After you’ve made ravioli, “make” the ravioli!

While homemade ravioli are wonderful with any sauce, to gild the ravioli lily, make this simple, unusual, and delicious sauce. It’s the sauce that makes the ravioli, even though you thought you already did.

Cleveland is fortunate to have in its eastern suburbs a wonderful cooking school, The Loretta Paganini School of Cooking, http://www.lpscinc.com/index.asp.   (You can find a number of other recipes on the site.)  The school offers cooking classes for everyone from children and amateurs of all ages as well as courses for professionals and dinners at their restaurant, Sapore, where you can taste the creations of the professionals-in-training, or you can arrange a private culinary event.  You can even take cooking trips to Italy with Loretta, something I would love to do some day.

I took a number of classes there, (a gift card was a wonderful Christmas present), mostly hands-on, many of them with Loretta who, besides being a wonderful chef/cook, is encouraging and humorous, a great combination.  In one of the classes, she shared this recipe for ravioli sauce, a recipe that came from her grandmother in Italy, and she was kind enough to let me share it with you. I know you won’t be disappointed.  My family and friends won’t let me put anything else on my ravioli!  I’ve also made it with vegan ingredients and it was still delicious.

(If you missed the post on how to make the ravioli to go with this sauce, you can find it at https://sustainabilitea.wordpress.com/2012/06/25/cooking-classes-and-ravioli/.)

Walnut Sauce

from Loretta Paganini’s grandmother

¼ c. extra virgin olive oil
4 oz. toasted walnuts
¼ c. fresh breadcrumbs
1 c. heavy whipping cream
2 T. unsalted butter (see note at end  of recipe)
2 cloves garlic, peeled & minced
1/8 t. crushed red pepper
1 t. sea salt
½ t. freshly ground black pepper
1 t. fresh chopped Italian parsley
2 T. grated Parmigiano Reggiano

Place toasted walnuts with breadcrumbs in the food processor or blender and process until you have a fine texture.  Add cream as needed to create a paste-like consistency.

Heat oil in a twelve-inch frying pan.  Add garlic and crushed red pepper.  Cook on high heat for two to three minutes.  Add creamy walnut mixture and reduce for five more minutes.

Season with salt, pepper and parsley.

In a large bowl, toss sauce with prepared pasta.  Sprinkle with cheese and serve immediately.

Note:  The butter didn’t appear in the recipe, just the list of ingredients and I never did get around to calling to find out where it went.  Sometimes butter is used to finish a recipe but I’ve made it without the butter and it tasted fine.