Take three… Pastas

4 onion and Minced lamb ragu served atop a mascarpone mint pea stuffed ravioli

Fettuccine bolognese al forno

taglierini with pinot gregio sweet pork ragu

Eggplant Parmesan with homemade pappardelle aglio olio

I’d say pasta and filled ravioli is one of my specialities.

I spent months when I 1st started working filling day after day lobster ravioli, making malfatti(spinach and ricotta dumplings), Rolling potato gnocchi, assembling tortellacci di zucca (butternut squash ravioli with amoretto cookies) and punching out circles for half moon chicken and spinach agnolotti.

Then hand cutting strips of fresh pasta for papardelle and rolling out sheets and sheets of delicate thin pastas able to covet some of the most delicious fillings I was able to imagine.

Pasta teaches you elegance, timing of perfect salted and rapidly boiling water, it makes your fingers know patience, and your mind find reason to make all these time consuming intricate little pouches but I believe that its worth it. Though I haven’t made fresh pasta or filled pasta in very long, I know for the holidays there will be a variety of lovely little pockets of flavor.

Ragu is also one of my very favorite things to make. I love long simmering sauces, each of these took over 3 hours… to brew the most delectable tender pieces of meat and vegetable. I’ve made enough Bolognese to fill a large swimming pool in my life and will continue to do so filling the ocean.