This pasta is a familiar essay around here, in this or similar forms, and it’s an easy one.

And, while I don’t think I’d want to serve this particular filled ravioli in the summer,  it’s really satisfying in the fall and winter.

• the contents of a 10-ounce package of Rana butternut squash-filled round ravioli, cooked but not quite al dente, introduced to a sauce already composed inside a large antique, tin-lined high-sided thick copper pot in which 4 or 5 chopped small late-season garlic scapes from Berried Treasures Farm had been heated in 3 tablespoons of Organic Valley ‘Cultured Pasture Butter’ until beginning to soften, to be followed by a bit of home-dried heatless, orange Habanada pepper and a good number of mostly small fresh sage leaves from Phillips Farm, all heated over medium heat until the butter had begun to turn nut-brown and the sage to shrivel, at which time one fourth to one third of a cup of water was added (to halt the browning and to provide more liquid for the sauce) and the mixture stirred, becoming loose and a little soupy, then, now with the pasta included, cooked for only about a minute or so, or until some of the water was absorbed and the pasta perfectly done, after which a third of a cup of grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese from Whole Foods Market tossed in and stirred, making the sauce somewhat creamy, the contents of the pan seasoned liberally with freshly ground black pepper and sea salt to taste, served at the table with more cheese scattered on top

There was a small cheese course, although I didn’t stop to photograph it.

• two cheeses, one an aged water buffalo cheese, a really delicious new product from Riverine Ranch, the other Consider Bardwell Farm’s cow cheese, ‘Bardem Blue’
• part of a demi baguette from Bread Alone
• one very ripe Bartlett pear from Locust Grove Fruit Farm, divided, avoiding the bruises

 

• the wine throughout was a Greek (Fteri, Mantinia, Tripolis, Arcadia) white, Troupis, Moschofilero ‘Fteri’ 2017, from Flatiron Wines
• the music was Donizetti’s 1833 tragic opera, ‘Lucrezia Borgia’, Jonel Perlea conducting the  RCA Italiano Orchestra and Chorus, with a cast that included Montserrat Caballé, Shirley Verrett, Alfredo Kraus, and Ezio Flagello

On Tuesday I had intended to prepare a sauce for a dry pasta, but I couldn’t decide on which sauce or which pasta, and it was getting late, so I thought it might be time for the package of filled pasta I had in the freezer; the sauce suggested itself, and in fact almost made itself.

• Rana butternut squash-filled dried tomato-pasta round ravioli, cooked until not quite al dente, introduced to a tin-filled high-sided thick copper saucepan in which one thinly-sliced baby leek and a bit of a home-dried heatless, orange Habanada pepper, both from Norwich Meadows Farm, plus about 15 fresh sage leaves from Eataly, had all been heated over medium heat with 2 or 3 tablespoons of butter until the butter had begun to turn nut-brown and the sage to shrivel, at which time one fourth to one third of a cup of water was added and the mixture stirred, becoming loose and a little soupy, cooked (about 30-45 seconds, or until some of the water is absorbed and the pasta perfectly done), half of a cup of grated Parmigiano-Reggiano Vache Rosse from Eataly tossed in and stirred, now making the sauce somewhat creamy, the contents of the pan seasoned liberally with pepper and salt to taste and served, with more cheese at the table
• the wine was an Italian (Campania) white, Fattoria La Rivolta Taburno Falanghina del Sannio 2015 from Chelsea Wine Vault

• the music was Alfred Schnittke’s last symphony, No. 9 (completed by Alexander Raskatov), Owain Arwel Hughes conducting the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra, followed by Schnittke’s own version of his extraordinary 1977 ‘Concerto Grosso No 1’, reconfigured in 1977 with solo parts for flute and oboe, in this recording also supported by the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra under Hughes

[the 1972 portrait of Alfred Schnittke is by Reginald Gray, and appears on Schnittke’s Wikipedia entry]

I had asked Barry to pick up some Sülze from the German market on Second Avenue while he was uptown in Yorkville, but last night that German head cheese became ‘coppa di testa‘, virtually indistinguishable from the  northern European versions, by the time I served it as the course precedding a fiore di zucca ravioli as a major element of what was very much a nothern Italian meal.

• a section of a German Sülze, on this night passing for a northern Italian coppa di testa, from Schaller & Weber, served with a few leaves of salanova lettuce from Neversink Organic Farm, dressed with Maldon salt, freshly-ground black pepper, juice from a Whole Foods Market organic lemon, a very good olive oil (Alce Nero DOP ‘Terra di Bari Bitonto’ from Eataly), and torn leaves of lovage from Two Guys from Woodbridge; one pickled red egg from Millport Dairy Farm; some Sir Kensington’s Mustard; and a few slices of an organic multigrain baguette from Bread Alone

• twelve ounces of boiled fresh Fiore di Zucca crescent ravioli (with a filling of butternut squash, ricotta, grana padano, and breadcrumbs) from Luca Donofrio‘s fresh pasta shop inside Eataly’s Flatiron location, slipped into a large high-sided tin-lined copper pan in which a sauce had been made with 6 or 8 fresh sage leaves from Phillips Farm warmed in several tablespoons of Organic Valley ‘Cultured Pasture Butter’ (with 12 grams of fat), topped once inside shallow bowls with some grated ‘Organic Parmigiana Reggiani Hombre’ from Whole Foods Market
• the wine was an Italian (Tuscany/Maremma) white, Tenuta Sassoregale Vermentino Maremma Toscana 2015

We ended the meal, each with a Satsuma orange-mandarin from Whole Foods Market.

• the music throughout was Johann Adolf Hasse’s 1728 opera, ‘La contadina’,  Attilio Cremonesi conducting the Ensemble Arcadia

Sweet.

 

There were two courses, first, a salumi with greens…

• Two ounces of La Quercia Salame Americano, from Eataly, arranged on plates, drizzled with with a little Casa Gola olive oil, accompanied by small leaves of arugula from Norwich Meadows Farm, which had been dressed with the same oil, juice from a local hot house Lisbon lemon (Fantastic Gardens of Long Island), salt, and pepper
• slices of a Bien Cuit ‘campagna’ from Forager’s

…followed by a fresh pasta.

• twelve ounces of Fiore di Zucca crescent ravioli from Eataly (a filling of butternut squash, ricotta, grana padano, and breadcrumbs), with a sauce of  6  or 8 fresh sage leaves from Eataly warmed in several tablespoons of ‘Kerrygold Pure Irish Butter‘, with some grated ‘Organic Parmigiana Reggiani Hombre’ from Whole Foods sprinkled on the top of the pasta once it had been placed in bowls

 

• the wine through both courses was an Italian (Marche) white, Le Salse Verdicchio di Matelica 2014
• the music during the first part of the meal was the last movements of Mahler’s Symphony No. 7 in E minor (‘Song of the Night’), Michael Tilson Thomas conducting the San Francisco Symphony, followed by Leif Segerstam’s Symphony No.12 in One Movement, ‘After the Flood’, from the album, ‘Meet the Composer-Conductor‘