RaviolI Tradition

The Sunday before Thanksgiving we invite the family and some friends for our annual ravioli-making party.  William and I have been preparing for three days. Two large pots of sauce with meatballs and sausages are made on Thursday. Friday the meat filling for the ravioli meat assembled by William. I spend time rearranging the freezer contents.  Saturday the ricotta cheese filling is mixed up and some of the appetizers are prepared.  Sunday morning the mixer, ravioli forms, pans and pasta maker are put in place while the appetizers are finished and placed in front of the TV (in case we turn on a football game during breaks).

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.

Mary Jo, Annette, Gina (and Mom) lay the noodle over forms and add the proper amount of filling.  A second noodle is placed on top then a rolling pin is run over the form to seal the two layers of noodles together into the square ravioli pillows.  The ravioli are transferred to jelly roll pans in preparation for the next steps.  Everything is repeated until all the filling is used.  In between there is time to sip some wine or beer and grab a snack.  Oh yes - there is lots of talking and laughing throughout the process.

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.