April 4, 2014

TINY SPINACH RAVIOLI



Micah bought me a vintage ravioli plaque months ago at our favorite hoarder house / antique store. Each ravioli is about 1" square, it came with the cutest tiny rolling pin and Italian directions, and last week I finally got around to trying it out. I roasted some garlic and shallot, and folded it into a small tub of ricotta with an egg for the filling. I've found that you should always over-season ravioli filling – since there's only a bit in each bite, it needs to carry big flavor to stand up to it's pasta envelope.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that the smaller size wasn't any more finicky to stuff or separate than regular-sized ravioli. There's always a bit of a learning curve to figure out how much filling can fit in each ravioli without causing it to burst, which can be frustrating at first (especially if you're like me and want to do everything perfectly IMMEDIATELY, and completely overreact to the length of your own learning process). Micah came up with a great idea to save my handful of burst raviolis and all the edging scraps, toss them with veggies and sauce, and turn it into a small baked pasta dish. A great example of his chill scrappiness balancing out my perfectionist intensity, and another life lesson from pasta-making.