Ravioli di baccalà

Tuesday 20 March
We had a final slurplet of the brandade left over from Saturday. What to do with it? Enter The Universal Theory of the Pancake.
The Universal Theory of the Pancake (hereafter UTOP-ia) states that all human cultures will at some point develop The Pancake or Pancake-Like Object. The purpose of the pancake is not only to serve as a container for the tiny scraps of valuable food you may have, but to stretch them, make them go further, and generally make you feel special about eating leftovers. Depending on the culture, and the general availability of meat, UTOP-ia states that the pancake may become the dominant, indeed the defining characteristic of the cuisine. Hence the tortilla for Mexico. An enchilada is protein in a tortilla, not to be confused with the burrito which is protein in a tortilla, not to be confused with the taco which is protein in a tortilla, etc. For France, the crêpe (see Weds.); for Jews, the kreplach; for Chinese, the pancake proper (in moo shu pork), gyoza, etc. All of these (except the kreplach) can be raised to high art forms. For the Italians, the raviolo!

Our recipe for basic pasta dough is straight from Beard on Pasta (Holt's plan for next year's Halloween costume).
1 1/2 cups flour
2 eggs
pinch salt
1 TBSP olive oil
Process until the dough just comes together (add a sprinkle of water if necessary). You can tart this up with any herbs, flavors of your choice, so long as they're supple enough to be pressed into the pasta without tearing it up. But since the brandade is very salty, we wanted a simple contrast.

Same went for the sauce. Barbara made a very clean tomato sauce alla Modena: just tomatoes, white wine, and fresh sage, which cooked while we rolled out the pasta. Finished with a splash of balsamic vinegar, but it should be pretty thick, since the ravioli always contribute a little water of their own.

Rolling out the dough is the fun part, and one of the proofs that man (in the generic sense) was not meant to be alone. We had a pasta party a while ago with Ann and Harry, Kathleen and Steve, all elbows deep in flour, in an assembly line.
There are useful step-by-step illustrations HERE. The only real tricks are to fold the pasta over after the first roll (we keep rolling it until we reach number 5), and to saturate the ravioli mould with flour so the little ravels will pop out readily. The thicker edges of the pasta take about 5 minutes of brisk boilage to be truly al dente.
Mangiam'!