Ravioli / Fettucine 101

the gang
the gang

The rendezvous time was set for 4 in the afternoon. We were to make fresh ravioli and fettuccine. Together, we were to have a feast.

Once our arsenal of wooden cooking board, ravioli making tools and manual and electric dough rollers was laid out, the first step was making the dough. We mixed flour with eggs. The renowned house chef, Anna Rita, led us through the process. Despite some small (and large) setbacks, we eventually had our dough.

To flatten the dough for ravioli and fettuccine shapes, it has to be rolled out to a very thin and even consistency. We used dough rollers to repeatedly thin down the dough.

Further along the chain, workers would spoon small amounts of spinach cream filling onto the sheet of dough at regular intervals.  With folding of the dough and specially designs cutters, the ravioli took shape. As time went on, we became more inventive with the shapes. We created doughnut, heart, diamond, candy bar, shark egg and moon shaped ravioli. Many of these are displayed in the images below.

Having defied the rule of pasta cooking, don’t cook different-sized things together; we were left with very unevenly cooked ravioli. None-the-less, it was very delicious, especially after having put so much effort and time into making the damn things. Our only problem was that there was way too much food. Platter after platter of different pasta dishes came out from the modest kitchen. People were withdrawing from the table to confront their ‘food comas’ lying down- and food was still being brought out.  Few of us were willing and able to endure more when the cakes were ready.

Afterward, we packed much of the food in containers and brought it back to our various homes for later enjoyment.

tools of the trade
tools of the trade
Anna Rita vs. students
Anna Rita vs. students
pasta dough =eggs + flour
pasta dough = eggs + flour
disaster: eggs overflow
disaster: eggs overflow
rolling the dough and forming the ravioli
rolling the dough and forming the ravioli
manual rolling of the dough
manual rolling of the dough
ravioli, with later, more exotic shapes toward bottom
ravioli, with later, more exotic shapes toward bottom
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fettucine

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