La Lama Mountain Ovens
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The best of the recipes, techniques, and methods practiced by our large extended Italian-American family - with emphasis on the legacy handed down to us by the original immigrants.

This is a cookbook-in-process project. If you try any of these recipes please let us know how they turn out, whether or not you had any difficulties, and any clarifying improvements you might recommend to make them foolproof. We will of course acknowledge genuine "test-kitchen" assistance.

Family Secrets #11

Ravioli and Lasagna

By CeCe Dove, La Lama Mountain Ovens

Every Sunday in our home was homemade pasta day. Enough was always made so that there would be leftovers for my father's lunch for the next two days. This was a given because he simply could not get through a week without pasta being on his plate at least two or three times. The usual was simply spaghetti, but when there was a little extra time on Saturdays, or if a visitor was coming, my mother would make up the filling for lasagna or ravioli. The filling was the same for both. It was what she learned as a girl and what my father preferred above all the variations with which one can fill pasta. Whether it ended up being served as lasagna or ravioli depended on the amount of time available and the "specialness" of the occasion.

The recipe for the filling that follows is not the only authentic Italian recipe. If you are a student of gastronomy you will know that each region of Italy has its own specialties for filled pasta. They range from alla genovese with veal, sweetbreads and brains to ravioli di San Giuseppe which are stuffed with marmalade or marzipan! Along the seacoast you will find fillings utilizing seafood and then there are ravioli magri which are strictly vegetable fillings. Let's not forget con formaggio which is strictly cheese. When the four of us kids left home we all experimented - trying other fillings and enjoyed many of them. But when we want to put forth our best we always fall back on mama's recipe.

If you choose to make this into lasagna, invest in a good looking, proper size lasagna dish. To serve six you will need a rectangular dish about 3 inches deep by 14 inches long by 10 inches wide. I prefer a plain white ceramic dish that can go from oven to table but a heavy duty stainless pan works quite well if you plan to plate the food and not bring the pan to the table.

If you are making ravioli you have two reasonable options. You may purchase a ravioli mold at any decent cookware store or you may form them by hand. The mold is a two part metal affair, is relatively inexpensive, and will result in very uniform ravioli. I find them more bother than they are worth and prefer to make them by hand. For this method you will need a crimper, which is simply a small serrated wheel with a handle, to seal the packets. The slight irregularity that results from forming each individually only adds to the charm of the finished product. In either case you will want to roll your pasta as thin as possible without tearing it, both for lasagna and ravioli. Getting it this thin is worth the effort, resulting in an ethereally light lasagna or wonderfully delicate ravioli, something I have yet to find in any restaurant.

For saucing, the lasagna requires a homemade tomato sauce (see Family Secrets #10). Ravioli may also be served with this same sauce, which is the only way we ate it at home, or you can substitute anything from a brown butter/sage sauce to an herb infused cream sauce, or even serve them in brodo which is in a light chicken broth.

A note on the cooked greens called for in the recipe. Originally this recipe used only fresh spinach, but if we had Swiss chard, or even dandelion greens available we used those. I have also used fresh rapini for an extremely interesting variation. In any case, whatever greens you choose they must be first cooked in boiling water, squeezed as dry as possible, and finely chopped. Naturally each different green will give you a slightly different flavor. The spinach is the most delicate, the chard is earthier, the dandelion is slightly bitter, and the rapini is slightly spicy. In an absolute pinch you can use commercially frozen greens, but after going through the trouble of homemade pasta and sauce, this seems a bad choice. It's much better to cook and freeze your own greens when they are plentiful and have them available.

Both of these dishes lend themselves very well to advance preparation. I actually prefer to make the ravioli a day ahead and freeze them. They are much easier to handle when cooking and only add a minute or two to the final cooking time. The lasagna can also be made ahead and frozen if you wish to hold it more than two days. If you are going to serve it within that time you can simply refrigerate it. In addition to being elegant and delicious fare, you have the added advantage of very little last minute cooking. You might serve individual antipasto plates for a first course or simply a green salad and finish with fruit and cheese for a very Italian meal.

