Crinella Family Cookbook
Our Grandparents' Favorites
Anti Pasti
Soups
Salads
Pasta
Vegetables
Fish
Poultry
Meat
Wild Game
Sweets
Brunch or Luncheon Dishes
Odds & Ends
Sour Dough
Other Breads ETC
Table of Contents
Crinella Winery
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Pasta
All-Purpose Pasta Dough
Simple Tomato Sauce
Tagliolini (Egg Noodles)
Noodle Scraps in Butter and
Cheese
Pasta Primavera
Spaghetti Alia E Olio
Abruzzi Spaghetti Sauce
Baked Lasagna
Linguini a la Vongole
Pasta with Pesto Sauce
Potato Gnocchi
Gorgonzola Cheese Sauce
Ravioli
Rotelli Pasta with
Pesto Clam Sauce
Farfalle with Italian Mushrooms
and Brown Sauce
Risotti
Mushroom Risotto
Lombardi Risotto
Risotto with Clams
Risotto Garibaldi
Italian Quiche
Roasted Pepper Rice
Polenta
Polenta Fritta
Gorgonzola Cheese Sauce
for Polenta Fritta
Meat Gravy for Polenta
2005 Sauvignon Blanc
2006 Pinot Noir
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Ravioli for Christmas Dinner
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In our family, the queen of all the Italian dishes that we enjoyed as children was ravioli. It was difficult to make, requiring strict adherence to the time-honored technique of pasta making, and the equally daunting task of creating the perfect pasta stuffing. Christmas dinner was an enormous undertaking as the table always was graced with at least fifteen stellar dishes. Nevertheless, our busy Nona always welcomed our "participation" in the preparation of the ravioli and other parts of the meal. All the family assembled for Christmas. Later Francis would fly home from Notre Dame, Marina, our cousin, would come from San Francisco, and Uncle Johnny, Aunt Gwladys and our cousins Margaret and Rosemary sometimes came from Los Angeles.
Use the recipe for Nona Crinella's pasta. Using a large pasta board, roll
the pasta dough until it covers the entire board, in an almost-square or
rectangular shape. Dough should be thin enough to be translucent when
lifted, but strong enough not to tear when lifted.
1 pound, calf's brains, with membranes removed
1 pound, veal
1 pound, pork
2 heads, Swiss chard
2 cups, bread crumbs (unseasoned)
6 eggs
2 tablespoons, ground oregano (or 1 loosely packed cup, fresh oregano leaves)
1 cup, fresh basil leaves (loosely packed)
2 medium garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon, salt
1 tablespoon, white pepper
1/2 cup, all purpose flower
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Grind meat with meat grinder, along with chard, oregano, basil, and garlic.
Regrind mixture into very fine paste or put everything in a food processor.
Add to a mixing bowl, along with the eggs, bread crumbs, salt and pepper. Mix thoroughly.
Spread stuffing over half of the dough spread on the board, then fold over the other half and pinch edges together.
You can use a conventional ravioli rolling pin to squeeze the filled dough into ravioli squares of varying sizes.
Then run along the pressed borders with a ravioli cutting wheel.
Separate the ravioli and sprinkle them with sifted flour before removing to thin ravioli boxes (or cookie sheets). Refrigerate until ready for cooking (let ravioli sit for several hours before cooking).
Cook ravioli as all pasta, in plenty of boiling water, lightly salted and with a few drops of oil.
When ravioli is tender, gently drain and carefully pour them into a shallow serving dish.
Cover with pasta sauce
(either Nona Zurlo's pasta asciutta sauce, the marinara sauce,
the brown sauce, the lasagna sauce, or
the Alfredo sauce.
The number of ravioli needed per serving will vary widely, depending on the size of the ravioli. We usually used a ravioli pattern that was about 2 1/2" square, and a dozen ravioli of that size was an adequate serving for all but those with the heartiest appetites.
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