Split from a highly informative discussion in the Notti Bianche thread:

What distinguishes northern from southern Italian cooking?

My Genovese grandmother produces an amazing ravioli (which she pronounces, I hope I have this right, "rye-eur") with a spinach and ricotta filling (which she calls "ping") in a deliciously flavored reddish brown tomato sauce with carrots, onions, mushrooms, celery seed, tomato juice, etc. It's thick (from reduction only), but not like tomato-puree thick. Is this typical of the region?

This filling is typically and traditionally made with shredded duck.

That actually WOULD be very delicious. With the ravioli panfried and served in a port and cranberry sauce with grated Locatelli and sage.

Feed the meal to children while reading them the book, then at the end tell them what it is that they've been eating.

ping was one of my childhood favorites, but out children didn't like it very much. they liked curious george better, which was made with monkey.

I make something similar, yet very different. I use soft goat cheese, duck confit and fresh herbs (mostly thyme and chives). Also, I top it with a hazelnut brown butter sauce, which is simply brown butter, and finelly chopped hazelnuts that are toasted in the butter while it browns.

Many good ideas for shredded meat raviolis.

The Mrs. ( made some extraordinary raviolis with leftover lamb shanks that had be stewed Greek style (tomatoes, cinamon, wine, etc.). We used the leftover stew juices as the sauce base.

In Nice, where they take their ravioli as seriously as any Italian, they like to use daub.