One Badass Cookie Tip of the Week: As a general guideline, toast nuts that will be incorporated into a dough or batter, but leave nuts that garnish unbaked goods raw so they will not burn when put in the oven to bake. To toast most nuts, place them on a cookie sheet in a 350 degree oven until lightly browned and fragrant, about 5 - 10 minutes. Best rule of thumb to tell when they are perfectly done? Your nose. When they smell yummy, they’re ready.
Great Aunt Dotty’s Snowball Cookies
Makes about two dozen 1 1/2 inch diameter cookies.
1/2 lb. (2 sticks) sweet, unsalted butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups flour, sifted
2 cups chopped walnuts or pecans, toasted and cooled.
confectioner’s sugar, enough for dredging baked cookies.
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or nonstick pads and set aside.
2. Cream butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment or by hand.  Add vanilla extract.  Add flour all at once and mix only until incorporated then add nuts. Do not over mix the dough.
3. Pick up small pieces of dough and roll into balls.  Place on cookie sheet about an inch apart.
4. Bake for 10 minutes or more until light brown.  Remove from oven and while stilll warm roll in powdered sugar.


If you toast nuts on parchment paper covered sheetpans, it makes it easy to slide the nuts onto a wire rack to cool faster than on the hot sheetpan.


If the dough gets too soft to roll the balls, place it in the refrigerator for a while until it is firmer.


Warm and toasty looking, straight from the oven. Mmmmm.


Dredge the cookies in the powdered sugar right away while they are warm so it melts the sugar a little on the surface of the cookies and makes a soft, sweet crust.

Got a great cookie recipe for Nancy and Laura? Send it in to us using the “post a comment” links and we’ll test it. If it’s badass enough, we’ll post it as a reader’s recipe on One Badass Cookie and you’ll win a prize of Nancy’s book.

see also: One Badass Cookie - Chocolate Chip Cookies

One Badass Cookie Tip of the Week:Brush cookies with egg white before baking for a shiny, professional looking finish. Sprinkle the egg white with sugar to add sweetness and crunch if desired.
Raisin Filled Cookies
Makes approximately three dozen 2 to 3 inch diameter cookies depending on size.
Note: Allow time to cook and cool filling mixture ahead of time.
For filling:
2 1/2 cups raisins
1 1/2 cups sugar or to taste
2 cups water
6 T. flour
For dough:
1 cup shortening (you may substitute butter but the original texture and taste of the cookie will be changed.)
2 cups white granulated sugar
3 eggs
1 t. vanilla extract
1 cup whole milk
1 t. baking soda
4 t. baking powder
1 t. salt
Egg yolk for sealing dough before baking, and egg white for brushing top of cookies if desired.
7 cups all purpose flour (or 6 cups for making drop cookies without filling if desired.)
1. Combine all filling ingredients in a heavy bottomed saucepan and cook until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture thickens. Allow to cool.
2. Beat shortening and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or by hand with a wooden spoon, until creamy and fully incorporated. Add eggs slowly a little at a time, mixing well between additions.
3. Combine vanilla extract and milk and set aside. Combine dry ingredients and set aside. Using lowest speed on mixer or gently by hand, add dries to shortening mixture in three additions alternating with liquid, beginning and ending with flour (1/3 of flour, then 1/2 of milk, then 1/3 of flour, then the rest of the milk, then the last 1/3 of flour.) Do not overbeat.
4. Divide dough into three disks, cover in plastic wrap and refrigerate until chilled enough to roll out.
5. When dough and filling are ready, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper, nonstick pads, or grease sheets and set aside.
6. Roll out dough 1/4 inch thick and use a round 2 or 3 inch cutter to cut dough. On 1/2 of the cookie rounds, place a large dollop of filling. Brush egg yolk or water around edge of cookie dough to help seal it, then place a plain cookie round on top and press to seal. Cut a slit in the top dough to allow steam to escape and brush cookie with egg white if desired. Continue until all the dough has been rolled, filled and seal. Place cookies on prepared sheet pans and bake for approximately 15 minutes or more until golden top and bottom. If you double your sheetpans under the cookies and rotate pans during baking top to bottom and back to front it will help ensure even baking. Cool on wire racks and store in an airtight container.


Leave a little margin of cookie dough around the filling so that the top dough can have enough room to seal properly.


Cutting a thin slit like this in the top of filled cookies helps steam escape but keeps the filling from burning or drying out.


Oh baby.


Here is Michele and her brother in a photo she sent me next to the cookies I made for her. How fun is this?

