I love the small challenge of building a meal around pasta, and it’s particularly easy when I can start with a filled pasta from a good local source.

Regional specialties, new inventions, or just out-of-the-ordinary ones are always good.

• ‘caccio e pepe’ ravioli from Luca Donofrio‘s fresh pasta stand inside Eataly Market, finished in a pan with olive oil, generous amounts of freshly-ground Tellicherry pepper, part of one dried dark habanada pepper, crushed, some of the reserved pasta water added and the sauce emulsified over low heat, then 6 or 8 roughly chopped ramp leaves from Berried Treasures added, gently tossed with the pasta, the mix placed in two shallow bowls, a couple tablespoons of the juices remaining from a tomato salsa prepared for a meal we enjoyed a few days earlier, spooned over it, some roughly-chopped garlic mustard [Brit: ‘Jack-by-the-hedge’], both flowers and the smaller, more tender leaves, from Windfall Farms, scattered on the top, followed by a bit of olive oil and slivers of a Parmigiano-Reggiano Vache Rosse from Eataly
•  the wine was an Italian (Marche) white, Stefano Antonucci Pignocco Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi 2015, from Chelsea Wine Vault
• the music was the String Quarter No. 1, Piano Trio, and Sinfonia Da Camera of Joonas Kokkonen