PEZZE DELLA NONNA (GRANDMOTHER’S KERCHIEFS)

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For the Pommarola Sauce

  • 1 medium sized red onion

  • 1 medium sized celery stalk

  • 1 large clove garlic peeled

  • 1 medium sized carrot scraped

  • 10 sprigs Italian parsley leaves

  • 8 large basil leaves

  • 2 # very rip fresh tomatoes or 2 # drained canned tomatoes

  • 2 T. olive oil

  • 2 T. sweet butter

  • Salt and freshly ground pepper

Place tomatoes in a medium sized non-reactive casserole and add the chopped vegetables and oil.  Do not mix.  Cover casserole, set over low heat and cook for 1 ½ hours, shaking (not mixing) the casserole every so often to prevent the tomatoes from sticking to the bottom.  Pass contents of casserole through a good mill, using the disc with the smallest holes, into a second casserole.  Place the new casserole with the sauce over medium heat, add the butter and salt and pepper to taste.  Mix very well land let reduce for 15 minutes, stirring every so often with a wooden spoon.  When read, transfer sauce to crockery or glass bowl and let stand until needed.

For the Balsamella

  • ½ cup sweet butter
  • 4 T. unbleached all purpose flour
  • 3 ½ cups whole milk
  • Salt and freshly ground pepper

Melt the butter over low heat in a heavy saucepan.  When it starts to froth, add all of the flour, in one addition, and stir with a wooden spoon.  Continue to stir, cook the mixture until the flour is completely incorporated, 1 to 3 minutes.  Remove the mixture from heat and let stand for the time it takes the milk to reach a boil.  Heat milk until it almost comes to a boil.  Place the pan with the butter-flour mix over low heat and, all at once, add the nearly boiling milk and stir until smooth.  Continue to cook the sauce over low heat and when it starts to boil, add salt and cook, stirring genrly for about 10 minutes.  Transfer to glass or crockery bowl and press a piece of buttered wax paper over it to prevent a skin from forming.

For the Stuffing

  • 2 ½  # spinach, cleaned, large stems removed

  • Coarse grained salt

  • 1 # ricotta, drained very well

  • 1 extra large egg

  • 3 extra large egg yolks

  • 1 cup freshly grated Parmgiano

  • Salt and freshly ground pepper

  • Freshly ground nutmeg

Place spinach ricotta, egg, egg yolks, and cheese in a crockery or glass bowl and mix very well.  Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.  Mix again, cover and refrigerate until needed.

For the Pasta

  • 2 ¼ cups flour4 extra large egg yolks

  • ¼ cup cold water

  • 2 T. olive oil

  • Pinch of salt

Prepare pasta to a thickness of a little less than 1/16 of an inch.  Cut sheet into 6” squares.  Precook squares in salted water for a few seconds, then transfer to a bowl of cold water to which 2 T. olive oil has been added.  Remove from water and let rest on dampened cotton dish towel until needed.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Use 2 T. butter to grease an ovenproof 15 “ round baking dish or 13” x 8 ¾” glass pan.  Place 2 heaping T. of stuffing in center of square.  Fold into triangle, then take the two side ends and fold them to meet the lower end.  Without pressing on them, gently transfer the stuffed pezze into the  prepared dish, with stuffed part touching the side of the dish and the unstuffed part pointing towards the middle.  Arrange the remaining pezze in the same way, forming two circles one inside the other.  Pour balslamella over pezze and bake for 20 minutes.  Meanwhile, reheat tomato sauce.  Place 1 or 2 pezze on each plate and pour tomato sauce over the un-stuffed part.  Add a basil leaf.