Ravioli d'epinards et de ricotta

There are some nights, especially during the winter, when all you want is a big bowl of comforting pasta. I'm back in New York for a month, so I finally have a right to complain about the cold. The Boy is in the midst of his first set of law school exams, so the house has been very quiet, leaving him space to study and me to catch up on reading cookbooks and to do some research on Proust as well.

On Monday, the Boy reached the halfway mark in his exams and wanted to go out for a nice meal, which we haven't yet been able to do. We picked a restaurant and were all set to go, but, after having had some mediocre chopped liver for lunch, I wasn't really feeling up to it. What I really wanted was a nice bowl of spinach ravioli with melted butter--nothing fancy, not too heavy and with vegetables, which I've been craving.

So the Boy braved the cold to go out to Whole Foods and returned with two different kinds of ravioli: Spinach and Ricotta from Raffetto's and Double Spinach from a company I'd never had before. Raffetto's fresh pasta is famous in the city. It's a little Italian goods store on Houston Street that really deserves its own post. Their pasta is made with all good ingredients and always tastes exactly like the flavor it promises. For instance, the Spinach-Ricotta really had the flavor of both and the Ravioli outside was fantastic as well. The Double Spinach were also good, though the Boy preferred Raffetto's. First of all, they were huge! And green! Unfortunately, though, the Spinach filling wasn't as tasty as I might have hoped. It needed just a little bit of Olive Oil or Pepper.

We boiled these in Salted Water for about 8 minutes, then tossed them with two knobs of Butter and several pinches of Salt and Fennel Seeds. The Fennel Seeds were my surprised ingredient at the end and they were delicious! They really made the pasta taste refreshing. All in all, a perfectly comforting meal.

Whole Foods Market
4 Union Square South
New York, NY 10003


Food and Ravioli and Pasta and Vegetarian and Prepared Foods