“Everything is Pastable!”

This quippy saying, coined this morning by Lou, couldn’t be truer and in fact, describes my Monday perfectly. My day started at three in the morning with an excruciating ear ache. I was lying awake, wondering how I’d be able to juggle my 10:00 am ravioli-making date with a trip to the doctor. There was no way I’d cancel my cooking date — if anything, I’d postpone my doctor visit. My sugar pumpkin puree from the fall was like gold, already defrosted and waiting to be made into a ravioli filling. Plus, any time I cook with Lou, it’s a winning way to spend an hour or two, both rewarding and inspiring. And this cooking date, which happened to be scheduled the day before Lou’s knee operation, had to happen! Our next one could possibly be several weeks away.

So I squeezed in a quick trip to the doctor after dropping the kids off at school and as I suspected, was told I had an ear infection. The doctor couldn’t quite see as well as she would have liked (Lou knows why!) but sent me off with two antibiotics. I was a tad late to Lou’s, but since he’d already made the dough, and Debbie and I our fillings, we got to work right away.

Now Lou’s a pro at making ravioli, so everything went smoothly. If the dough started to crack as we fed it through his Kitchen Aid pasta attachment, he’d sprinkle a bit of semolina flour on top, fold it a few times, crank the motor and before we knew it, we had perfect ribbons of dough. It’s always a pleasure using Lou’s handmade pasta making tools, a board to press the pieces of dough together, another wooden tool to seal the edges. He has the process of ravioli making so down that we were able to make 120 pieces of ravioli in just over an hour. We even had a few minutes for a sampling!

My friend Emilie, who saw our cars in front of Lou’s house, stopped by to see what all the action was — just in time for a quick sampling. First we tasted Debbie’s delicious three-meat ravioli, then Lou’s fabulous mushroom ravioli, made with spinach dough (which he had tucked away in his freezer), and then my sweet and savory pumpkin ravioli. We enjoyed our tasting, course by course, each portion with a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of parmesan cheese. Each type of ravioli was a distinctive combination of swoon-worthy flavors. It was an absolutely delicious interlude to a busy day. And as I ran out the door to pick my four-year old up from school and trot off to another lunch date, I realized “Everything is Pastable.”

And then, when I served my son the meat ravioli for dinner, he said it was the best ever.

Here’s our recipe for a Pumpkin Ravioli Filling:

1 cup pumpkin puree
½ cup ricotta cheese
½ cup parmesan cheese
1 egg, lightly beaten
½ teaspoon kosher salt
pepper to taste
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
pinch of cinnamon
½ teaspoon molasses (thanks Lou!)

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl and use as filling when making ravioli.