Oven-baked Ravioli - Caciatelli or Casciatelli Molisani - a Variation of This Delicious Sweet or Savoury Dish. Organic Recipe

This is a variation on the traditional baked pasta dish from Southern central Italy. Unlike the more usual ravioli, which is made with pasta flour and boiled, this version is made of all purpose, plain flour and baked in an oven

It can be sweet or savoury, picnic or lunch-box, a main dish, a fiddly cheese apéritif dînatoire or a hearty 'pasty' type supper dish.

Even the pastry has different ingredients, the one I know of and use is made of equal parts of olive oil and wine.

Depending on the region (Abruzzo or Molise), it can be stuffed with cheese and eaten as finger food or filled with meat and vegeatables and eaten as a main course. It also comes as a dessert, made with a sweet filling.

My versions illustrated above are:

TOP - small ravioli (made with white wine) have a filling of sweet potato leaf with (foraged) chestnuts. Accompanied with lettuce and nasturtiums, flowers and leaves and fresh fig, all from our garden

SECOND - large single ravioli (made with red wine) filled with yellow peppers, oven dried herb tomatoes, and fresh basil. It is accompanied by a fresh green salad straight from the garden, topped with fried ham and a red cabbage dish with apple, raw apple cider vinegar and chestnuts all sautéed in butter.

INGREDIENTS: for 50 small ravioli or one very large one!

For 500g - 1lb 2oz - 4 cups of plain white - multi-purpose flour

100ml olive oil

100ml wine - if you use Merlot as I did - you get a crazy purple pastry, which cooks to a pleasing rich plummy chestnut colour - see above.

salt and pepper (if required) egg yolk for brushing pastry.

Oven - preheated to 180ºC or 356ºF

Cooking Time - approximately 20 minutes (You will need to check your ravioli as they cook, I have a wood cooker and the oven has all round heat.)

METHOD

Make a well in your flour, salt and pepper and incorporate the wine and oil (mixed together)

Work the dough with your hands and if required add extra wine and oil, in equal quantities. I don't like to overwork this dough but you can tell easily by feel when it is smooth and elastic and ready to roll.

Roll pastry to a thickness to suit your taste and if you are making one large pasty then roll it in to an elliptical shape. Otherwise make a round, so as to cut the maximum from one rolled out piece.

Prepare your filling and leave to cool. Adding the filling when warm will make the pastry soggy and difficult to crisp up. If you have a 'juicy' vegetable, like my pepper mix or sweet potato leaf then drain it with a slotted spoon as you fill the ravioli. The remaining liquid can then be served as an additional sauce.

Do not overfill the ravioli but leave a rim which can be moistened with cold water and then pressed firmly together. Make a small cut in the top of each caciatelli to let out any steam. Brush the top of each with egg yolk before putting into the oven.

Experiment and have fun! Check around the regional Italian cookery blogs and sites for other versions of this interesting and delicious recipe.

Thanks for dropping by and if you have found this instructable enjoyable then maybe visit the original version on my blog here and please share and do feel free to comment.

All the best, Sue