Got a cookie recipe badass enough for One Badass Cookie? Send it to us and we’ll test it. If it’s badass enough we’ll post it as a reader’s recipe and you’ll win a prize of Nancy’s book.

Photo credit: Bruce Ring

Photo credit: Bruce Ring

Photo credit: Bruce Ring

Photo credit: Bruce Ring

Champagne Truffles

Makes about 60 truffles
1 pound bittersweet chocolate
3/4 cup heavy cream or creme fraiche
1/2 cup champagne
6 T. unsalted sweet butter, softened
For dipping:
1 pound semisweet chocolate
2 cups unsweetened cocoa
1. Cut 1 pound chocolate into small pieces and place in a small bowl. Melt chocolate over simmering water or in a microwave oven. Set aside until ready to use.
2. Scald the cream and champagne and pour over the chocolate. Whisk until smooth.
3. Mix in the soft butter and pour the mixture onto a sheetpan covered with parchment paper or a nonstick pad. Refrigerate until you can form balls with the mixture.
4. Roll small balls of chocolate. Keep them cold.
5. Melt the other pound of chocolate. Temper the chocolate (don’t know how? Let David Lebovitz show you.) When all the balls are rolled, put some of the melted chocolate into the palm of your hand. Roll a truffle in your palm, letting it roll off your finger tips back onto the sheetpan. Continue until all balls are coated with chocolate. Chill. When chilled and dry to touch, roll in cocoa powder. Keep stored in cocoa powder in the freezer or refrigerator.

and ask forgiveness.

As to rolling pin versus pasta machine?  I used a machine this year simply because my board is now officially sagging and the pin is not meeting the surface.  Very unpleasant. Until I get a new board, I’m using the machine.  Well, actually, this is Andrea using the machine. 

It might sound like all is resolved and peaceful.  But some things never change.  Of course I had to make a last minute run to Lou’s house for some extra 00 flour.  What can I say?

Since The Lost Ravioli Recipes first came out in hardcover a year ago, a lot of things have happened.

For one thing, hundreds of Italian Americans have written to me or come to my author events to tell me about their families and their recipes, and their yearnings—whether for family or Italy, or some other form connection and continuity they can’t quite explain.  I have been so honored and humbled to hear of the things people do for love and ravioli.

Some of my favorites:  Bob (Schenone) Cole and his family in Philadelphia whose recipe matched mine just about exactly and told me his mother knew my great grandmother Adalgiza.  A musician named Georgeanne who began with “I was a generation closer,” to describe her own Italian American twilight and shared an incredible tale about her own life.  Then there was the NJ woman who wrote, “I don’t know where to begin,” and sent me a photo of herself sitting on a bench with a bunch of old Italian women in her ancestors town.  She didn’t understand it—why was she always drawn back there?

I also made some videos of pasta rolling which have gotten a lot of response, such as this one on youtube, which over 4,000 people have watched.  I feel very shy about this, video because I’m not exactly Rachel Ray here.  But I am really touched by all the comments.  So here’s the link. . 

Writing a book about your own life changes your life. I guess that was my intention but I could never have expected some of the things, such as how over the last year, I slowly felt a burden lifted from my shoulders.  Something I can’t explain. But I discovered I no longer feel as needful of my own past.  Strange and oddly liberating.  I’m far less often pummeled by memories.  I am more in the present.

Finally, since the book came out, a number of readers have asked me how my sister is doing.  They ask about her health and tell me they worry about her.  For those who don’t know, the book included details about our strained relationship and her illness.  Well, she is doing just fine.  She has found that a radical diet of eating very non-inflammatory foods is helpful and reduces pain. But we still hope for the medical community to come up with some solutions for this condition she has, which is called adhesive disease, and millions of people suffer from it.

My relationship with Andrea continues to be good two years after writing my closing chapter.  there have been no blow ups, no problems.  We are friends, or maybe just sisters, as sisters should be.  I don’t know if this would have ever happened if I didn’t write the book.  When she read it she told me “I never thought you understood.  Now I know you did.” I’d say that this was the best thing that ever came out of all my writing years.

Andrea even leans on my shoulder once in the while, as a younger sister might.  Her husband took this picture on Sunday, and honestly it just breaks me up. 

