sugo di pomodoro
1 finely chopped onion
2 finely chopped cloves of garlic
250 g minced beef
1 can of tomatoes
1 small pepperoncino
Olive oil, salt, pepper, oregano and paprika to taste

For the salsa besciamella
2 tabsp of butter
3 tbsp of flour
1 ltr milk
100 g grated mozzarella
1 dl grated parmesan

Preparation
Start making the sugo by frying onion and garlic in olive oil in a casserole over low heat until they are soft and glass-like.

Add the minced meat, turn up the heat and fry until brown.

Pour in the canned tomatoes, allow the sauce to simmer for a while and perfect the taste with berbs and spices.

Leave the sugo to rest, while you prepare the besciamella by melting the butter in a pan.

Add the flour when the butter stops sizzling, and stir vigorously, while you pour in a little milk at a time to avoid lumps.

When the salsa is smooth and not too thick, it should be given plenty of freshly grated nutmeg and a bit of salt and pepper.

Remove the casserole from the heat, stir in parmaggiano and mozzarella and see the cheese dissolve.

Spoon a little tomato sauce in a pre-greased oven-proof dish.

Cover with lasagna sheets, but make sure there are no overlappings.

Add a layer of tomato sauce, a layer of besciamella and another layer of lasagna. Continue till all the sauce has been used, ending with a layer of besciamella.

Put the remaining mozzarella on top of the besciamella, sprinkled with oregano and leave to rest for about 1 hour under a tin foil cover.

Bake the lasagne in a preheated oven (200°C/375°F) for 20-25 minutes, remove the foil and bake for another 5 minutes. When all lasagne sheets are nice and soft, the dish is ready to serve.

Tomato pesto

While we are waiting for renewed growth, it is time for preserves, and one of the best are tomatoes from last summer, salted and dried in the sun for a couple of days, before being stored away in a dark cupboard, and taken out whenever a dish could do with a massive injection of warm summerdays.

Just before Christmas I receive an sms from Italy telling me that now is the time to put the tomatoes sott’olio, so they have been given a boil and covered in home grown olive oil along with a clove of garlic and a spring of mint. Amazingly simple.

The same goes for this tomato pesto, which makes great company for a plate of fusilli pasta. A true life saver with a hungry family and an empty fridge.

Ingredients
2 handfuls of dried tomatoes
1 dl olive oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp lightly roasted pinoli (pine seeds)
1 clove of garlic
2 tbsp grated parmesan
Salt and pepper
Chopped parsley

Preparation
If the tomatoes are very dry, they should be softened in boiling water for a couple of minutes. Dried tomatoes in oil should be drained.
Liquidize garlic with olive oil and lemon juice in a blender
Add tomatoes and blend to a runny pure
Thicken the paste with pinoli and parmesan till you have got a perfect consistency
Add pepper and salt to taste, but be careful: Dried tomatoes can be rather salty.
Sprinkle with chopped parsley and roasted pinoli.

Orecchiette con pomodoro e ricotta dura

It is amazing how much time and energy, you can invest in a simple dish like pasta with tomato sauce and grates cheese, but both orecchiette and ricotta dura are puglian specialities that can be quite hard to obtain, unless you stocked up on these basics before you left the region. Therefore you either have to prepare the orecchiette yourself or use substitutes, in which case the dish can be ready to serve in a matter of minutes.

‘Orecchiette’ means 'small ears', because that is what the look like, and they are made by preparing normal pasta dough, rolling it into long rolls, slicing the rolls in small sections, and shaping them with a knife. Add final touches by inserting the thumb into each pasta as demonstrated in these  photoes published by gennarino.

Ricotta dura is alternately known as ricotta secca, ricotta stagionata and ricotta salata, depending on where you are or who you ask. It is a hard cheese as opposed to the soft fresh ricotta, and if you are looking for a replacement use parmaggiano (parmesan), Grana Padano, pecorino or another cheese that can be grated.

