Italian Inspirations

Italian Inspiraitons hits Port Townsend!

Recently, my surf buddy and fellow foodie, Laura, invited me up to Port Townsend for a “Girls’ Night In” that featured dinner and a clothing swap. I decided to take the show on the road (namely my cheesemaking tools, pasta recipe and fresh, local ingredients) and turn the dinner into an “Esperienza“. It was a great evening and a fun way to meet some great ladies from all corners of the US, now living here in the Pacific Northwest.

First, we made fresh ricotta from whole milk and lemon juice…

Then, we made the fresh pasta dough…while sampling some vino and olive

We steamed fresh spinach and mixed it into the fresh ricotta for our ravioli filling while the dough rested…

The dough was rolled with the aid of Laura and her fun motorized Kitchen Aid Pasta attachment 🙂

We soon began to see the ravioli began to take shape!

And, as the ravioli were dropped into a pot of boiling, salted water, I melted goat’s milk butter in a pan with fresh sage leaves and il gioco era fatto! The al dente ravioli were tossed in the sage butter and garnished with un po’ di pecorino romano cheese and eaten so ravenously that none of us even considered stopping to take a picture of the delicious end result! Oops…

But, since there was quite a bit of left-over pasta dough and filling, I turned that into lunch the next day featuring rustic ravioli in fresh tomato and garlic sauce and crespelle baked in sage butter and topped with pecorino romano… Delizioso!

Recipes will follow…