What's Cooking Wednesday

Today I'm making my boys' favourite dinner, Ravjul (pronounced rav-yule) or Ravioli.  It's a traditional Maltese dish (Malta is where my parents are from.  If you've never heard of it, check out Lonely Planet to find out more or even do a Google image search to see the amazing scenery).  The food of Malta is lots of pasta, seafood and meat dishes and they love ricotta which is the main ingredient in this Ravjul.

For todays dish we are going to cheat (because we can) and use frozen ravioli.  To make the ravioli from scratch takes a lot of time and mess and to be honest, I have never made it from scratch on my own.  I used to help my Dad growing up (who was a master at making ravjul) and always planned on having that skill taught to me.  Unfortunately, Dad has now passed away but Mum knows the recipe, I remember the technique so one day I will pluck up the courage and have a go.  He did teach my sister-in-law who did give him a run for his money, and my brother-in-law too.  The best economical frozen ravioli I have found is Marios (they also do the best pastizzis).  They come in small and large size, either is fine but we prefer the larger size which is closer to the authentic homemade size.  If you want to splurge, The Pastizzi Cafe have great frozen ravioli for $14 a dozen.

Ravjul

Ingredients:

2 packets Mario's frozen ricotta ravioli
3-4 cloves of garlic finely chopped
1 tbspn olive oil
400g tinned tomatoes
1 jar (700ml) passatta
1/2 tspn mixed spice
1/4 tspn cinnamon
1/4 tspn nutmeg
1 beef stock cube

Lightly fry the garlic in oil for a couple of minutes, be careful not to let it colour too much.  Add the tinned tomatoes (chop them if they are still whole, I usually mash them with the wooden spoon), then the passatta, spices and stock.  Season to taste.  Simmer gently for about an hour or two.

Boil the ravjul according to packet directions but taste it to make sure it's al dente before draining.  Mix through the sauce and top with parmesan.