After the exquisite, seven-sauce journey that my taste buds underwent during Gnocchi Night, I have been anticipating Ravioli Night for weeks. At 3:30 pm, I scampered over to school, unable to wait any longer. As expected, I was met with a cloud of decadent herbs and spices that filled our entire floor of the palazzo. I surveyed all the preparations, my mouth watering and hands itching to begin kneading.
Soon the process commenced! This time, the pasta consisted of just flour and eggs. It was tricky to beat the eggs while keeping them within the confines of tremulous flour walls, but Anna Rita guided us along and helped scoop any runaway, gooey egg back into the sticky, blissful lumps of dough. After much kneading, we were finally ready to transform our big yellow blobs into pasta.
Rolling out the dough is probably the most tedious part, for it requires patience and judiciousness to ensure that it is evenly pressed without holes. Because I lack the former trait, I left this step up to my schoolmates. My eyes were perpetually set on the ravioli stuffing, an enchanting whirlwind of fresh ricotta cheese, parmesan, sautéed spinach, and egg, divided into two bowls at the center of the table. One bowl for each hungry eye! Soon, the time came to stuff and shape the ravioli, which was my favorite part of the evening (aside from eating, of course!)
After only making it through three sauces last time, I was extremely determined to try all seven. To achieve this, I fasted (aka I ate only one lunch instead of the usual two) and whispered, Portions, Sabine, remember SMALL portions! to myself when each new dish arrived. I am proud to report that I did indeed try all seven pastas, the soup, each variety of frittata, and every type of dessert. I was so full that I couldn’t think about eating until it was time for lunch #2 the next day! That’s what I call success.
Sabine