My feet, my hands, my back; I’m tired.

I’m tired like restaurant business tired, but we got so much good stuff, and we got so much done.We went to Santa Monica Farmers’ Market at the crack of ass this morning and came back with sprouting broccoli, spanish onions, shallots, torpedo onions, green garlic, fennel bulbs, artichokes, fava beans, sage, savory, parsley, oregano, cilantro, celery, carrots (4 or 5 colors), beets, chard, potatoes, zucchini and god knows what else.

I have a few phots, but they will have to wait for tomorrow, as will the menu… too tired now.

Goodnight, moon.

It’s time, bitches.

The battaria di cucina is unloaded, and tomorrow we shop (at Santa Monica Farmer’s Market). Here’s the tentative menu, subject to change tomorrow, of course:

Pani Pasquali
Torta di Riso Liguriana
Pizza Chena Cilentana
Mafalda al Serpente
Panini di Pepe

Ravioli di Fave
Fava Ravioli with Sheep’s Milk Ricotta

Capretto Stufato
Kid braised with potatoes
Contorni

Pastiera Napoletana
Neapolitan Easter Grain Pie

Granita di Limone
Eureka Lemon Granita

The goat is butchered, and it’s in the fridge. BOO YA.

I have 5 doughs to percentagize, size, make shopping lists for – not to mention make. I have to work out the wines with Massi…and I have to organize the logistics across 2 cities and three kitchens.

BREATHE.

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.

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.

>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…

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…

Here’s the scrawl for the menu so far:

Pizza Chena: still recreating Ham Pie memories from childhood
Casatiello: Neapolitan easter bread, contributed by none other than La Mamma di Mamme, Anna
Pane Pasquali: still on the fence about whether 2 easter breads- this one Sicilian- are necessary… but we are going to be 20.

Ravioli di Fave: This year I am foregoing tradition in lieu of savor. There is a missing link with the Tuma Cheese ravioli that I am still working on, so I’m going to go with more favas in the filling, and less cheese, and the cheese will be ricotta- hopefully sheep’s milk… but that’s a tough grab in socal…

Capretto: I think we are really going to get a goat this year, and I am so excited. I don’t know how I’ll cook it, and I don’t want to jinx it, but I see jerusalem artichikes in my future. One of the most fun italian words to say, ever: topinamburo.

Pastiera Napoletana: Anna will be showing me up with the pastiera this year. I think my pastiera last year was presentable, but lacking in refinement.

Granita di Limone: Lemon ice. Who doesn’t like Lemon ice?

Agnellini Pasquali: I bought lamb moulds, so we’ll see. I am making them out of Pasta Reali- sicilian marzipan. Here goes nothing…

Thoughts?

Well, here’s the menu, if you can’t wait to find out. It’s a mixture of Neapolitan, Sicilian and Southern Californian influences, with nods to tradition, availability and pragmatism. And no, unfortunately, I did not find a goat.

*Pizza Chena* Easter “Stuffed” Pie in the style of Acqua Bella, Campania: A rich yeast dough with butter and eggs, filled with basket cheese, ham, pecorino romano and herbs.

*Torta di Zucchini* Another Easter Pie, this time Filo filled with a custard holding together Salame Napoletano, zucchini and spring onions.

*Pane Pasquali* A festive yellow bread dough braided with whole eggs, covered with poppy seeds and baked.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Ravioli of Fava Beans with tuma cheese, sauced with butter, olive oil and marjoram, with caciocavallo cheese

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Lamb Leg *Cacio e Uova*: Braised Lamb with onions and white wine with an enriched sauce of eggs, lemon and cheese

Braised artichokes
Roasted potatoes with rosemary

Arugula Salad with Lemon

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

*Pastiera Napoletana* Easter grain pie

*Risu Niuro* Sicilian Black Easter Risotto (with cocoa, not squid ink, you knucklehead)

So, as you can see, I have to get back to work. I hope you all have a *great* holiday.

Listening: NPR, [Fresh Air](http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=13)

I’m only partly Sicilian by extraction, although most of my cultural exposure was with Sicilians, but a lot of my family traditions are *cilentano*, that is to say from Campania, which is to say Naples, the capital of Campania. That means *pastiera*, or grain pie, a sweet pie made of hulled wheat berries. It also means *pizza chena*, or *pizza piena*, which means stuffed pie (the former the Neapolitan word, the latter Italian), a yeast-raisd dough stuffed with any combination of salumi, cheeses, herbs and boiled eggs. The “ham pie” of my childhod is a simple animal made of ham, hardboiled eggs, fresh ricotta (basket cheese) and parsley.

Strangely, we never had lamb on Easter, but then again we never had lamb ever because my mother doesn’t like it. In fact, the first time I had it, it was in a restaurant when I was 12 or 13, and I ordered it mainly because I knew my mother didn’t like it. And even though it wasn’t phenomenal and it came with irridescent green mint jelly, I knew that there was something to this whole lamb thing.

What we did have was ravioli. In fact, I made my first-ever ravioli for easter, when I was 9 or 10. My mom thought I was nuts (she still does).

So I’m working on the menu, but I’m trying to hit all the traditional bases: favas, cheese, eggs, peas and artichokes. We’ll see how the markets treat me.

I’ll tell you, it’s not easy to find a lot of specialty Italian products in Southern California. In New York- or even Philadelphia- imported and artisanally made products are everywhere, **especially** around Easter. But here, not so much. I did find tuma, a somewhat obscure sicilian cheese, in this little deli near my house. If you’re in long beach, I recommend [Angelo's](http://www.yelp.com/biz/angelos-italian-deli-long-beach) highly. But it seems like I have to go back to mail order, well, internet order, which I haven’t really done since the Food Network Revolution. That and, of course, I need to start adapting recipes to available products, just like the immigrants did. But for this year, I’m sticking to the originals as much as I can.

Listening: “I Palindrome I” Apollo 18 They Might Be Giants