Before Covid we habitually shopped at our local Publix and Sprouts stores several times a week to ensure a fresh supply of fruit, vegetables, salad fixings and bread. Now due to quarantine restrictions a carefully calculated once weekly shopping protocol packs the freezer and fridge to the gills. Since avoiding waste is a major concern, we clear out the fridge before driving to the pickup section of the Publix parking lot on the appointed shopping day. This was the day.
Digging around the shelves and drawers, I found an opened container of ricotta, a package of saved fennel fronds, some aging portabellos and a fresh package of Chinese beech mushrooms my daughter had bought at the Asian store a week earlier. At 3 pm I had a decision to make. Two eggs and a mixture of 200 grams of Type 00 and durum flour plus a few drops of water yielded pasta dough in short order. Grabbing a jar of sauce, I added onion, garlic, parmesan rind and an anise pod and set it to stew while sauteing the minced mushrooms with garlic, ground fennel and the freshly chopped fennel fronds. After a period of cooling, grated parm, ricotta and seasoning completed the mix. Once rolled to setting #6, the pasta yielded two dozen ravioli. While waiting for the water to boil, I quickly removed one sweet Italian sausage out of the casing, browned it, added the sauce and a bit of broth and let it simmer til cooked through.
From the freezer compartment I rescued the last stuffed artichoke from earlier in the year and braised it until steaming. And from the fridge, I measured out 500 grams of semolina bread dough, let it rise 90 minutes and baked it in a cast iron pot.
This was a major hustle. Jerry lent a helping hand throughout the process and really pitched in on cleanup duty after the meal. While it was delicious, I felt the sauce overpowered the filling a bit. Luckily, I still have enough filling left over for another small batch. I'm thinking of sauteing the cooked ravioli in butter for a slightly crispy finish with perhaps a little rendered pancetta for texture and salt.