fast food: carciofo ravioli, including the (small) kitchen sink

It was delicious, and it was whipped together in a few minutes, thanks to good store-bought ravioli and a few small treasures I was fortunate to find lying around the kitchen. It was the day after Thanksgiving, and something of a palate cleanser (as well as a cook cleanser).

It was also entirely local, with the normal exceptions of olive oil, salt, pepper, lemon (when used), and (sometimes) hot pepper.

I wasn’t going to bother posting this little meal, since it seemed pretty insignificant, and then I realized its convenience could be useful to people other than just myself.

  • two sliced Rocambole garlic cloves from Keith’s Farm, heated in a little olive oil over medium heat, along with one dried peperoncino Calabresi secchi from Buon Italia, inside a large tin-lined high-sided copper pot until the garlic was pungent, joined then by one large fresh chopped Habanada pepper and 3 thin red scallions, chopped , which were stirred for a minute inside the pot, before a dozen or so ripe golden cherry tomatoes from Norwich Meadows Farm were added and briefly warmed, some chopped fresh lovage from Two Guys from Woodbridge, the mix stirred a little before 10 or 12 ounces of house-made Rana carciofi-filled ravioli (purchased at Eataly Flatiron), boiled for barely 3 minutes before being drained, were tossed into the pot with some reserved pasta cooking water, the pasta carefully stirred with the sauce over medium heat for a while to emulsify it, served inside 2 shallow bowls, a bit of olive oil drizzled around the edges, and sprinkled with toasted home-made breadcrumbs and a little more lovage [the pasta filling was composed of artichokes; olive oil; cacio de roma, a semi-soft sheep’s milk cheese made in the Roman countryside; parmigiano; anchovy; tomato; parsley; and basil]

There was a cheese course, mimicking the one we had the day before, but without apples, and with a smaller amount of pressed curd.

  • three Consider Bardwell Farm cheeses: ‘Manchester’ goat milk cheese, and 2 cow cheeses, ‘Pawlet Reconsidered’, and ‘Bardem Blue’
  • toasts from a whole wheat sourdough Miche, or Pain de campagne, from Bread Alone