Despite my forays into fusion, my favorite cuisine remains Italian home cooking. I’ve started following another blog in Italian, Grembiule da Cucina, hosted by Simona, an experience Italian home cook. She posted her family’s meatball recipe, which is also used for various stuffings. I inquired whether it was also used for ravioli, and Simona replied that her mother-in-law stuffed green ravioli with a mixture of equal parts of boiled ham, mortadella, parmigiano, and ricotta, as well as egg. As mortadella has a strong flavor that would easily overpower that of the boiled ham, I decided to use twice as much ham as mortadella. The result was delicious! Delicate green pillows stuffed with a creamy flavorful pink filling, served with a simple sauce of butter and sage. Simona, ti ringrazio per condividere le ricette di tua famiglia. This was very nice and I will definitely make it again. Here’s what I did…
Ingredients
For about 40 ravioli
For the stuffing
100 grams (3.5 oz) boiled ham, diced
50 grams (1.75 oz) mortadella, diced
75 grams (2.6 oz) ricotta
75 grams (2.6 oz) freshly grated parmigiano reggiano
1 egg
salt and freshly ground pepper
dash of freshly ground nutmeg
For serving
50 grams (4 Tbsp) butter
1 Tbsp minced fresh sage leaves
freshly grated parmigiano reggiano
For the pasta dough
100 grams (3.5 oz) spinach
150 grams (1 cup) Italian 00 flour
1 egg
Preparation
Combine the ingredients for the stuffing in the blender.
Process until homogeneous. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Ravioli stuffing should always be slightly over-seasoned as you will taste it less once it is inside the ravioli.
Refrigerate the stuffing, covered, for at least an hour to firm up.
Prepare spinach pasta dough according to my instructions, using a stand mixer if you like. The amount of flour you will need depends on the wetness of the spinach. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and allow to rest for at least half an hour.
When the pasta dough has rested and the stuffing has firmed up, roll out the pasta dough as thinly as possible and shape into ravioli according to my instructions.
Arrange the ravioli on a surface sprinkled with flour, and remember to turn them after 10 minutes to prevent them from sticking.
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Meanwhile, melt the butter for the sauce in a non-stick pan and add the sage. Stir for a minute, then turn off the heat.
Add salt and the ravioli to the pot with boiling water. Cook them for about 2 minutes, then take them out with a slotted spoon and add them to the butter and sage.
Gently toss the ravioli to coat them with the sage butter without breaking them.
Serve on preheated plates, sprinkled with some freshly grated parmigiano reggiano.
Wine pairing
We enjoyed these ravioli with a pinot grigio from Alto Adige. Many other full-bodied unoaked white wines will also work, or perhaps a light red if you prefer.
Flashback
Foil-baked seabass with chicken, mushrooms and shrimp is one of my favorite dishes from “Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art” that is surprisingly easy to make and absolutely delicious. You just wrap the ingredients in foil and cookt them in a hot oven for a bit, that’s all! It may not look like much in the photo, but you better believe me that the taste is outstanding.
Stefan's Gourmet Blog 
The Mortadella available here must be a pale imitation of Italian varieties… I find it very mild…. Ham would likely overpower it
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Proper boiled ham should have only pork and salt as ingredients, but I am aware it is hard to find that way outside of artisanal butchery shops. Mortadella should include (besides pork and fat): garlic, sugar, pistachios, black pepper. and various spices such as coriander, cinnamon, paprika, nutmeg,
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Beautiful pasta Stefan. The high green colour is fantastic.
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Thanks, Conor. This was the first time I used this much spinach, and it turned out well.
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An appetizing looking recipe indeed: next time around!! But since I have happened to have read an awful lot of children’s books to my family when small, I do hope you will forgive my admitted smile when reading the heading: the most desirable book for many generations HAS been ‘Green eggs and ham’ by the famed Dr Seuss 🙂 ! That is what incorrectly ‘registered’ at first glance!!
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I had never heard of that book before. I know what that’s like though — sometimes I have even kept misreading something that looked like something that it actually wasn’t for a while until I realized my mistake…
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What Eha wrote made me smile as the same thought occurred to me 🙂 Particularly when I saw the vibrant green color that you achieved.
Another delicious looking recipe to add to my ‘want to try list’!
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Thanks!
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Wow! What an amazing and bright color! I’d love to try it! Great pasta, Stefan!
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Fantastic! I don’t think I’ve ever used ham in a filling, just sausage. It sounds and looks really wonderful!
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It is. Sausage is on my list of ravioli fillings to try.
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What a beautiful, vivid green! I do like the idea of using ham as a filling.
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Perfect for Christmas! I make green and red pirogis every year, but my colors are nor nearly as brilliant as yours. I’m trying your technique this year to see if I can make some improvements on my past efforts. My fillings are potato-based, as on Xmas eve there are no products from animals who were at the manger… but your meat filling looks worth trying for New Years 🙂
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Thanks! It seems to help to use a lot of spinach. Didn’t know about the ban on manger animals for Christmas eve, interesting.
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My husband is of Ukrainian descent. That’s what he tells me…
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Direi che sono venuti anche meglio di quelli di mia suocera! Complimenti 🙂
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Grazie Simona, sei troppo gentile.
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Grazie a te. Non potrei essere gelosa delle ricette di famiglia quando vengono realizzate così bene!
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