Culingionis de era

Chard ravioli with tomato sauce

ingredients

Serves 4
200g of Semolina (durum wheat)
200g of plain flour
500g of Chard leaves
350g of fresh pecorino or ricotta
2 eggs
1 sachet of saffron powder
A bunch of fresh basil
Pecorino stagionato (aged pecorino cheese)(optional)

For the tomato sauce:
1 onion
1 carrot
1 stick of celery
2 cloves of garlic
1 tin of tomatoes
A bunch of fresh basil
Extra virgin olive oil.

method

These ravioli should be prepared at least 24 hours before cooking.
Place the semolina and 200g of the plain flour in a large bowl and mix together. Now slowly add some slightly salty tepid water until the pasta begins to come together. Gather into a ball and leave to rest.
Clean the chard in some slightly salty water and then finely chop and place in a large bowl. Add to the bowl the grated Pecorino (or ricotta), the eggs, the saffronand the last 20g of flour. Season with salt and pepper and mix together.
Take the pasta that you made earlier and roll it out on a floured surface. Using a round stensil or a glass cut the pasta into discs of about 8 or 9cm. Take a teaspoon of the chard mixture and place it in the middle of each of the pasta discs. Now fold the pasta over into a half moon shape and seal at the edges with a fork. If you have one of those toothed pastry wheels you can finish off the sealed edges with it. Repeat this process for all of the ravioli and then place in a dish sprinkle with flour and cover with a cloth. Put the ravioli in the fridge overnight.
We are going to serve these ravioli with a tomato sauce but you could just as easily use a meat based ragu, it’s entirely up to you. Either way before cooking the ravioli you want to have your sauce ready so finely chop the onion, celery, and carrot and place in a pan with some olive oil. Now you need to cook this on a really low heat, the idea is that you sweat the vegetables not fry them. When the vegetables begin to colour and stick together add the chopped garlic and continue to sweat over a low heat for another couple of minutes. Now add your tin of tomatoes add a little water,season with salt and continue to cook over a low heat for about an hour. When the sauce is cooked the tomato should come together and all the liquid in the pan should be consumed. Add a good lug of extra virgin olive oil and some chopped basil and leave to rest.
Now we can cook our Ravioli! Bring a large saucpan of salty water to the boil. To avoid the ravioli filling up with water and falling apart make a small pin prick in each ravioli before placing them in the boiling water. I suggest you cook them in batches of about ten to make them a little easier to handle. When the ravioli float to the surface (2-3mins) you know that they are cooked and you can remove them with a slotted spoon.
Mix the ravioli with the tomato sauce in a large dish and sprinkle with lots of grated pecorino cheese.