Ricotta cheese vareniki

When I was a child I was used to bother my grandmother (the mother of my father) when she was busy doing ravioli, ricotta ravioli to be more precise.
She didn’t make them very often but every time I was there to eat them raw…If they are super fresh raw ricotta ravioli are delicious, more than cooked…
In Sardinia we have few types of ravioli, sweet ricotta ravioli with lemon zest, ricotta ravioli plain and with spinach or other herbs and meat ravioli.
I like them all ( my absolute favorite are the sweet ricotta ravioli) but I have to admit that I’m a little tired of them…
There are family meetings there you have ravioli, there is a wedding there you have ravioli, It’s sunday there you have ravioli.
So as you understood ravioli is the rich food for our occasions, every type of occasion, if you want to make a very good impression with your guests you make ravioli.
I ate thousends of ravioli during my life (and I’m still young) and I still love them but sometimes you need something different, just a little bit.
The fact is that  we are not very creative when it comes to the seasoning of these ravioli, we eat them just with tomato sauce or butter and sage and that’s all, it’s the tradition.
So I decided to try vareniki.
Vareniki are ukrainian dumplings made with a soft farmer’s cheese filling generally seasoned with smetana, that is sour cream, and butter, very similar to our ravioli with just few differences that are the seasoning and the texture.
If you try these you will not regret, they are super and they are more yummy if you add onions as I did, onions make the difference here.
I found the recipe in one of my favorite blogs: She Simmers.
Here you can read the original post.

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RICOTTA VARENIKI WITH ONIONS

Ingredients:

-110 g all-purpose flour

-110 g bread flour

-1 egg

-115 g plain kefir

-1/2 tsp salt

-1 tsp baking soda

-230 g ricotta cheese

-1 egg

-a pinch of salt

-a pinch of sugar

-sour cream

-2 onions

-a pinch of salt

-a pinch of sugar

In a bowl mix the flours, salt and baking soda.

Add egg and kefir and knead until you can form a nice ball.

Let it rest 30 minutes.

Slice the onions and stir-fry them with the salt, the sugar and olive oil until very golden and a little bit caramelised.

In an other bowl mix ricotta cheese, salt, sugar and the egg.

Divide your dough into 20 pieces and roll them into rounds.

Fill every round with a teaspoon of the ricotta filling and close it very well using water as glue.

Boil your vareniki few at a time for one minute, season them with butter and cover  with sour cream and onions before serving.

Enjoy!