Ricotta
This is traditional Italian cheese made from fresh cow milk. Ricotta is very much like cottage cheese; it is cottage cheese, in fact. One cannot imagine a single Italian dish without Ricotta, be it ravioli, lasagne, vegetables or desserts. The Ricotta is also good in baked puddings and pies.
"Ricotta" means "cooked again" ("re-cooked") referring to the method of cheese production.
After the cheese mass is removed from the whey, it still contains some parts of cheese pulp. The whey is boiled again until these parts come to the surface. Then these cheese parts are taken out and allowed to age for several days.
RAVIOLI
The word ravioli originates from the verb «ravvolgere», meaning «to wrap». As other sorts of pasta, the ravioli were introduced to Europe from China through the Great Silk Road in the Middle Ages. The filling used back in those times did not differ much from the one used nowadays: meat, vegetables, fish, cream cheese. References to this type of pelmeni are dated back to the written records of 14th century merchants; that means that initially the Europeans had to taste the ravioli without the famous tomato dressing - the tomatoes appeared here only a century later. This dish is considered to be Italian though the historians found the earliest evidence of its recipe in an Anglo-Norman manuscript of 1290s.
However, the Italians still managed to nationalize this outstanding achievement of cookery. Each region of the country can boast its own recipe of preparing this dish. Ravioli are rather large dough envelopes, rectangular or circular in shape, with a tasty stuffing. This is a sort of pasta. Meat-based ravioli are a popular but not dominating dish. The Italians are well-known gourmets and inventors. Vegetarian ravioli are widely used here, stuffed with cheese, vegetables, spinach, mashed potatoes, soya-bean curd tofu and even nettle. And though the tomato ketchup is the most popular option, ravioli are often served with cream based sauces as well as the famous herb-based pesto dressing. The Italians make chocolate ravioli for the dessert.
The recipe requires:
- 6-7 eggs
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 500g of flour
- 250g of parmesan cheese
- 250g of ricotta cheese
- a pinch of white pepper
- a pinch of nutmeg
- 2-3 liters of water
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 125g of butter
Beat 4-5 eggs into a large bowl, add salt and pepper and mix with vegetable oil, add some flour. Pour the rest of the flour into another bowl, add the egg mass and knead until shiny elastic dough emerges. Then let it rest for 1 hour under an upturned bowl. Mix 150 g of grated parmesan with ricotta cheese and the remaining eggs, season with salt and nutmegs.
Roll out the dough on a surface dusted with flour until it is 2 mm thick, and then cut it in big squares of 5 cm. Place the filling on the squares, moisten the edges with water and seal. Bring the salted water to a boil; cook the raviolis in it for 5 minutes, then remove them and drain. Heat the butter until it is lightly brown, mix with the remaining cheese and carefully put the pelmeni into the mixture.
Italian ravioli
RAVIOLI
Roll the ravioli dough out to make it thin. Place teaspoons of filling on the sheet of dough - about 5 cm apart. Top it with the second layer of dough, press it to the lower layer. Cut the pie in squares and place in boiling water for 10-15 minutes. Then take out the ravioli, put into a pan, pour tomato dressing, sprinkle with grated cheese; stew for a while, preferably in the oven. The filling includes minced beef mixed with spinach, raw egg yolk and a hard-boiled yolk. Sprinkle with grated cheese, salt, pepper and nutmeg.
Lemon and ricotta cheesecake
Section: cheesecakes
The recipe requires:
- 220g of ginger biscuits
- 100g of butter, melted
- 500g of ricotta cheese
- grated zest and juice of 2 lemons
- 50g of caster sugar
- 250g ricotta
- 10g of gelatin (powder)
- 2 eggs (yolks and whites)
- 140 ml of double cream
- crystalline ginger, chopped – for decoration
Crush the biscuits in a food processor or with a rolling pin a polythene bag. Put the crumbs in a bowl and combine with the melted butter.
Press into a pan of 20 cm in diameter. Allow to cool.
Put the ricotta into a bowl; add the lemon zest, caster sugar and mix. Pour the lemon juice into another bowl, sprinkle with gelatin and leave to rest for 5 minutes. Transfer to top of a saucepan with slowly boiling water, allow the gelatin to dissolve (or heat in a microwave oven for 40 seconds).
Beat the yolks into the ricotta. Add the gelatin gradually, keep on whisking. Whip the cream in a separate bowl, add to the mixture.
Beat the egg-whites separately, add to the mixture. Pour onto the biscuit base, even.
Allow to chill for at least 4 hours. Remove from the pan, sprinkle with the zest and ginger.