“Uova da Raviolo” is a famous ravioli from the Emilia Romagna Region of Italy up north. The Northern part of Italy is famous for all filled pasta like ravioli. Actually, much of our favorite Italian things are from this region like Parmesan cheese, balsamic vinegar and all filled pastas! This is a large ravioli with a whole egg yolk nestled in ricotta cheese.
The participants in my Gnocchi Cooking Class requested Pesto as the sauce for their Gnocchi. It’s a perfect fit this time of year when we all have Basil busting loose in our quarantine gardens! This is a great recipe if you are new at making pasta because it does not require any special ingredients and it’s fun for the kids to help. Basically it’s like playing with play dough as you roll out the “snake” that will become your Gnocchi.
In my Region of Italy (Lazio), it is not really common to make ravioli. But if they do make it, it’s always Spinach Ricotta Ravioli! I was shown how to make it during a fun Ravioli Making Party hosted by a very talented Italian cook. We made hundreds of these little ravioli for a party the next day. You can ready that article and how to make a large batch for a big group by clicking here,
Oh the memories I have of my dad standing as guardian over the smoking barbecue, I can still see him in my minds eye in his cut off denim shorts and a Coors beer tank top. He had a fly swatter in one hand and a water squirt bottle in the other to calm the igniting flames.
Gnocchi are a favorite pasta choice both in America and in Italy, who can resist those soft potato pillows of dough? Basically Gnocchi are potato dumplings that originated in Northern Italy where the conditions are better for growing potatoes than wheat. That explains why I love them so much, they are from my Region!
Homemade pasta is like anything else in the cooking world, terrifying until you make again and again. It seemed surreal and strange that you would mix the flour and eggs in a volcanic pile of flour on your bread board, crack the eggs inside the indentation of the “volcano” and whisk with a fork from the center, slowly adding more flour to the eggs with your fork as you work in the center of the volcano.
Ahhhhh, Pasta Pomodoro….So simple yet so delicious! I will always remember when I was new to Italy and trying so hard to cook the complicated dishes and sauces and struggling to do things the Italian way.
Actually, it’s not hard or expensive to make sushi at home and there is a million different ways to make it. You can make it in a roll using Nori (Seaweed) or you can just form the rice in your hand using plastic wrap and squeezing your hand into a fist. In the second way you don’t need Nori. It can be as simple as laying a piece of smoked salmon on top of the sushi rice and enjoying along with some soy sauce and wasabi!
One day in mid May we had a bush fire very near our house, here in the hills of Itri, Italy. We were coming home from Rome and as we neared our town of Itri we got a call from a friend that lives nearby, he said “Are you guys ok? There is a lot of smoke coming from your hill.”
Focaccia is the delicious flat bread that comes to us from Liguria region, the same place that we get Pesto! This bread is best served warm from the oven and can be served as an antipasta course or with your meal. Everytime I have made it here in Italy my Italian guests are delighted and dive in exuberantly!
