Alone in the Kitchen Making Ravioli

Although I often make homemade pasta, I’d never made ravioli before. So I was thrilled that my friends Katrina and Lauren would join me on this adventure. I prepared the dough the day before and set out my pasta maker and ingredients for mushroom ravioli. But then, Katrina emailed to say her son was sick. A few minutes later, Lauren called and said she’d been up all night with her sick child. This is defnitely a hazard of playgroup cooking –eventually everyone has sick children. But what would I do now?

There was no choice but to go ahead–I had all the ingredients waiting and really, really wanted to have ravioli for dinner that night. When I rolled out the dough, I wished I had someone to cut and hand it to me as I fed it through the machine. When I couldn’t find my Cuisinart blade (which I safely put away somewhere I couldn’t recall on my spring cleaning spree), I wished I had a neighbor to run over to get hers. I also wished I had someone to talk with about the amount of filling, and whatever else came up.

While I was cooking, Alison called (who many of you know is my best friend from high school in addition to introducing me to the whole Cooking With Friends concept). As this is a recipe she developed, I made her stay on the phone with me through part of it. Thanks, Alison! The Mushroom Ravioli turned out beautifully, and were absolutely delicious. I brought some to Katrina’s family, as she was having a particularly hard week. Now that I’ve done this, I think ravioli-making is a perfect three-person cooking project. I look forward to trying it again, with many different fillings, with friends for years to come.