Ingredients
Serves 4

350 g orecchiette (or farfalle)
250 g skinned tomatoes - preferably the small pomodorini
Salt
Olive oil
Fresh basil (dried basil can also be used)
4 tbsp ricotta dura

Preparation
Heat the oil in a small pan. Fry the tomatoes for a few minutes before you turn down the heat, and leaves them to simmer for about ½ hour. Regulate the taste with salt and dried basil.
Heat up a large pan with plenty of water and bring it to the boil. Add a fistful of salt along with the orecchiette. Cooking time for home made orecchiette is about 10 minutes depending on how long they have been left to dry, i.e. shorter for freshly made pasta and longer for pasta that has been prepared days ago.
Drain the pasta when al dente and serve with the tomato sauce, grated ricotta and fresh basil leaves.

Mixed bean salad

Fagioli misti in insalata
The beauty of bean salads consists in their versatility, economy and high nutritional value. A good bean salad can be served hot or cold, as antipasti in company with salami and cold cuts, as primi piatti or contorni. It will feed multiple people at minimum costs. And each serving is rich in proteins and low on calories. Maybe this explains why a lot of people maintain they don’t like beans, unless they are covered in great quantities of tomato sauce or creamy dressing. Or maybe they just haven’t tried a proper Italian bean salad yet.

Ingredients
2 dl of dried white kidney beans
2 dl of dried red beans
2 shallot
2 garlic cloves
Fresh springs of laurel, rosmary and sage
2 anchovies
2 semi dried tomatoes
1 tbsp capers
1 pepperoncino
1 lemon juice
2 dl olive oil

Preparation
Soak the beans in water for 12-24 hours
Change the water, and cook the beans in a pan with herbs, one onion and one clove of garlic.
After 40-60 minutes the beans are done but still in shape. Drain them and remove shallot, garlic and herbs.
Mix olive oil and lemon juice, and add capers and pepperoncino along with fine chopped shallot, garlic, tomatoes and anchovies to make the dressing.
Mix beans with dressing, and add salt and more oil and lemon juice if necessary. Beans are generally thirsty.

The salads will keep for days when kept in an airtight container in a cool place.

Fresh pasta with ricotta filling

Ravioli con ricotta
The secret behind good homemade pasta is hard work. You really have to knead the dough thoroughly for a long time in order to obtain a passable texture. That’s why pasta machines are a tremendous help.

Another secret is the absence of eggs. Most pasta recipes operate with one egg for each serving, which would be enough put an entire family down with acute cholesterol chock. Especially, if you are Italian and eat pasta every day. In my experience, eggs tend to make the pasta heavy and soggy, while I prefer a lighter, fluffy version. The south Italian housewives I have consulted also ban the use of eggs, except perhaps for filled pasta, but they are not that orthodox in their pasta with or without eggs habits.

Still, none of them would ever dream of adding salt to the dough. Pasta should be salted though the boiling water. Basta.

As long as you follow these three rules, the result will be truly awesome.

Ingredients
Serves 4

For the pasta:

4 dl of durum flour

2 dl of tap water

For the filling

150 g fresh ricotta

1 dl grated parmesan

1 tsp grated nutmeg

For the sauce

1 dl shelled walnuts

1 garlic clove

½ dl olive oil

2 tbsp crunchy fried pancetta or prosciutto crudo in tiny cubes

Preparation

Make a volcano of flour on a clean table. Pour a little more than half the water in the middle of the mount and use a fork to stir in flour. Add more water gradually, till you have a tough dough. Use the heal of your hands when the fork is no longer useful and knead the dough together. Keep kneading for at least 10 minutes or use a pasta machine.

Run the dough through the pasta machine once. If the edges are frayed, add more water, and if the dough seems sticky, add more flour. Roll the pasta through the machine at least ten times at max width (to make up for ten minutes kneading).

Keep rolling the dough to a thin sheet, while you decrease the width gradually, one step at a time. Cut the pasta out in squares or circles.

Leave the pasta on wire rack covered by a clean tea towel.

Mix ricotta with grated parmesan and nutmeg for the filling.

Put the mixture in a plastic bag, cut off one corner, and place a top of filling on every other pasta square/circle. Cover with another pasta square/circle, and make sure to press the edges together. If the dough has the right texture, the pasta will close tight around the filling, but you can seal too dry pasta shapes with a drop of water.

For sauce pound walnuts and garlic in a mortar. Fry the mixture lightly in olive oil.

Fill a large pan with water and bring it to the boil. Add 1-2 tbsp salt. Boil the ravioli 3-4 minutes until they are al dente. Drain and place in a warm service dish with sauce and a topping of fried pancetta.