THE JOY OF COOKING

Probably the first cookbook I ever read was the Joy of Cooking. Written by Irma S. Rombauer, with around eight editions, this cookbook has been in print since 1936. Our own 1985 edition interested me, with it's recipes for calf head soup and pictures of pineapples cut into fruit baskets. Later in life, I learnt to make pasta, and ravioli became a staple of my diet. Left alone some weekends at the house, I would make up a batch of ravioli, and sit down to watch a whole series of Sex and the City. 

Here is the ravioli recipe, as it appears in the Joy of Cooking:

Noodle dough:
On a large pastry board or marble tabletop make a well of:
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
Drop into it:
1 egg
barely combined with:
1 tablespoon water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon oil

Work the mixture with your hands, folding the flour over the egg until the dough can be rolled into a ball and comes clean from the hands. [add more flour if sticky]. Knead the dough as for bread for about 10 minutes. Let it stand for a while. Now roll the dough, stretching it a little more with each roll. Between each rolling and stretching, continue to sprinkle it with flour to stop it from sticking or developing holes. Repeat... until paper-thin and translucent. For ravioli: fill the dough immediately with filling and cook in rapidly boiling salted water for about 10 minutes.