Piedmont
Preparation - Difficult
Serves 6

Stuffing:
2 ozs butter
3 tablespoonsful cooked rice
1/4 lb tinned peeled tomatoes
a small carrot
1/2 onion
1/2 stick of celery finely chopped together
a little parsley
1/2 lb lean raw beef, finely minced
1 glass white wine
4 cabbage leaves, boiled and chopped rather finely
salt
freshly ground black pepper
grated nutmeg
2 eggs
1 oz freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Sauce:
1/4 pint brown sauce
2 ozs butter
3 ozs freshly grated Parmesan cheese

PUT a very small nut of butter in a small frying pan. When it is foaming add the cooked rice and fry, stirring, for 1 minute. Put on one side.

TAKE the seeds and liquid out of the peeled tomatoes, and pass them through a vegetable mill.

PUT the rest of the butter in a frying pan together with the chopped vegetables and parsley. Cook gently until the onion becomes transparent. Add the minced beef. Cook gently, stirring all the time, until the meat is golden brown. Add the wine. Reduce completely, so that no smell of wine remains. Add the tomato pulp and the rice, the chopped cabbage leaves, salt, pepper, and a little nutmeg. Bring to the boil. Reduce the heat, cover the pan, and simmer gently for half an hour. By this time you should have a fairly thick mixture.

TRANSFER this to a mixing bowL. Let it cool. Add the eggs, beating them first, and the Parmesan. Mix well.

Use this for stuffing the ravioli which you can make following the instructions in Spinach and ricotta with butter and sage or Toasted ravioli. Cook the ravioli in abundant boiling salted water for 4 to 5 minutes. Taste one at the end of that time to see if they are properly cooked.

WHILE the ravioli are cooking you should warm up the brown sauce.

TRANSFER the ravioli from their pan to a heated serving dish, a layer at a time, using a perforated ladle. Sprinkle some of the grated Parmesan on each layer, put brown sauce on the cheese, and then add pats of butter. Continue until all the ravioli, brown sauce, Parmesan, and butter have been used up.

SERVE.

Adapted from:
The Complete Book of Pasta
Enrica and Vernon Jarratt
Michael Joseph Ltd.