Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Ravioli-O-Rama: Making and Eating Cheesy Pillows of Goodness in Baltimore's Little Italy

Ravioli, before ...
And ravioli, after - all sauced up and ready to get in my belly
As a general rule, the very last place you will ever find me milling about is a church, particularly on a Sunday. I mean, the only things I can be said to do religiously are cook and eat. Notable exceptions to this rule include the lure of stunning architecture, a ridiculously tall spire to climb, a shriveled hand or other bizarre allegedly "saintly" relic, or, most important of all - food. And so it was food that caused me to venture into the church basement of St. Leo's in Baltimore's Little Italy not once, but twice, within the space of a month.

It all started when I decided to write a story as my Urbanite food editor self about the biannual ravioli making extravaganza, in which volunteers come together over a weekend to make 15,000 ravioli for the upcoming ravioli dinner. You can read all about that experience here - it was a morning filled with story telling, jokes, gentle ribbing, and, of course, the serious work of ravioli making. (Poppa Trix took the beautiful photos on that day, as I had my hands full taking notes and actually learning to make the ravioli.) Check it out:

Carmela Serafini teaching me how to make the ravioli:

 The dough rollers doing their stuff:





That's Lucy Pompa on the right - she's the matriarch of the whole operation, and she's an astounding 92 years old!

As a Catholic school survivor, I was pleasantly surprised when the delightful Sister Theodore showed zero inclination to hit me with a ruler.

Here, Anna Brotto is teaching me how to make tortellini. Although she hails from Sicily, she learned the technique from a friend from Emilia-Romagna. I felt really honored that she stopped to teach this to me!

So, after all that work, Poppa Trix and I  I couldn't miss the dinner, now could we? I had worked up a mighty craving for ravioli.

As it turns out, you don't just walk into a ravioli dinner. There are procedures and protocol that must be followed:


While waiting for your number to get called, you sit in a crowded room, where these guys - who called themselves "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" - are selling wine. Actually,  they gave me a glass for free. It's fun being a girl!:

Once your number is called, you head downstairs to the incredibly crowded dining hall area. It was really a madhouse! Along with the food, there were games, which added to the overall not-unpleasant sense of chaos and frenzy:

Once seated at the communal table, a volunteer took our orders - the choices were ravioli with meatballs or spaghetti with meatballs. Of course we chose the ravioli! While waiting for our food, I squeezed through the crowd to check out the kitchen:
"Do you have a pass to be back here?" The teased me mercilessly!
I had barely been gone a moment, but when I returned to the table my salad was already waiting for me. I have been to many restaurants that could learn  a thing or two about efficiency from this operation. I didn't expect the salad to be a high point but it was surprisingly good:
The justifiably proud salad makers:

Load 'em up and get 'em out:

Meanwhile, constant announcements were being made over the loudspeaker that there was a 45 minute wait for a table, so everyone needed to eat their food  - and get out! So what did we do? Ate our scrumptious food:
... took our full happy bellies  ... and got out!





28 comments:

  1. I love pillows of goodness (and I love all of the smiling faces in these pictures!). Great post!

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  2. Fresh made ravioli are absolutely the best! Sounds like a really neat experience.

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  3. That must have been an amazing day! You must have learned so much and everything looks fantastic. I need to get out my pasta making KA attachment ASAP. I'm also a Catholic school survivor!

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  4. And this is freakish, the word verification for my post was 'lentsw'. Lent sans wagyu? ;-)

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  5. What a great Catholic food-fest play-by-play, girlfriend! And I have NEVER seen rolled pillows look better--YUM! I seriously miss the fish fries we'd hit during Lent. St. Louis (aka: Little Italy) is known for its Friday Fish Fries! Just loved this post! Okay. . . so now I feel a little guilty for not going to mass this a.m.

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  6. freshly made ravioli sure taste great, always fun to learn dishes from experts.

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  7. Pillows of goodness such a great way to describe this. Everything looks delicious and beautiful!

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  8. I'm with you about churches... it's usually the architecture that gets me through the doors but the smell of homemade ravioli... that would do it.
    So many great little recipe books come from little church ladies... I am a believer. Great reporting job Trix... the people are amazing and so are those little dough gems.

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  9. This looks like such a fun thing to do. I can't tell you how many times I've wanted to yell "everybody eat your food and get out" lately. Sigh.

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  10. Great article and what a great and funny post. What an experience indeed to make so many raviolis and of course you had to go enjoy them.

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  11. stunning! i love to learn how to make tortellini. will Google it now. hehe

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  12. Wow.... learning for the master! Lucky girl

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  13. This looks like so much fun! And the raviolis look SO delicious. What a great day!!

    Cooking and eating are also the only things I do religiously... hahaha.

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  14. I would not miss that church's basement, either:) What a great experience that must have been! I love ravioli, but making them at home without pasta machine and a minuscule counter space is almost impossible.

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  15. What a great experience! That freshly made ravioli looks awesome.

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  16. I can tell you from experience this is one task I hate to do, but boy oh boy are they ever worth it, in all my years I think I can count on one hand that I have gotten the energy up to make these... I hate to admit it.. but you now really inspired me to make these for Easter again! looks like you have lots of fun, and who could resist that homemade soft dough that fresh and delicate..nothing like it.. What a great job you did making these so uniform too. The dough is perfect! BTW tell poppa trix he made a grown woman drool over that picture with the meatballs! Omg! awesome!

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  17. I made raviolis right after you posted this on FB, I'll have you know.

    I just forgot to put it on my blog. Haha.

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  18. That looks like so much fun! I've never really delved into the pasta making world...now you're making me rethink that!

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  19. oh my, this is one of those moments I would have loved to tag along with you and Poppa, I know I would have fit right in but somehow, I think I might have gotten slapped with that ruler.... I'm not sure I could have hurried as ya'll did - social pleasantries of a rush dining experience would not agree with my idea of an Italian dinner, even in a church social ...

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  20. Wow, I can almost taste the ravioli, what an operation with such impressive team work. I'm afraid of nuns but the one in the picture looked busy with the ravioli and probably left the ruler at home;-)

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  21. Hey Trix, for some reason I can only see a couple of the photos in this post. I'm going to return later tonight, as I love posts with people in them-funny I never have any those;-) I'm going to click on your link since I can't see anything...

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  22. What a fun experience that must have been! And the ravioli look absolutely wonderful!

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  23. You crack me up ! I am a catholic school survivor too! Hey your raviolis look smashing! You are born to make them.

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  24. what a great day you must have had! I love community food celebrations like that. Even in the church basement under fluorescent lighting, food always tastes amazing when there`s that kind of positive energy. Theresa

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  25. Hehe Trix, good call, sometimes it is very fun being a girl! :D

    I love this post, looks like a group of real characters who know how to celebrate the good things in life.

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  26. What a fun event. I would have loved to be there!

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  27. Trix, the pics look stunning! Such fantastic activities for all of these great people. Everyone seems enjoying themselves so much. Ravioli has been my list-to-do for a very long time. I think it's about time to drag out the list. ha... Thanks for sharing. & Have a great day.
    Kristy

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