THE RAGING SPORK

Rest assured, dear readers, I’ve been putting the pasta machine to good work. Our freezer is stuffed with batches and batches of tagliatelle and capellini…more than we want to eat, really. Anyway, here’s a quick little something on my last pasta project, some simple wild mushroom ravioli.

I’m a sucker for mushrooms, so I browsed the market for whatever types I could find. There’s just something intrinsically exciting to me about seeing that golden orange of the first chanterelles of the season, or taking in the meaty, earthy aroma of sauteing beech and oyster mushrooms. Anyway, I walked away from the market with about a pound each of oyster, beech, cremini, and baby shiitakes. A hard saute of each to drive out the moisture and amplify the flavor, some white wine, parsley and thyme, a rough chop and some ricotta, and you’ve got ravioli filling. Then a quick pasta dough of water, egg yolk, olive oil, and flour…laboriously kneaded and rested, then rolled into thin sheets of sfoglia.

It’s pretty simple from there, lay out the filling on the sheet, some egg white for binding, and then layer another sheet of pasta over the top, pressing to eliminate air holes. Punch em’ out with a cutter (shape of your choosing), dust with flour, and then you’re good to go.

Apologies for the photo quality…our kitchen lighting sucks.

I ended up serving these guys with a green garlic/asparagus soup…just in time for spring. And speaking seasonally…that’s part of the beauty of pasta…it’s versatility. For most of us, the idea of pasta can’t be seperated from ripe summer tomatoes. But with a little more thought, you can substitute any seasonal components you’d like to use. Butternut squash ravioli for the fall, artichokes for the spring…etc. And beyond that, you can dress em’ up or dress em’ down. Truffled lobster ravioli or a humble spaghetti pomodoro, both can be equally amazing.

My next pasta project…gonna try my hand at some cannelloni.