The incredulous look on people’s face when I tell them what I cooked for my birthday have convinced me that I must be one of the very few persons who cook on their own birthday.
As you might have inferred by now, I not only like to cook but I also like to eat.
Strangely, though, I don’t like to eat most of the things I make. This oddity can be explained by the fact that I am very sensitive to odors and I can stand even the best smells for a very short time. Therefore, when something has been cooking for longer than a few minutes in my kitchen, I’m already so nauseous that I don’t feel like eating it anymore.
If you factor in my frustration with range hoods (not enough effective and way too noisy) you can understand why in my blog you’ll never find recipes that require deep-frying, very heavy sauces or strong-smelling spices.
I tend to love simple foods – hence my passion for soups, salads and vegetables in general – with a few exceptions. For example, I adore lasagna, and all its variations. Just by writing about it, I can smell the characteristic aroma of thin layer over thin layer of fresh homemade pasta, béchamel sauce and either a rich Bolognese meat sauce, or pesto (in the summer), or mushrooms, my favorite ingredient. But for me it has to be either one ingredient or the other because I cannot even think of making one of those concoctions of too many flavors that fight against each other and end up ruining an otherwise outstanding product of the Italian culinary tradition.
I like to keep it simple, so that I can taste each flavor and none of them overwhelms the other.
I also love Gnocchi , especially “alla Romana” (semolina flour gnocchi as they are made in Rome) and Eggplant Parmesan (no deep-fried eggplants, though).
These are rich, complex recipes that cannot be part of anybody’s regular diet.
However, can you think of a better occasion to indulge in your favorite food than your birthday? If you keep a healthy diet most of the time – and the anticipation of a rich dish really helps me from straying – you can do it, too.
Last year I launched myself into this overindulging adventure of cooking three of my favorite dishes for my birthday. I made a deal with my friends: I would take care of all the cooking if one of them hosted the dinner, another one took care of the cleaning up and a third one procured the cake. A revised and simplified version of “Babette’s Feast” if you will, when I treated myself and my closest friends with Roman Gnocchi, Eggplant Parmesan, and Ravioli with Spinach and Ricotta.
Ingredients: Sp Sr V
(serves 4 to 6)
For the filling:
- 1/3 lb. of ricotta cheese
- 1/2 lb. fresh organic spinach
- 2 fresh organic eggs
- 3 tbsp. freshly grated Parmesan cheese
- Freshly grated nutmeg
- Salt
- Pepper
For the pasta:
- 3 fresh organic eggs
- 1 lb. of flour
- 1 pinch of salt
- 1 Tbsp. olive oil
- 3 Tbsp. of water
Wash the spinach thoroughly. Cook them for about 5 minutes in just the water clinging to their leaves after washing, then drain and set aside to cool down.
Make the pasta dough: in a large bowl, break the eggs; add the olive oil, the water, the salt and beat with a fork. Still using the fork, incorporate the flour a little at a time. Keep adding flour until the dough will be hard enough to be kneaded. Knead for five minutes with strength, adding flour every time it becomes sticky. The dough must be firm. Shape it into a ball and wrap it into plastic wrap to keep it from drying out. Let it rest for at least 30 minutes. This passage is very important for the gluten fibers to develop, making it easy to roll the pasta.
In the meantime, make the filling. Chop the spinach finely with a sharp knife, transfer them into a bowl, add the ricotta cheese, the Parmesan cheese, one egg, salt, pepper, grate a little nutmeg (do not use to much because the flavor is very strong) and stir to blend the ingredients together.Roll the pasta dough into a thin sheet. If you are not experienced in using a rolling pin, I recommend using a machine because the pasta will be smoother and the stripes will be of the ideal width for ravioli.
After many years of intense use, I still love my sturdy and simple Imperia machine, but many other models are available for purchase online or in kitchenware stores.
After resting, the pasta dough will be sticky; keep adding flour to roll it out.
In order to keep the pasta stripes from drying out, I recommend rolling out the dough in small amounts, keeping the rest of it in the plastic wrap.
In a small bowl, make some egg wash by whisking one egg with two tablespoons of water.
Make two strips of pasta of the same length and width. Brush the egg wash on one of the two strips.
Take a tablespoon of filling and, with the tip of a knife, place small mounds of filling, evenly spaced, leaving enough pasta in between to cut the ravioli. Cover with the other strip of pasta, then cut in the middle, along the sides and then perpendicularly to separate the individual ravioli.
Repeat until you run out of filling. Place the ravioli on a floured surface.
Ravioli can be cooked immediately, kept in the refrigerator for a couple of days, or frozen. In this case, I suggest letting them dry for a few hours in a cool, dry place, remembering to flip them upside down after one hour. Cook the ravioli in abundant salted water (1 tsp. of Kosher salt per quart of water) for about 5 to 7 minutes (depending on the size of the ravioli), drain and serve immediately.
Serving suggestions: these ravioli have a very delicate taste so I recommend one of these two very simple sauces. You can use a tomato sauce (see my recipe), warmed up with some fresh basil and a Tbsp. of Evoo per person. Or you can melt a Tbsp. of unsalted butter per person, with a few leaves of sage. Dress the ravioli with either one of these condiments, dust with grated Parmesan cheese, and serve warm.
