Year In Review 2012

For those in the family not on facebook, here is our 2012 year in review

Saturday Night Tradition, Ravioli Edition

A while back, we started a tradition where I cook dinner on Saturday nights to give Connie a break.  Usually I end up cooking some variation of pasta.  For some reason it the only thing I can think of to make.  And the kids usually like it.  Fortunately there are hundreds of variations of pasta to make, so I haven't run out of ideas yet.

For Christmas, I had bought Connie a Ravioli form for making home made Ravioli.  When Sam heard about this, he was so excited.  He loves Ravioli and was ecstatic about the idea that we could make our very own.  So this Sunday, ("Wait!" you may be saying to yourself, "didn't you say that cooked on Saturday nights?"  Well sometimes it works out that it ends up being Sunday nights, but it would have made a really long title to call it the Saturday Night but Sometimes Sunday Night Tradition, Ravioli Edition).  Anyway, so this Sunday, Sam and I decided to make Ravioli completely from scratch.

First, we used the power of the interwebs to find this recipe: http://food.meltingonline.com/sausage-ravioli-with-sage-brown-butter .  Then we set to work.  The first thing up was to make the filling.  Sam had never cooked meat before, so I showed him how to break up sausage at it cooked so that the filling wouldn't have to big of chunks.


Then the recipe called for a shallot.  I didn't know what a shallot was.  So I yelled up to Connie who was upstairs: "What's a shawl-ought?"
"A What?"
"A shawl-ought or maybe it is french a shawl-a? The recipe calls for it"
"I don't know what you are talking about, I'll come look"
Connie came down and looked at the recipe and then laughed.  "It's called a shall-it" she said kindly.  Then she pulled one out from the fridge.  Sam looked at it and declared "We are not putting that in the ravioli, I hate onions."
"It's not an onion, it's a shawl-ought," I said matter of factly.
"It kind of looks like an onion," said Sam.
"Don't worry it is not an onion," I said, "if it was an onion the recipe would have said onion.  Don't worry I am sure it will taste great."
Now one thing you need to know about Sam is that he hates onions.  If even thinks there is a possibility that there are onions in something, he won't eat it.  The thing is, I know that most of the time the thought of onions are far worse to him than him actually eating an onion.  I wasn't sure how different a shallot tasted from an onion, but I was pretty sure if he gave it a try without the preconceived notion that it was going to terrible that he would probably like it.  Fortunately, Sam was convinced that it was not actually an onion and I was able to put the shallot into the filling.

After the making the filling, we moved on to the making the dough for the ravioli.  This is the hardest and most time consuming part. We called in an expert for this part.  Connie showed us how to add just a 1/4 of a teaspoon of water at a time to the dough to get exactly the right consistency.  You want the dough to not be too flaky and falling apart, but if you add too much water, it gets too sticky and will stick the pasta press and your hands and everything else. Once we had the dough the right consistency , We sent the dough through the pasta press half a dozen times until it was perfectly smooth.





Next we used the ravioli form to actually make the raviolli

Then I told Sam it was time to make the sauce.  Once again Sam began to protest.  "I hate sauce.  They put sauce on the Ravioli at school and it is so gross"
"Sam," I said, "This isn't a red sauce, I promise you will like it"
"No I hate sauce, I don't care what kind it is"
"Do you hate bacon?" I said
"No, I love bacon," replied Sam.
"Well this sauce has pancetta, which is like extra good italian bacon".
I continued, "Do you hate butter?"
"No I love butter," replied Sam.
"Well this sauce is basically just pancetta, butter, and sage" I said, "Does that sound gross?"
"I didn't know that could be a sauce," said Sam.
"Yup," I said, "It is awesome sauce" (this was a little joke with a double meaning because I often say something is 'awesome sauce' when it is something is cool).
Sam was convinced that we should put the sauce on the ravioli.

When it was all said and done, it took us about two hours to do it all.  But it was well worth the work, both for the bonding time with Sam and because these Ravioli were in fact awesome sauce.  They were extremely delicious and I would recommend this recipe to anyone.  If you don't have time to make the ravioli yourself I would still recommend buying some at the store and making the butter and pancetta sauce.  buon appetito!