Tuscany and Cheese

After a short drive from the airport, we parked the car at the foot of the medieval city. I had not been in Italy for a while and Tuscany was definitely years ago. So I was quite excited to explore the towns, the country side and of course the food and wine. We walked through the small old town of Colle di vall d’Elsa and spent time enjoying the old churches and some massive cacti in the quiet town. It was still early but we decided to have lunch before moving on to the next place. As it turned out, that was a great idea. We sat down on the terrace, as almost the only ones there. But before finishing the starter many more people had joined. In my case, I had an eggplant mouse with tomato sauce as a first course. A very well made play on the classic eggplant parmigiana dish. The first course was good, the second was spectacular: fresh ravioli filled with potato and pecorino cheese, combined with a rabbit ragu and a bit of pesto. With this start of the holiday, I could only be excited about what the rest of the time there would bring.

And the time in Tuscany did certainly bring a lot of great experiences in landscape, culture, history and of course food. One of the things I noticed, was that the pecorino cheese that was an important ingredient in my first pasta dish was present a lot. In another town, Volterra, there were several food shops where a large part of the space was reserved for different types of pecorino. This ranged from plain cheese to pecorino with herbs or truffles. In general, pecorino is a sheep cheese that is made in various parts of Italy. It was first described over 2000 years ago and seems to be one of the oldest cheeses in the country. The pecorino that we had in the Tuscan region, pecorino toscano, was already produced by the Etruscans, the civilization that was ruling the area before the Romans did. It is quite mild in flavour and delicious. For me certainly understandable why the people from the region continued producing it. I really like it on its own, but the ravioli filled with pecorino on that first lunch remained one of the best dishes I had during the time in Tuscany. So definitely a dish I wanted to recreate to keep this lovely holiday feeling!

Pecorino Ravioli with Ragu Sauce

The earlier you make the sauce, the tastier it will be. So you could easily make this a day before, or even make a larger portion and freeze some for later. Also the ravioli can be frozen before boiling them, if you make a larger batch. If you cannot find any pecorino cheese, you can also use parmesan.

Ingredients (for 4)

• Olive oil
• Salt
• Bunch of fresh basil

Sauce:

• 1 Onion
• 1 Clove of garlic
• 1 Medium carrot
• 300 grams of minced meat
• Red wine – about half a glass
• 400 grams can of tomatoes
• Small branch of rosemary
• Bay leaf
• Small dried red chilli

Pasta:

• 200 grams flour
• 2 eggs
• olive oil
• 300 grams floury potatoes
• 150 grams of pecorino cheese
• Black pepper

Start by making the sauce. Finely chop the onion and the garlic. Peel the carrot and grate it on the coarse side of a grater. Slice the olives in halves. Take the leaves of the rosemary and finely chop them as well. Heat some olive oil in a large pot. Add the onions and fry over a low fire until soft and translucent, around 10 minutes. After this time, add a good pinch of salt and the carrot and garlic. Stir well and give this mixture a few minutes until the carrot starts to soften. Add the minced meat to your pot and season with salt as well. Once the mince has started to brown on all sides, add a good lug of red wine. Turn the fire to high and give the alcohol a few minutes to evaporate. Then, add the tomatoes, the olives, rosemary, bay leaf and chilli. Bring the sauce to a simmer on a low fire and cover the pot with a lit. Let the sauce simmer for at least half an hour, but preferably longer. Stir once in a while and try if any additional seasoning is necessary.

For the pasta, first peel the potatoes and cut into large and even pieces. Place them in a pot and cover with cold water. Bring the water to a boil and boil the potatoes until they are soft.

Meanwhile, place the flour in a pile on a clean working surface and make a well in the middle. Add a good pinch of salt and about a tablespoon of olive oil in the middle. Break both eggs in there. Start mixing the eggs with a fork, taking the flour bit by bit into the egg mixture. Once the dough starts to form, knead this further by hand until elastic and not sticking to your hands anymore. Wrap the dough in some foil and place into the fridge to rest.

While the dough is resting, make the basil oil. Using a mortar and pestle, smash the basil together with a small pinch of salt and some olive oil. A green oil full of basil flavour should be the result. In case you don’t have a mortar and pestle, you can also chop the basil leaves very finely and then mix them with the oil and salt. Set the basil oil aside.

Meanwhile, the potatoes should now be soft. Drain them and mash with a potato masher or a fork. Grate the pecorino over the top and add a good pinch of black pepper. Mix the mashed potatoes and the cheese. Make sure to taste the mixture, as it will depend on the pecorino you use if you need salt.

Divide the pasta dough in around 4 pieces and roll them with a pasta machine or by hand into thin sheets. They should be around 10 to 12 cm in width. Take one of the sheets of pasta and place small balls of the potato filling next to each other on top of the long side of the sheet of dough. The filling should be around the shape of a walnut and should be equally divided over the length of the dough, with a finger of space in between. Fold the dough over the balls of filling, pressing the dough between the filling and also the long end of the dough together to close. Preferably using a ravioli cutter, but otherwise a normal knife, cut the dough in between the balls of filling to get the separate ravioli. Repeat this with the remaining dough and filling. (See pictures below.)

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the ravioli and boil them for 4 minutes. Then, mix them with the ragu sauce. Serve with the basil oil on the side and some additional basil leaves on top.