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Lasagna and Ravioli Filling

Serves lasagna for six or makes approximately 50 small ravioli (serving six at 8 per serving)

• 1 -1/4 lb. lean ground beef
• 8 to 10 oz. chopped cooked greens of your choice
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, finely minced
• 1/4 cup parsley, finely chopped
• 1 extra large egg
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan (please use Reggiano)
• 1 Tblsp. finely minced fresh oregano, or 1 tsp. dried
• 2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. freshly ground pepper
• olive oil

Film a large sauté pan with olive oil. Over medium heat, add the chopped onion and sauté until limp but not brown, four or five minutes. Add garlic and sauté another minute. Crumble the beef into the pan and sauté until cooked and no red is visible. Turn heat to high and boil away as much of the liquid thrown off by the beef as you are able to in 5 minutes. Turn into a strainer and discard all fat and any liquid left. Return meat mixture to sauté pan and add the chopped greens, parsley, oregano, salt and pepper. Toss and stir until well combined and heated through, 3 or 4 minutes. Turn into a bowl to cool slightly. Add egg and cheese and mix well. Cover and chill at least one hour. May be made one day ahead.

Lasagna

• Large pot of boiling, salted water, at least 8 qt. capacity
• Large bowl of iced water
• 3 cups homemade tomato sauce
• Homemade pasta using the recipe in Family Secrets #8 - with 5 eggs and 3 cups of flour. This amount will give you plenty of leftover trimmings for the cook's lunch.

Roll pasta (Family Secrets #8) as thin and as wide as possible, but at least two inches in width. Roll three pasta strips, drop them into the boiling water and cook until pliable, one to two minutes only. Immediately remove with tongs and drop into iced water. Remove from iced water and place on paper towels and pat dry. Film the bottom of the lasagna pan with tomato sauce, place a single layer of pasta on the sauce, trimming the pasta to fit the pan. Save the trimmings for lunch! Using a fork and spoon, or your very clean hands, pat a thin layer of filling over the pasta. Roll out three more pasta strips. Cook as above, cool in ice water as above and place over the filling. Do Not add more tomato sauce. Layer pasta and filling until you have three layers of filling. Top with a final layer of pasta. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to cook.

Remove from refrigerator one hour before cooking. Spread remainder of sauce on top. Grate a little Parmesan over this. Cover tightly with plastic wrap, put the lid on if you have one or cover tightly with tin foil if you don't. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes. Remove from oven, remove foil and plastic and let sit 5 minutes. Cut and plate.

Ravioli (by hand)

Roll pasta at least two inches wide and as thin as possible. Work with one strip at a time unless you have help. With the strip of pasta in front of you, working from one end, place a heaping teaspoon of filling about an inch up, flip the end over, press with your fingers, and run the crimper around it to seal completely. You should have a shape that looks like a half circle - not square. Place each ravioli side-by-side, not stacked, on a sheet pan lined with waxed or parchment paper. As the pan fills, place it in the freezer, unwrapped. Continue until all pasta and/or filling is used. The ravioli will freeze solid in about 20 minutes. Remove them from the sheet pan and bag them in plastic bags of a size to suit you. I like them ten to bag so I always know what I have.

If you have a large (14" at least) straight sided pan at least 4 inches deep, it would be perfect. You can cook about 15 or 20 at a time this way. If not, use large stock pot filled about 2/3 with water. In either case, bring to a full boil and salt. Heat the sauce that you choose to use. Drop the frozen ravioli in the salted boiling water, bring back to a boil as quickly as possible, turn heat down and keep at a low boil. Cook for four minutes and then test one. They should not take more than four to six minutes depending on the thickness of your pasta. Remove with a slotted spoon or skimmer, pat dry with a paper towel, sauce as you wish, and serve immediately. I prefer to plate my ravioli so while I'm saucing and serving the first few dishes, the next batch is cooking.

Altitude Adjustment: There is no change in the baking time of the lasagna. For boiling pasta, at any altitude over 5000 feet you must be careful to use plenty of water at a full boil and bring it back to a boil after dropping your pasta in as quickly as possible. Because this is homemade and not dried store bought pasta, it will need only a minute or two additional cooking at high altitude.