SC - German ravioli

[Diana L Skaggs]

As I said I would, here is my first redaction for the German Feast in
September.

Sabina Welserin
(translation from www.best.com...(kindly remind me who's site this is))

#31 To make ravioli
Take spinach and blanch it as if you were making cooked spinach, and shop
it small.  Take approximately one handful, when it is chopped, cheese or
meat from a chicken or capon that was boiled or roasted.   Then take twice
as much cheese as herb, or of chicken an equal amount, and beat two or
three eggs into it and make a good dough, put salt and pepper into it and
make a dough with good flour, as if you would make a tart, and when you
have made little flat cakes of dough then put a small ball of filling on
the edge of the flat cake and form it into a dumpling.  And press it
together well along the edges and place it in broth and let it cook about
as long as for a soft-boiled egg.  The meat should be finely chopped and
the cheese finely grated.

Fillings:

1 10-oz package of frozen chopped spinach, thawed, squeezed dry, divided
1 quart chicken broth or stock, preferably homemade
8 chicken thighs
1/2 cup ricotta cheese
2 oz. shredded parmesan cheese
2 oz. shredded mozzarella
2 oz. shredded gouda
2 eggs
salt and pepper

Dough:

4 eggs
4 Tbsp. milk
pinch salt
2 tsp. baking powder
flour to pasta consistancy

For cheese filling:
Place 1/2 of the prepared spinach in a medium-sized bowl.  Add ricotta,
parmesan, mozzarella, gouda and 1 egg lightly beaten.  Mix together well.
Set aside.

For chicken filling:
Place 1/2 of the prepared spinach in a medium-sized bowl. Simmer chicken in
broth until done, then bone and finely mince the meat (I used my food
processor). Add an equal amount of chicken (approx 3/4 cup) to the spinach.
Add one egg slightly beaten, 1/2 tsp. salt and a dash of ground black
pepper.  Blend well and set aside.

For dough:

Beat together the eggs, milk and salt.  Add 1 cup flour and baking powder.
Mix well.  Continue to add flour a little at a time until the dough leaves
the edge of the bowl and forms a ball.  The dough should remain somewhat
sticky.
Flour a flat surface and divide dough into 20 equal pieces.  Roll each
piece into a 3" circle, adding flour to keep the dough from sticking to the
surface or the rolling pin.  Place 1 1/2 to 2 Tbsp. filling in the center,
wet the edges of the circle with water.  Fold over and crimp shut.  (We
used the largest dumpling maker from the set we begged from Olwen - thanks
again!)

Bring broth to a simmer in a small pot, making sure the liquid is deep
enough to cover the dumplings.  Gently place dumplings in simmering broth.
Cover and simmer 5 minutes.  Remove dumplings to plate and serve forth.

Notes: The dough recipe is a version of my Grandma Tabor's noodles.  Next
time I will leave out the baking powder to see how it works.  We re-rolled
the dough several times, and later dumplings were tougher but tasty.  Next
time, we are going to roll out big sheets of dough, and cut out 3" circles
so we don't end up re-rolling the dough as much.

Fed the dumplings to SCA and non-SCA young folks, late teens, early 20's.
Overwhelming response, "These are really good! Can I have another one?"
Next time, I'm going to season the chicken dumplings with sage, just for
myself.

We also did the Red Cabbage Salad recipe Bear listed last week.

1 med head red cabbage, shredded
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add cabbage and turn off fire.
Immediately pour into a colander and rinse with cold water. Refrigerate
until thoroughly chilled.  Mix together olive oil and vinegars, pour over
cabbage and serve forth.

Amazing thing here.  When blanched, the cabbage turned a pale violet color,
but when I poured on and mixed in the dressing, it turned to a brilliant
red. Way cool!

Everyone enjoyed the cabbage salad, except for Wolfger.  He said it didn't
have enough vinegar.  He also thought we should serve the dumplings on a
bed of the salad, but I didn't think the vinegar flavor would enhance the
flavor of the dumplings. At least not mixed together!

Liadan