Recently, I have had an unusual amount of time on my hands. As a result, a lot of that time has been spent in the kitchen. I was flipping through a book called “The Geometry Of Pasta” and got a wild hair. I decided to make homemade ravioli.
I allotted myself much of the afternoon and decided that I would make the pasta and three kinds of fillings for the ravioli. 1) Hot Italian sausage, crushed red pepper and ricotta cheese 2) Caprese like ravioli with roasted tomatoes and mozzarella 3) Tomato and basil goat cheese with spinach and scallions. The first task… roast the tomatoes.
A small disclaimer: I very much dislike raw tomatoes. I know, I know. It may be borderline blasphemy. Any other way, shape or form and I enjoy them. But raw? No. So I roasted them. To be honest, afterwards I ate them like candy. Was it because of the seasoning or the sweetness that was acquired through roasting? I don’t know. They were tasty.
While the tomatoes were roasting, I started to make the pasta. As the pasta dough chilled, I mixed the internal ingredients. I tried to determine what sauces would go best with each. Number 1, a light red sauce. Number 2, reduced balsamic and olive oil. Number 3… whatever you want to put on number 3. Making the internal ingredients was simple. Making pasta was simple. Rolling it out, without a pasta roller was another story. Sweat. Soreness. Long stoy short, I need to invest in a pasta roller.
Just after I cooked one of each of the raviolis, and gave them a taste test, the power went out. A little bit of lightening hit and then some thunder. No Oklahoma tornado. No East Coast hurricane. Only a sprinkling of rain. Seriously?
While it was a unique experience trying to prepare a future meal by candlelight, I threw in the towel after I finished 1 of 3 batches of ravioli. I could feel flour handprints around the house. On the candle. On my phone. On my computer and camera. Luckily flour handprints can be cleaned in daylight. And luckily ravioli can be frozen.
