Tomato & basil cream sauce for ravioli

For ➍
3 large fresh tomatoes
½ small onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 tbs butter
4 tbs Parmigiano
2 ts basil flakes
½ ts oregano
1¼ tbs cream
slivered almonds
salt & pepper

Boil the tomatoes for 4-5 m or until tender. Chop the onions. Saute them in some oil till they look pinkish and glazed. Add the minced garlic and saute for 1 m.

Blend the tomatoes, onions and garlic mixture to form a smooth paste.

Add some butter to a heated pan. Add the sauce and let it boil on medium heat. Add the basil and oregano, salt and pepper, and let it simmer.

Whisk the cream and the Parmigiano cheese in a separate bowl into a thick mixture. Reduce the flame to low. Add this mixture to the tomato sauce.

(Meanwhile, cook the cheese ravioli.)

Layer the cooked ravioli in a dish. Top it with the sauce. Garnish with some more Parmigiano cheese, slivered almonds and basil flakes.

Scallops & rucola pasta

For ➍
12 scallops
400 g spaghetti*
50 g rucola
50 g Parmigiano cheese*
1 red bell pepper
½ lemon
thyme
olive oil
salt & pepper

Peel the red pepper. Remove seeds and cut the red flesh into cubes.

Bake the pepper in 1 tbs of olive oil on low heat. Add the thyme. Bake 5 m. Set aside.

Cook spaghetti al dente uncovered in salted water.*

Cut the scallops very cold in 3 fine slices**.

Drain the pasta*. Add a dash of olive oil, rucola, diced peppers, a few drops of lemon juice and pepper. Let the rucola shrink for a few m on low heat.

Serve the pasta* on warm plates. Put the thin slices of raw scallop on the pasta. Garnish with Parmigiano shavings.

*Serve with cheese ravioli and omit the Parmigiano.
**Don't slice the scallops and bake them slightly.

Read the scallops tip.
Read more spaghetti & linguine recipes: a quick spaghetti, spaghetti with scallops & tomatoes, spaghetti alla carbonara, spaghetti with vegetables, shrimps fra diavolo, raw tomato spaghetti, spaghetti with clams, spaghetti with small clams, spaghetti with oil & garlic, spaghetti alla puttanesca, Palermo spaghetti with tomatoes & mint, American-Italian spaghetti with meatballs, vermicelli with parsley sauce, shrimps & Brie linguine, butter & tomato pasta sauce, lemon pasta with sea spinach.

Salsa con le noci per ravioli (walnuts sauce for ravioli)

For ➍
75 g walnut meats, peeled & minced
30 cl milk
3 tbs butter
4 tbs flour
salt & white pepper
700 g meat-free ravioli

Shell the walnuts, scald the nutmeats in boiling water for a few s, then peel and mince them.

Make a béchamel sauce by melting the butter in a small pot and carefully stirring in the flour. Continue cooking over low heat till the flour is lightly browned. Slowly add the milk in a thin stream, stirring briskly to keep lumps from forming.* When you’ve added all the milk, season with salt and pepper and continue cooking, stirring gently, till the sauce thickens (this will take several m). Then add the walnuts.

Meanwhile, cook the ravioli in boiling salted water, drain them, and carefully stir the sauce into them.

*If they do, stop adding milk, remove the pan from the fire, and stir the mixture till the lumps are gone before adding more milk. You can also make the béchamel sauce in a microwave oven: melt the butter and stir in the flour, then stir in the milk and the salt and pepper. Heat the sauce over high heat for 2 m and stir it briskly till most of the lumps are gone. Heat it for 4 more m at medium power, stirring after 2 m, then stir in the walnuts and heat 1 more m. Let it sit for a couple of m.

Read another Ligurian recipe, the related pine nut battuto recipe.

