No, not Brickman’s, again. This time, I was my own worst enemy.
Last week, I took my family’s signature pasta (cappellettis), and stuffed it with pumpkin. I don’t know what could have possessed me? Oh yeah, that heap of squash in the corner of my kitchen.
I roasted and mashed the pumpkin, added sautéed onion, Romano cheese, thyme, and fresh grated nutmeg, and then wrapped it all up into dozens of little pasta packages. I planned to smother my new-fangled cappellettis in brown butter and sage, and then weep softly as I polished off my own plate as well as those intended for the rest of my family.
One of my pet peeves about ravioli and such is when the delicious filling leaks out into the pasta water as you boil them. It’s especially irksome when it exposes and/or eliminates the mystery vegetable intended for your children (or yourself, whatever). So, with this in mind, I dug out (avert your eyes, Nonni) my bamboo steamer and proceeded to lay the little dumplings out in a single layer on each of the two levels.
In my mind, Terry Gross was probing me with fascinating questions about my brilliance. Meanwhile, a different little voice in my head was yelling “Alert, alert.” Another one of my pet peeves is when that little voice interferes with my plans. I ignored it. Continue, Terry, I said. I’m sure you can see where this is going.
The cappellettis were nicely steamed (although the pasta isn’t quite as tender as when it’s boiled) and all beautifully intact. That is, until I tried to pry them off the racks to which they had become fused. Okay, so maybe oiling the racks would have been a good idea. Chalk one up for the little voice. After a series of ungraceful spatula maneuvers, and several disapproving looks from Terry, I got them all off. Their structural integrity was woefully compromised, but at least all the holes were on the bottom. And they were still good.
Take that, Terry Gross.
Nice, though. Eh?
:-)
Posted by: cookiecrumb | October 22, 2007 at 03:35 PM
I'm guessing you missed the steamer lecture where we layer it all in lettuce leaves so nothing sticks.
They do look damn good though.
Posted by: jo | October 22, 2007 at 03:36 PM
Jo: Apparently. Tell Roberta I'm not giving my diploma back. She'll have to pry it out of my cold, dead hands.
CC: They sure tasted good.
Posted by: Tammy | October 22, 2007 at 05:58 PM
Amazingly enough, the SAME thing happened to me this weekend while making artichoke-lemon ravioli. I was a bit concerned about structural integrity, so I steamed the ravioli only to realize that they were totally stuck to the steamer. Round two were just boiled the regular way and they held up fine. I made tagliatelle with the remaining dough. I LOVE fresh pasta!
Posted by: Sandicita | October 22, 2007 at 07:23 PM
Compromised structural integrity or no, those look mighty, mighty good.
And I often imagine myself interviewed by famous figures for the most inane accomplishments. "Well, yeah, not many people can win a game of Halo 3 and answer their cellphones at the same time..."
Posted by: Jim | October 23, 2007 at 11:26 AM
So funny that you posted this on Monday, and I made butternut squash ravioli last night using pot sticker wrappers (obviously, I'm much lazier than you are). Structural integrity while boiling was very questionable, but instead of leaking all over the place, they stuck to each other like crazy. Although the browned-butter sauce with sage kind of made it all better!
Posted by: Kim | October 23, 2007 at 11:36 AM
Kim: Brown butter with sage makes EVERYTHING better. Nice site you have, BTW.
Jim: I figure it's best to have some answers worked out ahead of time just in case it's just me and Terry Gross left on the planet.
Sandicita: Spooky! And yet reassuring. Your artichoke-lemon ravioli sounds divine.
Posted by: Tammy | October 23, 2007 at 10:25 PM
If you have any left overs I will gladly take them off your hands.
:)
Posted by: trev | October 26, 2007 at 11:28 AM