Our Sunday pasta treat. Delicioso!
I've been wanting to blog about this for awhile but blogging got pushed to the end of the list during the holidays. In November, a few friends and I got together for a kid free afternoon of catch up, girl talk, nibbles........ and about 6 solid hours of ravioli and tortellini making! I have always wanted to learn how to do this. I even have a pasta attachment for my kitchen aid, but there it sits, sparkling new and unused in the box in the basement. I had good intentions when making out that wedding registry, I really did...... So, anyways, when my friend, Dana, invited us all over to learn how to make homemade pasta treats, I was excited. We each made a different filling and this way we each would take home a few dinners to freeze and we would get to try new and different ravioli's. I made a spinach/mushroom/mascarpone cheese filling, and other fillings were pear/cheese, pork/cheddar, lasagna, spinach/feta/sun dried tomatoes, shrimp, four cheese and butternut squash. At the end of our 6 hours, we had handmade about 100 (yes, you read right, ONE HUNDRED) dozen of these beauties! I will admit, it was a bit labor intensive because of the amount of filling we had, but I am so glad I learned how to do all of this from scratch. I think we are all masters now. We could rival any little old Italian woman! And the big benefit? Ready made meals to go in the freezer! I can't wait to try them all. Tonight I tried the butternut squash ravioli's. They were in a word: Awesome. I will have to call Nanette (who made the filling) and sing her praises. Delicious. And I got to go through my Big Binder Of Recipes I Will Someday Make and find a sauce to go with it- Giada's brown butter sauce with cranberries, toasted walnuts and fresh sage was something I always wanted to make. It was the perfect compliment! John even liked it, and that says a lot coming from him. This isn't "John Food". :) He admitted he was skeptical at first, but really did enjoy it. I am so looking forward to trying all the fillings. So is from scratch better than store bought? In this case, definitely yes! But realistically, will I search the basement any time soon for my pasta attachment? Probably not. But it's a pretty good way to spend a few hours with friends, however my patience level is way too low to do it alone!
Picture perfect butternut squash filled ravioli's. These are Nanette's and it seems as if she had found her true calling. Look at these babies!
2 comments:
Ohmygod!!! This sounds like such a FUN time!!! I wish I knew people around here that would want to do something like that. Oh, and next to lobster ravioli, butternut squash ravs are my favorite. So creamy, especially with a brown butter sauce, some walnuts and craisins. Mmmmm. :)
Oh, that looks SOOOOOOO GOOD!!!!!! Wow, I am drooling~:-)) Gotta save that brown butter recipe too... looks amazing!!!
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