“Your gift is coming through the door.”  “What gift… And what door?”  “Evidently the door to the place where you are now!”  These few seconds of surreal conversation between my mother and me happened during my lunch break at a small cafeteria where Antonello (my boyfriend) and I have been labeled by the girls that wait on us as the “beautiful couple”

At that moment I had my back to the door and was looking at Kelly, seated in front of me, with a certain perplexity due to the comical nature of my telephone conversation.  When I turned around I saw Antonello enter with none other than… A BRAND NEW PASTA BOARD JUST FOR ME!  Plotting with my parents, he literally became the bearer of their gift for the completion of my third decade

From here, it was a short leap to my idea to finally make Cjalsons Friulani!  In fact, I couldn’t wait to dirty myself with some flour in order to fulfill three wishes at once: christening my gift, trying out a new recipe and getting back to writing on my blog after several months of absence (sigh sigh).

First of all I thank Rossella of machetiseimangiato.com for having invited me to partecipate in her marvelous project “Cjalsons 2010”.  Accepting her invitation to take part in this blog event gave me the push I needed to get back to the publication of “A pinch of Italy”: I can’t disappoint a foodie So, thanks Rossella for this “unintentional” gift that you gave me as well as for the discovery of a great cook like Gianni Cosetti.

And to really pay homage to him and to the ancient flavors of Friulana cuisine, I decided to challenge myself with the traditional recipe served at his restaurant Il Roma.  I changed two of the ingredients listed for the filling, and I paired a red wine typical of the region where I live, Puglia.

And, eyeballing the ingredients like the original recipe suggested and not weighing anything, I even yielded 30 (it was accidental, I swear! ) Cjalsons, therefore the ideal amount for 4 people.

Here is the original recipe, with my modifications in parenthesis and italicized:

Pasta dough made with flour, water, salt, and a splash of olive oil

For the filling cook onions in butter and olive oil (I used clarified butter) and add nettles or spinach (I used bok choy fresh from the field), white ricotta, a bit of smoked ricotta, brown bread, apple, salt and pepper.

Mix everything in a food processor and place a spoonful in the center of a circle of pasta about 10 cm in diameter.  Then put on top a raisin previously soaked in rum and close the ravioli in a half-moon shape.

After boiling the cjalsons, arrange them on a plate, add a bit of cream, and pour hot melted butter on top.  Top with grated smoked ricotta… (I opened a small burrata on the serving plate and after dipping the cjalsons in the melting butter I arranged them on top of the escaping cream).

As you see in the pictures, I put only two raisins (soaked in rum): according to my personal taste, doubling the amount would add even more flavor to the Cjalsons.  But what can I say: to me they were fabulous!

The wine pairing was a Torre Testa, pure Susumaniello, Igt Salento: INCREDIBLE!

Unfortunately I didn’t have enough time to make a cake… But I blew out the candles just the same

Posted Cheese, Flour, Pasta, Vegetables |