Region: Italy
Category: Pasta-Stuffed
Season: Any
Difficulty: Labor Intensive
Since he was a tot my son Seri has been crazy about ravioli. When I was testing recipes for A Mediterranean Feast I made homemade ravioli stuffed 
with homemade ricotta. Once he tasted that I was really sunk, because he wouldn't eat store-bought anymore. He insisted I make ravioli and I told him this one time, well, look, it's not exactly easy, it's time-consuming and I figured if I got him to help me he'd see that and wouldn't be so quick to ask anymore. Well, we made about 4 1/2 pounds of ravioli together one Sunday morning, taking about 3 hours, and afterwards when I looked at him with my "see what I mean expression" he said "well, that wasn't so hard." Now, there's my kind of kid. So, around the age of thirteen Seri started to actually ask for ravioli dinners for his birthday. Then on his 14th birthday he dreamed up this recipe and asked if I could do it. I said sure. He specified the ravioli, its stuffing, and the sauce. We couldn't let this go without inviting guests so we got his mom to come, my friend Sarah, his sister Dyala and a couple of friends and feasted on this delicious dish. Seri probably ate about a pound and a half all by himself. Should you try this recipe? You know what Seri would say. If you do try this recipe you'll need a pasta rolling machine, preferably electric, and a ravioli mold, which makes the making of the ravioli easier. Most times when you make your own ravioli you will freeze them, in which case make sure your freezer has room to hold an 11 x 14 inch baking tray. Otherwise you will use the refrigerator and cook the ravioli that day. For more on homemade pasta read this.
[Photo: Clifford A. Wright]
Yield: Makes about 140 ravioli (about 4 1/2 pounds) to serve 10 people as a first course
Preparation Time: 7 hours
For the ravioli
6 cups all-purpose unbleached flour
8 large eggs
2 teaspoons salt
Water as needed
For the stuffing
2 pounds homemade ricotta
1/2 cup freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
3 large eggs
For the sauce
One 1 1/2-pound live lobster
6 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 large shallots, finely chopped
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 3/4 cups heavy cream
2 medium tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped
4 tablespoons finely chopped fresh basil
1. Prepare the ravioli dough: Pour the flour onto a surface. Make a well in the middle, piling up the flour around it so that it resembles the walls of a volcanic crater. Crack the eggs into the well and sprinkle with the salt. Incorporate the eggs with the flour by breaking the yolks with your fingers a little at a time drawing more flour from the inside wall of the well. Make sure you don't break through the wall otherwise the eggs might run. Scrape off any dough on your fingers and knead into the dough.
2. Once the flour and eggs are combined and you can form the dough into a ball, knead for about 8 to 10 minutes. Do not add water unless the dough is impossible to form into a ball after a minute or two of trying. As you press down while kneading, use the ball to pick up any loose clumps of dough. Don't add any liquid until you've kneaded the ball for at least 3 minutes. If the dough is too dry at this point and you must add water to help it bind, do so only by wetting your hands, as many times as you need. If the dough is too wet--meaning if there is any sign of stickiness--dust with flour. Continue kneading, pressing down with the full force of both palms, until a smooth ball is formed. Wrap the dough in wax paper or plastic wrap and leave for 1 hour in the refrigerator.
3. Remove the ball of dough from the refrigerator and leave at room temperature for a few minutes so it can become pliable. Unwrap the ball of dough and dust with flour. Place on a floured surface, pressing down with your palms to flatten. With a rolling pin roll the pasta out until it is about 12 inches in diameter, then cut into thirds. Roll each third with the rolling pin until it is thin enough to fit into the widest setting of a pasta-rolling machine. Roll once at the widest setting. Close the setting one notch and roll again. Gather the sheet of pasta and fold in thirds and roll through the roller so you have a nice rectangle. Continue ratcheting down the setting until the dough reaches the thinnest setting. Dust the dough on both sides with flour at the slightest sign of stickiness. If necessary, continue to dust with flour as you roll through narrower and narrower settings; otherwise the dough will become hopelessly stuck together. By this time you will have a very long thin ribbon of pliable dough that looks and even feels like a velvety chamois cloth. Cut the ribbon of pasta into lengths that will fit over the ravioli-maker, if using one, always dusting with flour at any sign of stickiness. Or lay a length of thin pasta dough on the counter with an equal length nearby.
4. Pass the ricotta through a sieve and put it into a bowl. Stir in the parmigiano cheese and parsley, and season with salt and pepper. Fold 2 eggs into this mixture and beat until the mixture is smooth.
5. Arrange a sheet of pasta over an indented ravioli mold and press the dough down into the wells. Beat the remaining egg and brush the layer of dough, especially in the indentations. Place teaspoonfuls of the stuffing in the ravioli. Lay a sheet of pasta over the stuffing and with a roller press down hard to seal the two sheets. Carefully turn the ravioli-maker upside down and peel the ravioli out, arranging them on an 11 x 14-inch semolina-strewn baking tray while you continue the preparation. Dust the ravioli with flour. Make sure the baking tray is well-strewn with semolina so that any moisture from the resting ravioli can be absorbed and so that they won?t stick to the tray or to the other ravioli if you need to make a second row on top. Continue making the remaining ravioli. Dry for a couple of hours on the baking tray in the refrigerator covered with plastic wrap if you will be making the ravioli dish that day. Otherwise, place the tray in the freezer while you continue making the next batch of ravioli. Once the next batch is ready, remove the frozen ravioli from the freezer, break apart at the seams, and store in a plastic zip-lock bag. If you don?t have a ravioli mold, lay a sheet of pasta down on a surface and place a small teaspoon-size dollop of stuffing side by side (assuming the sheet of pasta from your machine is at least four-inches wide) all along its length. Drape the other equal-sized sheet of pasta over the bottom sheet and carefully press down so that you can cut through them easily. Use a pastry-cutting wheel cut the ravioli into individual pieces. Dust with flour and arrange on a baking tray in the refrigerator until needed.
6. Prepare the lobster and lobster broth: place the lobster in a stock pot or steamer pot with 1 inch of water. Turn the heat to high and steam the lobster until done, about 17 minutes.
When cool enough to handle, split the lobster down its length from body to tail. Remove any tomalley and coral from body cavity and mix with 1/4 cup butter. Crack the shells and remove the meat from the tail, claws, arms, legs, and fan tail. Cut the meat into chunks and set aside. Transfer the empty shells collected and placed in a pot with 8 cups water and brought to a boil, then simmer until needed
7. Prepare the sauce: In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium-high heat, then cook the shallots until translucent, stirring, about 3 to 4 minutes. Add the wine and cook until half evaporated, then add 2 cups lobster broth and cook until it too is reduced by half. Add the cream, 2 tablespoon lobster butter (the remainder can be refrigerated for future use), and tomato, reduce the heat to low, and cook until thicker, scraping the sides, about 45 minutes. Add the lobster until it is heated through, about 5 minutes. Stir in the basil.
8. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of abundantly salted water to a vigorous boil and add the ravioli. Cook until they have puffed up and are floating on the surface, about 10 minutes. Drain well and transfer to a deep serving platter. Spoon the lobster and its sauce over the ravioli and serve.
Variation: Use 5 cups of unbleached all-purpose flour and 1 cup fine semolina. You can also add fresh peas or fresh fava beans to the sauce as well as sauteed porcini mushrooms, if fresh, or re-hydrated is dried. You could also season the sauce with a little fresh thyme, saffron, and brandy.
Posted: 12/28/2006
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