Hara usbaoحراق اصبعو ravioli

 I once asked my grandmother to describe to me how she made this dish. This was a big mistake, because I walked away feeling overwhelmed, and quite lost. Grandmother’s have this way of describing recipes like stories, but paying no attention to the technical details one is desperate to hold on to. I learnt for the first time as well, that she made pasta- like an Italian nonna!

That was impressive. She took the time to describe how you had to hand make pasta, and both boil a batch and deep fry a batch- this was really the glue of Hara2 Usbao, it would not be the same without those two elements. 

I did grow up to become far more patient, and this is a recipe that I invented based on combining ravioli with a filling of lentils, coriander, garlic, pomegranate molasses and lemon.

You’ll need:

1 cup Flour

A pinch of Salt

1/2 cup Water

1 cup Vegetable broth

1 cup Black lentils

1 bunch Coriander

Lemon juice- unlimited if you’re like me and love lemons

2-3 cloves Garlic- chopped

1 Onion- chopped

Pomegranate molasses- unlimited if you’re like me and love lemons

1 fist Fried onions

Optional:

1/2 cup Beetroot juice (instead of water)

1 fist Pomegranates

For the dough:

Combine flour, a pinch of salt and water into a dough. Let it rest.

Bonus:

Dye the dough with beetroot juice, for a deep magenta colour

Use a maamoul mould for imprints or design them with a fork. 

For the filling:

Saute onions, garlic, lentils, coriander. Add lemon, cumin and drizzle of pomegranate molasses. Optional to throw in pomegranates. Cook with water until lentils are soft but not mushy.

Roll out dough, and using a cup or cookie cutter, cut out disk shaped dough pieces. Fill with a teaspoon of mixture and seal however you would like to, you can even imprint into mamoul mould.

Boil in a salty water until they float to the top.

For the sauce

Blitz coriander with lemon juice and pomegranate molasses to make a paste. Fold the ravioli into the paste, decorate with fried onions and serve lukewarm.