We recently made, from scratch, ravioli. I don’t mean we purchased fresh ravioli and then boiled them, I mean we mixed and kneaded pasta dough, rolled it out, made a ravioli filling, filled ravioli in a mold, cut them out, and boiled them. It was a lot of work.
We don’t own a pasta maker of any sort and the significant elbow grease required made me very appreciative of the existence of pasta makers, very appreciative of being able to buy pasta, and very appreciative of the fact that pre-pasta makers and the availability of store-bought pasta, some homemakers made pasta regularly.
The result tasted alright but I could see the potential that the creation contained. I could see that with repetition our skill could increase substantially. And I believed that our living kitchen-patron-saint, Michael Pollan, would approve of our arduous efforts. The effort required underscored the wisdom of large batch cooking and in turn, if you’re the one doing the cooking, of left-overs.
At the same time, to compliment our creation, we made a ragu-type pasta sauce. This much more common exercise turned out fairly well. While it benefited from owning an immersion blender to break it up a bit, something everyone with any interest in your own cooking creations with limited space should make the room for, it probably would have still tasted at least adequate with out one. I think regardless of whether or not you own an immersion blender, making the sauce utilized many ingredients we would purchase anyway as well as many ingredients that otherwise contribute to a health.
So, not only did our experiment result in a vast amount of tasty food, it also increased our appreciation for the endeavor and probably resulted in a good work out too. Surprise surprise to any other adherent to Michael Pollan’s philosophies, I support the idea of making your own ravioli or other pasta, at least once.