
Pius the X was a legend. He was a great man and a great Pope, known for his simple life, a line in his will reads ‘I was born poor, I have lived in poverty, and I wish to die poor’. The conclave that elected him Pope was a rather drawn out affair, and he wasn’t the favourite. Indeed the favourite, Mariano Rampolla, was vetoed by Franz Joseph I of Austria-Hungary in the last use of of the Jus exclusivae – the right to veto a candidate for the papacy that several catholic monarchs held. Clearly the Holy Spirit was working through FJI as it gave us one of the greatest popes of modern times.
Pius was known for being anti-modernist, he made priests swear allegiance to the ‘Anti-Modernist Oath’ which was against dodgy new ideas interfering with the Church’s teaching, particularly it stood for the God’s ability to act in history, and God's revelation through the Church. It was against scepticism and relativism. However, Pius was not against change and he was a great reformer, particularly of the liturgy. It was Pius X who promoted regular communion for the laity – Holy Communion being the ‘quickest and shortest route to heaven’. It was Pius who reformed the breviary and encouraged people to pray the Divine Office. He also brought about a return to the simpler use of chant rather than frilly Baroque compositions. He was a simple man, the son of the postman from Riese in the Veneto region of Italy, where the food is wholesome and hearty. One of the specialities of this region is casunziei. These are beetroot ravioli served with cheese, melted butter and poppy seeds.
Pasta is jolly easy to make, but it is time-consuming. The ingredients are simple:
For the pasta:
Eggs, very fresh
00 flour, 4 oz per egg
Salt – half a teaspoon per egg
A little olive oil
For the filling:
About 4oz cooked beetroot – NOT in vinegar, but in water
A tub of ricotta cheese
Salt
Pepper
Some cooked potatoes – one big one, or a few new potatoes
I read all the recipes I could find for the filling and this seemed the best compromise. Blend all these ingredients together. There you have it.
For the sauce:
A good knob of butter per person
Grated hard Italian cheese
Poppy seeds
Method:
Two eggs is about right for enough ravioli for four. I made a double quantity and froze the other half of the dough. I’ll make tagliatelle with it later.
Mix the salt in with the flour, then make a well with the flour, crack the eggs into it, drizzle a little oil, get stuck in with your hands and make a dough. Knead it until it is light and stringy. If it’s too wet add more flour, too dry add a little water.


Once you have a nice ball of smooth but slightly sticky dough wrap it in cling film and put in the fridge for 15 minutes.
** during this 15 minutes you can blend all the ingredients for the filling together**
Set up your pasta machine. Cut the dough in half (based on two egg dough) and flatten it a bit. Feed through the machine according to the instructions. Basically you need to feed it through folding in half each time until it’s going through the machine on the narrowest setting and you have a nice long strip of translucent pasta.

Lay the strip on a floured surface. Cut circles with a medium sized round biscuit cutter, or the top of a glass. Take each circle, fill with a teaspoon of the filling, fold in half and seal with a fork. Lay each raviolo on a floured plate or baking tray with space around it. This dough is sticky and if you’re not careful they will stick together or to the plate and the pasta will split and be ruined.

When finished you can either cook the lot or open freeze some on trays. May sure they’re not stuck to the tray or each other before you freeze them and once frozen transfer to boxes/bags.
To cook the ravioli and make the sauce have two pans ready, one with well-salted and oiled water for the pasta, the other with melted butter in it for the sauce.
Cook the ravioli for three minutes in boiling water. Drain and pour into the melted butter, stir well, grate on cheese and sprinkle with poppy seeds. A perfect anti-modernist sort of dish for a wonderful pope.

PS Whilst these are perfectly nice, most other forms of ravioli are nicer than beetroot ravioli. So perhaps don't make these unless you're really desperate to sample traditional Northern Italian peasant food.