Maultaschen (Swabian ravioli)

For 24 pieces
25-50 cl beef stock*
dough:
300 g all purpose flour
½ tsp salt
2 eggs
1 tbs oil
3 tbs water
filling:
2-3 slices bacon, cooked & chopped
½ onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
25 g day-old bread or rolls, cut into cubes, sprinkled with 2 tbs water
2 tbs fresh or 1 ts dried parsley
1 tbs spicy mustard
¼ ts dried thyme
¼ ts dried marjoram
250 g ground lean beef with just a little fat**
125 g (frozen) spinach, (thawed), squeezed dry & chopped***
1 egg
¼ tsp salt
pepper

Mix flour with salt, eggs, oil and just enough water to make a smooth dough. Knead for 5-10 m. Form dough into a ball, oil surface, wrap in plastic wrap and let rest for at least 1 h.

Cook bacon and remove from pan. Sauté onions and garlic in bacon drippings until translucent.

Mix all filling ingredients well. For a finer texture, put ingredients through a meat grinder.

Roll out half of the dough to 3 mm thickness or thinner.

Score dough with a knife to make 12 rectangles.

Place 1 tbs filling on each rectangle. Fold rectangle over and pinch sides to close.

Repeat with the other half of dough.

Bring broth to a simmer and place 8 of the Maultaschen in the broth.* Cook for 15-20 m. Remove and drain. Keep warm if not serving immediately. Repeat with the rest of the Maultaschen.

Serve in bowl with some stock. Sprinkle with chives and/or parsley.

*Or fry them with a bit of mixed egg yolk and egg white on each side. Serve them with Swabian potato salad.
**Or use a mix of ground pork and beef meat.
***Or another vegetable like onions, carrots, turnips.

Filled dough bags are wide-spread as Italian ravioli, Chinese wontons, Jewish kreplach, Eastern European pierogi, Russian pelmeni, Ukrainian varenyky, Tibetan momo, Turkish mantı, Levantine shishbarak, Maltese ravjul or these Maultaschen (feeding bags for cattle) in German Swabia.
They are rumoured to have been invented by monks of the Maulbronn monastery to conceal the fact that they were eating meat during lent. The monks hid the meat inside of the Maultaschen, believing that God couldn't see it.
Founded in 1147, the Cistercian Maulbronn monastery, World Cultural Heritage since 1993, is considered the most complete and best-preserved medieval monastic complex north of the Alps. It was constructed between the 12th and 16th centuries and was a major influence in the spread of Gothic architecture in northern and central Europe.

Tortiglioni alla zucca (stirred filled pasta with pumpkin)

For ➍
400 g hard or fresh tortiglioni pasta
3 tbs olive oil
500 g butter squash or pumpkin, cubed
1 potato, cubed
1 onion, chopped
1 glove garlic, chopped
3 tbs dry white wine
40 cl warm vegetable broth
salt
1 tbs Parmesan cheese
small chili, finely sliced

Heat 2 tbs of olive oil in a large skillet. Sauté the onion, the garlic and 2 tbs of wine for 10 m while stirring.
Add a small glass of broth.
Add squash and potato. Sauté for 5 m.
Add the pasta and another glass of broth. Keep stirring and gradually add more broth. Pasta should be ready in about 15 m. Mix 1 tbs of olive oil through the pasta. Add some some salt, sliced chili and Parmesan.

This is the earliest form of cooking pasta, and is already described in the itriya recipe, noted in the first Arab cookbook by Al-Baghdadi in 1226. This way of cooking pasta in a risotto-like way, absorbs the liquid, rather than loosing taste in a pot of water.
Most risotto recipes can be adapted to this way of cooking pasta, with pasta instead of rice.

Trois saumons (3 salmons)

For ➍
200 g small fresh salmon steaks without skin, cut in chunks
200 g small slices smoked salmon, shredded
4 ts salmon roe
400 g cheese ravioli
100 g fresh cream
salt & pepper

Bring the fresh cream to boil, add the salmon steaks, and cook. Take the steaks out of the cream and keep warm.

Meanwhile cook the pasta al dente.

Thicken the cream, add seasoning. When sauce-like, add the smoked salmon, and the salmon chunks. Reheat for a few moments.

Pour over the drained ravioli. Add salmon roe.