Easter – T minus 2 days

I just realized that facebook has been getting better info than you guys. [The photos](http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=13308&id=1627995706&l=30251d2b87) will remain there for the time being, but anyone can view them, whether you’re on facebook or not.

But here’s the roundup for today:

**Ravioli**

At 9AM I had a kilo of flour on the counter and 600g of eggs. I’m all metric since I have been working with my buddy Anna, who doesn’t know a pound from a… a… cubit, I dunno, she only knows metric, so I can adapt. I had big USDA jumbo eggs, which weigh just over 2 oz (60g), so there were probably about ten of them, though USDA large eggs would be more like 12, since they normally weigh in at 1.75oz (50g). All this is out of the shell, btw. I just lost some respect for a very highly regarded cookbook when I realized today that all its recipes listed “whole eggs” and the weights were for shell-on eggs. Stupid…

Note that I am referring to the sizes as “USDA Large” or whatever. There is a reason. Their size is legally graded into Small, Medium, Large, Extra-Large and Jumbo, and although their size has nothing to do with quality, you should be aware that these sizes mean something specific. If you make a cake with large eggs that called for jumbo, as some do, you may not be happy with the results.

Anyway, once the pasta was all kneaded up (which hurt since I kind of overdid my workout yesterday), I had the filling ingredients all laid out, so I mixed up the filling. Speaking of kneading, I think the problems some of you have been emailing me about have come from under-kneading. When in doubt, keep kneading. I may grow to regret this statement, but I would say it is nearly impossible to over-knead by hand. Someday I will post a more comprehensive Pasta Opus than what is already here.

Back to the filling. For once, I even wrote down what I put in it:

4 cups shucked AND peeled favas (this is from **ten pounds** of whole favas)
2 lbs Ricotta, pref sheep’s milk
1 cup Pecorino Romano (or sardo), grated
1 cup Parmiggiano Reggiano (or Grana Padano), grated
1-2 tbsn Chopped fresh mint
To taste Salt, Black Pepper and Nutmeg
3 jumbo eggs
1 or 2 jumbo egg yolks

(I know it seems weird that I can’t tell you exactly how many eggs I used, but I was in the zone and had to pick through the compost to guess how many, either way won’t hurt it.)

This amount of filling and pasta will easily make 120 ravioli. And let me tell you, the pastry bag (or the freezer bag with the corner snipped off) is the way to go. I just saw that at a restaurant a few weeks ago and decided to try it… it even beats the 1 tablespoon ice cream scoop.

**Bread**

I’m making a Sicilian bread called *mafalda*, which is made from white flour and semolina flour, and it is the dough for the famous “Eyes of St Lucy” bread. In case you sat that religion class out, St Lucy is the patron saint of the eyes, and of Siracusa, Sicily. When she refused to marry a pagan that her parents had arranged for her to wed, he outed her as a Christian to the romans. When the local magistrate bade her to offer a sacrifice to the emperor, she basically flipped him off- in a very christlike way- and she was sentenced to work in a brothel. As if this wasn’t enough, when they came to get her, they stabbed her in the throat and drug her through the town with a team of oxen, before finally gouging out the eyes of a fifteen year old girl.

Oh, it gets better. Christian iconographers of the time then decided to depict her carrying her eyes before her on a plate, which led to the famous spiraled bread, the eyes of St Lucy, the most morbid bread ever conceived. (Pictures to come.)

There’s also a long tradition of sweet-and-savory in Sicilian cooking, including in bread, and perking away in the fridge is a *biga* for black pepper rolls…mmmmmmmm.

OK, I’m exhausted, more to come.

Listening: “This Is Hip” Johnny Lee Hooker, from some compilation, but a great track.

Easter Photos

Since Drupal hates me and I can’t upload photos, I’ll let facebook deal with it.

Here’s some photos of the [pregame](http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=13308&id=1627995706&l=30251d2b87), courtesy of Santa Monica farmer’s market.

Na Pascha Arriva – Final Menu

Easter 2009 is just around the corner, and with vendors lined up, we move forward with the menu as follows (not much has changed):

>Pani Pasquali
Easter Breads and Pies

This year, our guest of honor is making *Casatiello,* a traditional Neapolitan savory bread. I am making a *Triccia ai Racine Secche*, a braided egg bread that straddles sweet and salty, like so much Sicilian food. And a *Pizza Chena*, or “Ham Pie” in the cilentano style, with fresh basket cheese and smoked ham. Plus, time permitting, I will make Mrs La Puma’s pepper and anise seed rolls… mmmmmmmmmmm.

>Ravioli di Fave
Fava Ravioli with Sheep’s Milk Ricotta

A little departure from the Sicilian method here to something a little more mainstream, but sheep’s milk ricotta is really something else.

>Gamba D’agnello Cacio e Uova
Leg of Lamb with Eggs and Cheese

Just like we had [last year](http://omnivorousfish.com/node/311). Good, but no goat.

>Pastiera Napoletana
Neapolitan Easter Grain Pie

Again, from Anna, who will show me what-for in the grain pie department.

>Granita di Limone
Eureka Lemon Granita

But what lemons… thank you Robin!

>Agnellini Pasquali
Marzipan Easter Lambs

On the fence about this, but I’m going to take a stab at a couple of simple ones. Work my way up to making my own plaster molds…

It takes a village to make ravioli

Today I was up in Sicily-like Simi Valley, visiting Robin and Terry and Stella and Lola and Frodo. Relax, Frodo is a chao-corgi mix. Lola is a very stately older retriever mix and Stella is my doll: a bright, peppy young Blue Heeler. (Robin and Terry are Homo Sapiens.)

We dug around in the garden for a while looking for dinner. Since we decided on making Swiss chard ravioli, we had to dig up the makings of [caponata](http://omnivorousfish.com/node/66), so we had something to snack on.

But the boogie prize goes to the six and a half pounds of gorgeous favas that we thinned out of Robin’s winter cover crop. A close second are the bowls full of softball-sized lemons and red, succulent *morri*, Sicilian blood oranges.

Robin’s garden is a little bit mad scientist, with rows this way and that, but also patches of this here and a thatch of that there, making it nearly impossible to step anywhere without killing a seedling, but coming up with a beautiful, biodiverse garden that is the envy of… well, of me, at least.

One step closer to fava ravioli…