Sunday, November 7, 2010

My first ravioli adventure!

Another busy weekend has flown by, and now I am staring down the dreaded Monday morning once again!  Ah, well, at least it was a good weekend.  Friday night, E and I got right down to business with some couscous and feta stuffed peppers.  The filling for these peppers was absolutely delicious even on its own!  I'm picky with stuffed vegetables; I want the filling to be moist, dense and full of flavor.  This recipe definitely fulfilled all of those requirements!  E, though, often suggests we make stuffed peppers for dinner and then once they're on his plate he remembers he doesn't even like the actual roasted peppers.  Right?  Anyway.  He ended up simply scooping all the filling out and leaving behind the peppers.  Whatever floats your boat, I guess.

We were supposed to have a quiet night in, but 2 of our friends were back in town after time spent away, so we wandered over to their apartment, drank wine and ate fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies while arguing about the necessity of the Oxford comma all night (it's not necessary, it's not! it's not!).  We had a much later night than expected and I woke up with a slight headache, but it was worth it.  The Oxford comma debate continues, with everyone we discuss the issue with fiercely divided.

Saturday night E and I parted ways, he bound for a party at his friend's house in Brooklyn, I heading to a neighborhood Cuban restaurant for dinner and drinks with our friends and their house guests.  It was a great night, and thanks to the time change I  was even able to get a full 8 hours of sleep without feeling guilty about sleeping late!  Huzzah!  Today E and I have each been wrapped up in work all day, but this afternoon I ventured into the kitchen to make some ravioli from scratch.  My dad's family is Italian, so we have ravioli and seafood pasta every year on Christmas Eve.  Growing up, we made dozens and dozens of homemade little pillows of pasta dough and ricotta cheese, though in recent years the scattering of cousins and everyone's hectic schedules has led to store bought ravioli.  I have lots of fond memories of helping to make ravioli late every fall in preparation for the holidays, but it's been a good 10 or so years since I had the chance.

I used this recipe, and they were surprisingly easy and expectedly delicious!  The whole process of making the dough, letting it rest, making the filling, rolling out the dough, assembling the ravioli, and cooking everything takes time, but it's not hard at all.  It's so satisfying to have a belly full of mushroom-y goodness when all is said and done.  There's something that feels really badass about putting together a handmade meal that you usually buy preassembled, if you will.  It's the same feeling I have when i watch a pot of jam come together on the stove: You just feel badass!  One note on the ravioli: we made the filling as described there and have waaaay too much of it!  We used probably less than half of what it calls for for 10 very stuffed 2-2.5 inch ravioli.  It's not a huge tragedy, since we'll use the leftover filling in eggplant rollatini, but you might decide it's not worth it to chop all those mushrooms up!

I'm excited to have entered new ground (for me) in the kitchen, and now I am lusting over pasta makers and other kitchen gadgetry!  Some day we'll have room for more kitchen stuff, but for now this is all the space we've got:

Yeah.  Someday!