Green ravioli with purple cabbage & sage

My mom has no family recipe; she's an orphan. I have no family recipe either... when I was a kid, my mom relied on making food to pay the bills; cooking was the least thing she enjoyed doing at home. But one thing she passes to me that I feel very important - eat your colors, which underlays the fact that we've been approaching food with diversity and variety. Back then each meal she prepared always included one type of meat, one seafood, and two types of vegetable. So the intake of food groups in one whole day, you do the math. For her it's a smart way to achieve a healthy diet. When I made this ravioli, I was aiming for very simple ingredients and light taste, but I still wanted variety. So I packed in two different vegetable - spinach and purple cabbage.

The amounts listed in this recipe are only estimation. Just trust your eyes and your fingers (to feel), they do the best judgement!

Recipe of spinach pasta dough

(yield: four x 20"-long dough sheets, can made about 20 ravioli)

• 1 bag of fresh spinach leaves (I forget my size, 8 oz?... I guess)
• 1 fresh egg
• a good pinch of salt
• 1 - 2 tsps oil
• some plain flour

How-to:

• If there's any big stem in the spinach leaves, break it away.
• Pre-heat a skillet, saute the spinach leaves until softens, about 1 - 2 minutes. Let cool, squeeze out and discard the juice. Puree the spinach. I only used 3 tablespoons puree in this recipe.
• Pile up one cup of flour on a work table, well combine with the egg, the spinach puree, salt and oil. You should need to keep adding some more flour until a tender dough is formed. Knead until the dough looks smooth. Rest the dough in the fridge for at least 2 hours.
• Roll the dough through your pasta machine, in between giving your sheet enough time to rest. I stop at the second-last setting.

Recipe of green ravioli with purple cabbage & sage (yield: 2 serving as the main course)

• home-made spinach pasta sheet, recipe see the above
• 2 leaves of purple cabbage, finely chopped (for filling)
• 4 leaves of purple cabbage, shredded, for tossing
• 1 - 2 tablespoons of mild-flavored soft cheese
• 2 tablespoons of Grana padano (Italian hard cheese)
• a small bowl of mashed potato or grated country bread *
• 1 shallot, diced
• 4 slices of salami... give a bit of smoky flavor to your dish
• about 12 sage leaves
• a bit of butter
• salt and black pepper

* I aimed for heavily veg-based filling, so the carb only serves the purpose of holding the mass. Please adjust according to your taste.

How-to:

To make the purple cabbage filling:

• Pre-heat a skillet, drizzle some oil, saute the shallot over medium heat until you smell the aroma. Add (2 leaves) cabbage, saute for 3 minutes (or your preferable crispness). After it totally cools off, combine it with two cheeses, mashed potato/grated bread, salt and pepper to taste. Now you can use it to fill in the spinach ravioli.

To assemble the dish:

• To prepare a big pot of water and bring it to boil (at the same time please start to heat up your skillet). Add a big pinch of salt in the water, boil the ravioli until it's done, 3 - 5 minutes. Drain.
• In a hot skillet, don't add oil and fry the salami over low heat, to let the fat release. Take out the salami (and dice them), set aside.
• Add a bit of butter if necessary, heat up the same skillet, fry the sage leaves over low heat until they look crisp, you should smell the fragrant too! Take out the sage and set aside. Saute the (4 leaves) cabbage with a good pinch of salt over medium heat for 3 minutes or your preferable crispness/softness, toss in ravioli, salt to taste. Scoop them on serving plates, sprinkle the crispy salami and sage leaves, pepper to taste. Enjoy right away.

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