h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Ravioli - a Simpler Recipe - A87993652
Author: h2g2 Guide Editors - U14916653

We've been raiding the archives of The Post and found some Entries that are worthy of making the crossover into the Edited Guide!

Here's a little recipe by Auntie Winnie U14998472

I like it - and I can't even make or eat it. More recipes like this, and we might set Twitter on fire.

Great humour in this Entry - it will be excellent in the Edited Guide in due course

As a novice cook, I read it and noticed there seems to be a step missing - the pasta dough is rolled out thinly, then the filling is made, then the sauce, but how are the actual ravioli made before they are put in the boiling water?

Yeah - maybe put in some instructions about cutting the ravioli into squares, and filling them and pinching them together? Would somebody be willing to undertake this?

I do not know how large the squares have to be. Pasta is an exotic substance where I come from. In the South, the only place to obtain a spaghetti dinner in the old days was annually, at my school's Halloween fair. It came baked in long pans, with melted processed cheese on top.

Do you remember that BBC joke film on the spaghetti trees? When we saw it on television (Candid Camera, I think), my parents and I laughed, but my sister got mad. (She was about 13, I think.) She said, 'Okay, but where DOES spaghetti come from?'

My parents looked at each other and shrugged. 'We don't know,' they admitted.

Updated

That reads better now, thanks

Oh, yes - that's wonderfully vivid!

This is a perfect example of what the Guide originally set out to be.

However, I do agree that a couple of things are unclear. I would offer to make some to try out the recipe (also therefore producing a photo) but I know what hard work rolling out pasta dough is.

I am sure that in other recipes I have read, you brush the edges of the shapes with beaten egg to stick them together (tragedy after all that work if they burst open whilst in the boiling water).

Also it would help to have at least a little guidance on the amounts needed for the fillings. Good tip to make the fillings smooth and creamy. I'll let you know if I do manage to make some. I think I've got a CD of the Tchaikovsky.

Did "auntie Winnie" submit any more entries?

Also, the title is rather odd. I'm not sure if this is really simpler than any other recipe for ravioli. Maybe just "A simple recipe".

And another thing:Ravioli in tins with loads of tomatoey sauce was for generations of young campers, scouts and youth groups, here in Germany at least, the standard camp fire dish. Heated in, and eaten out of, the tins.

http://www.maggi.de/produkte/maggi-ravioli-tomatensauce/

Ah, like Spaghetti-o's for American camp kids. (Good suggestions!)

Thanks for reading, TC - your culinary expertise is much appreciated as always

Title updated

No egg was used to stick the pieces together in the recipe I checked, but I added a footnote to emphasise that sealing the edges is important.

Guidance on the filling has been added

Auntie Winnie did submit a couple of other Entries, but they are more humorous than practical!

Your Guide Entry has just been picked from Peer Review by one of our Scouts, and is now heading off into the Editorial Process, which ends with publication in the Edited Guide. We've moved this Review Conversation out of Peer Review and to the entry itself.

If you'd like to know what happens now, check out the page on 'What Happens after your Entry has been Recommended?' at EditedGuide-Process. We hope this explains everything.

Thanks for contributing to the Edited Guide!

Congratulations Auntie Winnie