Everyone arrives a little after noon. This year we have 9 people. Last year there were 15. I think our all-time high was 18. Over the years we have developed a system and several specializations, and it works out well.
Mom performs quality control, tasting the fillings and making minor adjustments, then declares we are ready to go. William mixes up the dough, Lee pulls a small amount off the ball and runs it through the pasta maker a couple of times. Dad catches the pasta noodle and walks the 4 inch wide by 18-20 inch long noodle to the table.
Once a pan is full Lois boils batches of 12-15 ravioli for 2 minutes - just enough to lightly cook the pasta. The boiled ravioli are put back on jelly roll pans. I run filled pans downstairs to our second refrigerator and place them in the freezer. Within 15-20 minutes the ravioli are starting to freeze and a ready for bagging. Two dozen ravioli are placed into a ziplock bag, and the bags are placed in the upstairs freezer. This year we make 48 dozen ravioli!
Once the ravioli is completed everyone chips in on the cleanup. We then prepare a simple meal of mostaccioli, meatballs, Italian sausage, Caesar salad, peas and Italian bread. The talking and laughing continues. Lee has baked a delicious carrot cake to top off the meal, and generous pieces are cut for all. Another annual Ravioli Day comes to an end. We're tired, but we had a blast. And oh oh - we've already put a dent into our Ecuadorian weight loss. |