Grandma Wheezy's Ravioli Filling

About 5 or 6 cups

My great-grandmother, being the good Italian woman that she was, always measured ingredients out in her hand. In 1955, my grandmother and her sister-in-law watched Grandma Wheezy make her ravioli filling and measured everything before she added it to the bowl. The inscription on the back of the recipe cards simply says, “Louise Clarkson’s recipe. Taken from her hand and measured to make a recipe.”

ingredients

1 large chicken
2 packages frozen spinach, thawed
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp garlic salt (maybe more)
1 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp sweet basil
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp parsley
3 tsp grated cheese
2 eggs
Salt & pepper

directions

1
Boil chicken until tender and cool until it can be handled. Remove meat from the bone and put through a grinder. Set aside.
2
Put spinach in a large skillet and cook with a little bit of chicken broth, just to add a little moisture. Add chicken, stir and add spices and other ingredients. Make a hole in the middle of the filling, add eggs and mix thoroughly, stirring constantly. Cook for a few more minutes to remove some of the moisture, but not all of it, until the filling can be made into a ball and can hold its shape.
3
Use in Grandma Wheezy’s Raviolis or Boot’s Ravioli Lasagna.

notes

This filling can be made a head of time and can even be frozen. It seems to taste better if it is store in an air-tight container and refrigerated overnight.

Source: Louise "Wheezy" Clarkson