Fabiolous Cooking Day: Parmesan Bowl with Artichoke stuffed Ravioli

Hi friends!! Hope you guys had a great weekend! I worked the entire weekend but I also had some fun this weekend. Friday night was the last performance for U2's 360 tour. I baked a birthday cake for my goddaughter and on Sunday I went to the world volleyball tournament here in Rome. Italy took 4th place and Brasil won overall.

Our recipe today:
Parmesan Bowl with Artichoke Ravioli

Ingredients for pasta:
3 eggs
10.5 ozs flour

For the filling:
1 egg yolk
2 artichokes
7 ozs of ricotta

1 cup parmesan per person for base

Sauce:
4 tablespoons butter – room temperature
1/3 c white wine
1/3 c of parmesan
1 clove of garlic
thyme (optional for the sauce)
2 strips of bacon (optional)
3 tablespoons of pecorino for finishing touch

Remove outer layers of the artichoke until you arrive at the white part of the artichoke then cut the tip (see picture). With a tool, remove the "chokey" part. Place the artichokes in a pan and cook with oil and garlic for one minute. Add 1/3 c water and a pinch of salt. Cover the pan and steam for 20 minutes or so. Until you can insert the tip of the knife into the artichoke easily. Remove the artichokes and chop finely then let cool. Combine the cooled artichoke, egg yolk and ricotta with 1/3 c parmesan for the ravioli filling. Then place in the fridge to cool. Save a ladel full of left over artichoke water for the sauce at the end.

Parmesan will make the base of our dish. Grease and pre-heat an omelette skillet. Gradually sprinkle parmesan in the skillet. Cook one side then gently pinch two sides of the parmesan base and flip over. The opposite side of the parmesan base will cook relatively fast. Again, pinch the two sides of the parmesan base and place the finished product on the upside-down side of a small bread plate to shape it and cool.

Pour flour on working surface and make a fountain with a hole in the middle of the flour. Break the eggs into the middle of the fountain. Gently beat the eggs inside to absorb the flour. While beating the eggs, add a little flour at a time with the tip of the fork. When all the flour is mixed and you have a dough consistency, knead the dough by pressing and folding gently with your hands. Now, work the dough with palm of your hands – holding with the left hand and pressing with the right, then fold the dough over and turn. Repeat this process for 5 minutes. Let the ball of dough sit for 30 minutes in the fridge. Roll the dough out with a rolling pin into a long rectangular shape, careful not to roll to wide for the pasta machine. If you do not have a pasta machine, continue to roll with the rolling pin until you reach the desired thickness. Don't rush the process in the pasta machine – start on the thicker pasta setting and put the dough through the machine numerous times (changing the setting each pass), patiently reaching the desired thickness. Each time you will need to sprinkle flour on the pasta to keep it from sticking to the machine. Cut the dough into long rectangular pieces. Fold the dough in half to find your starting point. Place the filling in leaving one finger between each filling and one finger along the edges. Brush the pasta with egg white to hold the dough together. Fold the dough over to make edges meet. Begin on one end pressing firmly with fingers in the middle then work to the edges in order to assure there is no air left inside the pasta. Use a pasta cutter to cut the ravioli. Sprinkle some flour on the surface and remove the ravioli using a spatula so they don't stick.

While the ravioli boil, cook the strips of bacon (no butter or oil) in a pan then glaze with white wine.
Put the cooked ravioli in the skillet. Sautee for a few seconds. Add the butter (and thyme if you wish) and cook adding a ladel full of the artichoke water and 1/3 c. parmesan. Add a small spoonful of the leftover ravioli filling. Hover the pan over the heat moving the pasta continuously until the sauce becomes thick. Place the the parmesan base on a serving plate. Remove the ravioli from the heat and place on top of the parmesan base. Sprinkle with pecorino cheese and serve.