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.
