Grandma Chiesa's Ravioli

"This recipe came from my grandma Chiesa, and is absolutely the best. I'm 63, so you can figure how old the recipe is. It's authentic except for the wonton wrappers -- she made her own ravioli dough, which you can do, too. However, my sisters and I find the wrappers to be as good as her dough was, and some ravioli dough recipes to be not half as good."
 
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photo by smoke alarm jr photo by smoke alarm jr
photo by smoke alarm jr
photo by smoke alarm jr photo by smoke alarm jr
Ready In:
2hrs 6mins
Ingredients:
11
Serves:
10
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ingredients

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directions

  • Sauté onions until translucent.
  • Add pork and beef, salt, and pepper.
  • Sauté until cooked.
  • Break up ground meat into small pieces (I use a potato masher during sauté).
  • Add 2 minced garlic cloves and cook another two minutes.
  • Let cool.
  • Lightly sauté spinach in butter or olive oil.
  • Salt very lightly.
  • Chop spinach up.
  • Squeeze out excess water.
  • You can use two packages of whole leaf frozen spinach cooked with butter and a little salt.
  • Mix ricotta and egg together.
  • Mix all above in a large bowl.
  • Put a small teaspoon of filling in wrapper and brush edges of dough with egg using pastry brush.
  • Put another wrapper on top and press edges flat together to seal.
  • Place two sheets of waxed paper in the bottom of a large Tupperware container.
  • Sprinkle paper with corn meal.
  • Lay one layer of ravioli on waxed paper in container.
  • Do not overlap ravioli.
  • Sprinkle ravioli with cornmeal.
  • Add another 2 layers of waxed paper to container.
  • Sprinkle with cornmeal.
  • Keep going until you're done.
  • They stack well, and they freeze well.
  • To cook, simmer 4-6 minutes in boiling water.

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Reviews

  1. What a great recipe! Thank God for grandmas. I hesitate to admit this because the recipe is so great as it is, but I added an envelope of Dry Italian Salad Mix Seasoning to the filling ingredients during the final mixing - it added just a little bit of zing. Thank you for sharing this great recipe and for the wonderful storage directions - perfect!
     
  2. My, my I think I'm a true Italian after making these! lol This was my first ever attempt at making homemade ravioli and though my fingers stumled I managed to get the hang of it. My mouth however didn't cooperate as well for I couldn't stop eating them as soon as they came out of the hot water. The ravioli was too darn good to wait patiently for them to cool. The meats, cheese, onion, and spinach blended well. Not one taste over powered the other. My fridge is stacked high with these goodies just waiting for our evening meal to come around. Ceil, thank you for making this first try a success!
     
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RECIPE SUBMITTED BY

I live in northern New Jersey, with my husband of 42 years. I love to cook, especially Italian foods, and I have a wonderful cook-book collection. My favorites are the "Italian Ladies" -- Lydia Bastianich, Biba Caggiano, and Marcella Hazan, along with Mario Batali. I love living in northern New Jersey, where there are all kinds of ethnic restaurants and food stores. I can find ingredients for anything here! It's really difficult for me to post recipes, because I never measure anything. I cook by taste, touch, and smell. I'm always afraid my measurements are going to be off if I post.
 
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