For my entire life, my family has always made ravioli on New Year’s Day. Dad pulls out the pasta maker, presses the dough flat and cuts it into squares. Then a handful of volunteers would fill the ravioli. You spoon the ricotta mixture onto the square and then fold it over and press it with the prongs of a fork. It can be time consuming, although not as bad as when my grandfather (an Italian immigrant) went through the process. He rolled the dough by hand, and it took him all day.
I always assumed it was only made once a year because of the time needed, but that’s not what I was told when I asked on New Year’s Day this year. Apparently there were other days my grandfather made ravioli, but he did always make them on New Year’s Day. So I asked why that was the New Year’s meal. Neither my aunt or my father knew. When I pressed, my aunt asked “Why do we have turkey on Thanksgiving?” The answer mainly is it’s tradition and no one is ever quite clear why.
Below is a sample of the photos I shot this year. You can see the whole set on Flickr by clicking here.
You know, Jen, for some crazy reason my wife always makes lasagna for Thanksgiving. That’s in addition to the traditional turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, etc. I just asked her, “Why lasagna? None of us are Italian.” She doesn’t know or remember. And now we’ll leave a legacy for our descendants to knock together a dish of lasagna to commenorate a “tradition.”