Recipe - Ravioli Dolci (Sweet Ravioli)

PASTRY DOUGH
2 cup Unbleached allpurpose flour
One fourth pound (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 lg Egg
One fourth cup Granulated sugar
3 tablespoon Chilled sweet Marsala wine
or sweet white wine (up to
4)

FILLING
10 ounce Whole milk ricotta
One fourth cup Granulated sugar
1 Lemon, grated zest of
6 ounce Imported Amarene Fabbri,
minced (see NOTE)

TO COMPLETE THE DISH
Confectioners sugar for
garnish

Here is the recipe for Ravioli Dolci. It is from Biba Caggiano's Trattoria
Cooking:

EmiliaRomagna is known throughout the world for its delicious stuffed
pasta. This is a region that stuffs not only pasta, but deserts. Zia Rina,
the oldest aunt I have left in Bologna, is a sprightly,
ninetythreeyearold, seemingly feeble woman who still makes an occasional
batch of tortellini by hand and, at Christmastime, she stills rolls out the
dough for ravioli dolci, which she stuffs with good, thick plum jam.

These delicious ravioli (or raviole as they are called in Bologna) can also
be stuffed with a variety of other ingredients such as the ones I had at
Trattoria Lo Sterlino in bologna, which were filled with ricota mixed with
chopped amarene, imported cherries in heavy syrup.

(NOTE: Amarene or amarena are wild Italian cherries in heavy syrup that are
imported from Italy. These delicious large black cherries are quite popular
in Northern Italy and are often served over ice cream or incorporated into
desserts. They are available in specialty Italian markets and gourmet
stores.)

Prepare the pastry dough, in a medium sized bowl or food processor fitted
with the metal blade, mix the flour with the butter until crumbly. Add the
egg, sugar, and wine and mix, pulsing the machine on and off, until the
dough is loosely gathered around the blade or until it sticks together and
can be assembled easily into a ball. Wrap it in plastic wrap and
refridgerate for a few hours.

In a medium sized bowl combine the ricotta with the sugar and lemon zest.
Fold in the amerene. refrigerate until ready to use. Preheat the oven to
350 degrees F.

Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil or parchment paper. On a lightly
floured wooden board or other surface, roll out the dough to piedough
thickness. With a large glass or round cookie cutter, cut the dough into
34 inch circles. Put about 1 teaspoon of filling in the center of each
circle of dough. Fold each circle in half over the filling, and press the
edges of the dough firmly to seal. Line the raviolion the cookie sheet and
bake until golden, 15 or 20 minutes.

Serve the ravioli warm or at room temperature, sprinkled with
confectioners' sugar.

Makes approximately 25 or 30 ravioli; 10 to 12 servings

TIPS: make sure to completely seal the ravioli or some of the filling might
leak out during baking.

filling the ravioli will be much faster if you use a pastry bag.

I'd like to try serving these on top of a fruit puree of some kind or maybe
on top of some Zabaione

Posted to FOODWINE Digest 30 Dec 96

From: Duncan duncan@VIANET.ON.CA

Date: Mon, 30 Dec 1996 20:15:11 0500