Ravioli or “Derelye” with soft cheese and smoked bacon

 

This again is a traditional pasta dish, made with a special soft cheese, similar to cottage cheese or quark.  In Australia this type of cheese is called farm cheese.  The name of the dish in Hungarian is ‘Turos derelye’.  Usually follows a rich meaty soup as the second course.  Yesterday we had Gulyas Soup and we followed it with this ravioli.

Easy to make, especially when using machines like I do.

Ravioli with soft cheese and smoked bacon

Ingredients:

320 g soft cheese

1 egg

salt to taste

pasta dough from 500g flour (recipe here)

5-6 slices of smoked fat bacon

fresh sour cream

This amount makes about 45 raviolis.

Directions:

Make the filling by combining 1 egg, salt and the cheese.

  

After resting the pasta dough in the fridge, roll it out using a Marcato-type machine.

I went to size 6 thickness with mine, and the width at the end was about 10cm (4inches).

  

 

 

Lay out a sheet of pasta.  Take the cheese and using a teaspoon, place little mounds, the size of a small walnut evenly (about 10cm distance) on the pasta sheet.
Now take another sheet - try to match one with similar length and width.  Starting at one end slowly lower the cover sheet while pressing it down after each mound of cheese.

 

Then press around the fillings to seal the pasta around them.  Don't worry much about the outside edge.  Cut that nicely with a pasta cutter leaving about 2-3 cm (half inch) edge around the filling

 

Then cut between the fillings to make separate squares.

 

Place the ravioli pieces on a cloth while you prepare the next step.

At this point you can decide if you want to freeze some of your ravioli.  In that case I suggest you dry them on the cloth for about an hour on each side (turn them over) then pack them with paper in between and without touching each other.) They are almost as good as the fresh ones.  When cooking, no need to thaw them, just drop them straight into boiling water.  Cooking time is about 5-6 minutes. 

 

For the pasta, in a large pot, put water with a bit of salt onto the stove.

 

Chop up the bacon into small cubes.

 

Fry in a pan on moderate heat until crisp and browned.

 

 

Scoop out the crispy bacon and put aside.  Reserve 2 tbsp of the bacon fat and put in the bowl which you want to drain your pasta into.

Now it's time to cook your pasta, if the water is boiling.
For this many pasta you you need to cook them in batches.  I did 17 pieces in one batch and luckily only broke one ravioli.  So considering the size of your pot; let's say don't put more than 15 pieces in a 5 litre pot of water.

 

 Cook the pasta for about 4-5 minutes.  You can check by taking out one pasta square with a wooden spoon, cutting off a piece around the edge and see what colour it is.  If it's whitish in the middle, it needs more cooking.  If even colour all through the cut surface, then it's done.

Drain and put the ravioli onto the bacon fat, carefully turning them in.  Then pour over some sour cream and top with the crisp bacon.

At the table serve with extra sour cream and bacon crisp (if you have any more).

 

Gulyas Soup

There are some confusion about gulyas soup.  What people usually refer to as gulyas is usually a stew with little juice.  Well, that is NOT gulyas, that is either paprikash or porkolt.  They are both made with lots of paprika and the ingredients are only onion, paprika and salt, meat or poultry and maybe a little tomato and capsicum (pepper) when available. 

Gulyas (soup) on the other hand is, well, actually a soup. 

It does start out as if it was going to be made into a beef stew (porkolt or paprikash).  But then, when it is about half cooked, soup vegetables, potato and other seasonings are added along with a jug of water. 

It is similar to many of those rich oriental soups with vegetables, meat and pasta, except the taste is different.   It’s more “paprikashy” with an added flavour of bay leaf.

We had this yesterday, so I made a few pictures and now here is the recipe.  The meat and potato can be more or less, depending on taste, the important thing to keep in mind I think is that we are making a soup.  

The paprika is not the chili pepper but sweet paprika, I think the Spanish make it, too.  I put in a teaspoon of hot paprika, too, but it’s not important if one doesn’t like it hot.

Traditionally this soup is made with rendered fat (pork or poultry), but good quality oil is fine of course.  I used duck fat this time.  With fat it really is the quality what counts health wise (and other wise) and not the type, but that’s another story.

Gulyas soup usually comes with some pasta cooked in it; because of the way that pasta is made I call it ‘pinched pasta’.  Also, it is often served with a slice of sourdough or ciabatta-type bread.

Gulyas soup

Ingredients:

2 tbsp good quality oil or other fat

1 medium onion, chopped

1 tbsp sweet Hungarian paprika or similar

little hot paprika or chili to taste (optional)

3-400 g beef chuck

salt to taste

1.5 litre of water (or more)

2-3 bay leaves

1 tsp caraway seeds (whole or ground)

2 large carrots

1 parsnip (Hamburg parsley root if available)

4-500 g potato

½ sweet capsicum (optional)

1 medium tomato (optional)

½ Celeriac or 1 celery stick with leaves

1 bunch of parsley

small handful of pasta (recipe in next post)

 Directions:

Chop the onion and fry in the fat for a couple of minutes.  

Dice the meat into about 2cm cubes (or 3/4 inch). 

Add the sweet paprika and stir it around for a second or two.

Add the meat quickly (you don't want to burn the paprika) and stir it around to brown the outside, not for long, maybe around 3 minutes.

Now add the water and the salt.  You don't need to add all the water now, you can top it up later.
Also add the bay leaves and the caraway seed.

Cover and cook for about 45 minutes or until half cooked.

In the meantime wash the vegetables.
Cut the potato into 2cm (3/4 inch) cubes,
slice the carrot and parsnip (or small cubes of celeriac if using),

tie the parsley and celery.  You can slice the celery stick if you like it.

Add all the veggies to the soup, together with the capsicum and tomato if using.

This is a good time to check for saltiness and adjust if needed.  If too salty, don't worry the potato will soak up some of it.

Cook the soup for another 40 minutes.

Add the pasta and cook for another 5 minutes or if using commercial pasta, then according to instructions.

When it's all done, fish out the tied greens, the capsicum, the tomato and the bay leaves.  Discard.

Serve the soup hot.  Some people like to eat some bread with the soup, so offer fresh sourdough or ciabatta.

Good appetite!