Ravioli with walnut sauce: the recipe.
The variation on the more classic pansotti are lean ravioli with walnut sauce. A typical Ligurian dish with an unmistakable taste.

Outside our area I have seen this sauce prepared in many ways but here, or rather, in our coastal hinterland, the walnut sauce is accompanied by the even more classic "pansotti" or "pansoti": vegetable ravioli or ravioloni of different shapes that can be small like ravioli or large and closed like tortelloni but, in any case, prepared with the typical Ligurian low-egg pasta and stuffed with wild herbs, ricotta, eggs and grated cheese.
This pasta was born in Rapallo and its hinterland and then spread throughout the province of Genoa. I have a fond memory of the Valle family who had an old and small restaurant in the Ne' valley, in Frisolino. The grandfather was a wise expert on hunting and his countryside (very well known throughout the valley and in Chiavari). The first son who also helped in the restaurant, the second son a bachelor, a specialist in preparing rabbit, and little Enrico who is now a grown man, married with a family. The pearl of this group of men was Enrico’s mother, wife of the first son, a great cook of the poor and very tasty cuisine of the hinterland. Now that the restaurant no longer exists and that the whole family group is cooking in the valleys of paradise, before talking about the dishes that Mrs. Valle prepared, I can tell you some anecdotes…

English: You couldn’t think of “da Valle” as a real trattoria but rather as a family reunion with other guests/friends and these memories are very vivid because over the years I’ve had all sorts of things: the cutlery was all assorted, like the napkins and it could happen that, like the tablecloths, they were holed or broken but still very clean. Another time, when I had guests, we were greeted by the uncle who prepared the rabbit, sitting on the entrance step, who was putting on his shoes and who, unperturbed, greeted us saying that the rabbit was ready… Between all of them, Enrico aside, they must have had about thirty teeth. The public relations were by the grandfather and the very clever Enrico while the first son waited tables. The greatness of this place consisted in the cuisine, in the poor ingredients, in the parsimony of the oil made in the family but especially in the great mastery of that woman who prepared excellent things with little. The menu was always the same: an appetizer of homemade cold cuts, pansotti with walnut sauce, ravioli with sauce in which you often saw a colombina or another mushroom added to enrich the sauce, roast or cima or mixed fried meat (a little) and vegetables (lots and delicious) and a homemade dessert.

The pansotti were made like ravioli but twice as long and a little wider and the sauce had a scent which is the trick that is never mentioned in its preparation.

Now let's get back to the walnut sauce. To prepare it we need good walnuts, bread soaked in milk and then squeezed, a little garlic and then the final aroma... I like to crush everything in the mortar but you can also use an immersion blender but little by little so as not to heat the sauce. I immerse the kernels in boiling water for about thirty seconds and as soon as I remove them I immediately put them under cold water to then peel them more easily. In the meantime I squeeze the breadcrumbs soaked in milk and add them to the walnuts, a little garlic without the inner core, a little salt and the typical Ligurian aroma, the erba persa, which I like in abundance. Just like Mrs. Valle did. After having crushed everything well and mixed it with excellent Ligurian extra virgin olive oil and the sauce is ready. I don't like to add, as many do, grated cheese to flavor and dilute the sauce but dilute it with half a spoonful of cooking water and then put the cheese on the pasta after serving it. Enjoy!

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Photo taken with Canon 600D and lens Canon EF 40.

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