Here’s the filling we made. We will eat these on Christmas.  I owe a debt to many many people for this recipe.  I say grazie mille and buone feste

Ravioli Christmas 2008

For the Dough
6 cups flour, preferably 3 cups being 00 Italian style flour and half , about 3 cups being a higher gluten all purpose flour such as King Arthur’s.
3 eggs plus one yolk
1 tablespoon salt
2 teaspoons olive oil
enough water to make the dough elastic

For the filling:
1 bunch of borage (about 2/3 pound) or substitute spinach and/or escarole, boiled until tender, squeezed dry
½ cup olive oil
2/3 pound veal shoulder, or veal stew meat
1 pound beef, the type you would use for pot roast, such as chuck, trimmed of extra fat, or bottom round, or top round roasts, which are leaner but still braise well.
2 cloves garlic
1 stem of fresh rosemary or 1 teaspoon dried
2 bay leaves
1 cup dry white table wine
1 carrot, minced extremely fine
1 rib of celery, minced extremely fine
1 onion, sliced thinly
3 or 4 pieces of dried porcini, rinsed and reconstituted in warm water 30 minutes (reserve the water)
6 cups marinara sauce already made
1 tablespoon butter
½ pound pork, shoulder cut, trimmed of extra fat
2 teaspoons pignoli
1 4 oz package of Filadelfia cream cheese in silver foil
1 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
1 large piece (about three-inches from an Italian loaf) of stale white bread, soaked in warm milk
salt
pepper
nutmeg to taste
1 teaspoon of marjoram, minced
2 egg, plus 2 yolks

1. Make the dough and set aside covered in plastic.  I’m assuming you know how to do this. 

2.  Boil the borage (or whichever greens you are using) five minutes in salted water.  Let cool.

3.  Heat the olive oil in a terracotta casserole or large heavy stainless steel pot.  Add the veal and beef along with 1 clove garlic, rosemary, and 1 bay leaf.  Brown the meat.

4.  Add ½ cup of the white wine.  When the wine evaporates, add carrot, celery, onion and mushroom.  Cook with pot uncovered until vegetables are softened.  Add a little hot water as necessary, to keep vegetables from scorching. 

5.  Put a cover on the pot, lower the flame to a very slow heat.  Check the veal in 20 to 30 minutes.  When cooked tender, remove the veal and put aside. The time will depend greatly on the size and cut of your meat.

6.  Add six cups of tomato sauce to the pot with the beef in it.  Continue to cook the beef on a slow heat until falling apart and tender.  This can easily take two and a half more hours , depending on the size and quality of your meat.  It will be tough for a long while.  When it is finally fork tender remove meat.  Save this sauce, which is one method for making tocco, Genoese for sugo or gravy.  You will use it to dress your ravioli on Christmas Day.

7.  Put the butter in a separate smaller pot.  Add the pork, salt, pinoli, a bay leaf, a clove of garlic.  Add one two or three tablespoons of white wine and put a cover on the pot.  Turn heat down to low.  Cook until tender and soft.  This may take an hour or more, depending on your meat and how high your heat is. 

8.  When all the meat is cool, set up your meat grinder and fit it with a fine mandrill.  Set a big bowl underneath.

9.  Trim the fat off the meat and put it through the grinder.  Add the reserved pignoli and a little of the flavorful fat and wine from the bottom of the pork pot. 

10. Put your greens through the food grinder, followed by the soaked bread.

11.  Okay now, go and whip up that that room-temperature cream cheese (with a mixer) and add it into your bowl of filling. 

12.  Put the parmigiano, marjoram, nutmeg, pepper, and salt directly into the bowl and stir with a wooden spoon so that all is VERY well mixed.

13.  Taste.  Correct seasoning.  Do you need more salt, pepper, cheese?  If your mixture tastes dry you may wish to add some of your reserved porcini broth or marinara.

14.  Add egg.  Mix everything.  Your filling is now ready. 

15.  If you are using a machine, roll out dough with your machine to the second to last setting.  Spread filling on a half a sheet of dough.  Do this thinly and evenly.  Put the other half on top like a lid, then run over this with a checkered ravioli rolling pin.  Finally, use a ravioli cutter to cut across the squares.

16.  Let the ravioli dry a half hour on cookie sheets dusted with flour or cornmeal.  Turn the over and let the other sides dry.  (Yes, I’m serious.) Or put the tray directly in the freezer.  Now go ahead and do the other 200.  When the ravioli in the freezer are frozen solid, transfer to plaster bags and seal shut. 

17.  When ready to serve, put the ravioli in fiercely boiling salted water.  Cook 3 minutes if your ravioli is fresh and 5 or 6 minutes if it is frozen.  Taste to be sure.

18.  Gently scoop out the ravioli with a large slotted ravioli lifter--or pour carefully into a colander, so the ravioli don’t break.  Serve in a large bowl with the tucco—the red Genoese sauce you made earlier.  Or use whatever tomato sauce you prefer.  Sprinkle with grated Parmigiano-Reggiano.

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