Ho.. Hum... and Ravioli with Duck Prociutto

So I started my two new jobs this past week and so far so good.  The health food store job is really fun.  But everyone there keeps telling me about how much better it was before the owners sold to a big investment company.  Apparently, the small chain of 6 stores was sold a few months ago to some big Canadian investment company and things have been going downhill since.  Not so much in sales but just in ease of day to day operations.  I'm sure sure most of you know the story... great place run by a family, amazing to employees taken over by evil bureaucracy with a new manager every day, nothing getting done, yaada yadda.  Just the general shittyness that ensues when it becomes all about turning a profit and everyone is expendable. 

 So despite liking it in terms of what I'm actually doing all day, it's kinda been a bummer.  I'm not sure if it's just the general moral being down but now I feel really down too.  And believe me folks I have 100% nothing to be upset about.  The biggest tragedy in my life right now is having a gloriously inconsistent e-flat above High C.  It is either totally amazing or completely non existent and I mean like.... whoa.. cry me a river over that one right.  

So in an effort to rally myself out of this totally unnecessary malaise lets talk about things that are great!!  

I found a provider of natural pork and other meats.  It is called Gaia's Breath farm and they have a stand at my local farmers market.  They have a limited variety of items at the market but you can put in an order and they will have it for you the following Saturday for pick up.  They also have a CSA that can be delivered Saturdays to my market too so I'm considering this as well.  Not only am I receiving my belly this weekend but the owner Mark is totally into charcuterie and willing to answer questions and help.  I also purchased 2lbs of pork back fat to freeze for future sausages and confit.  I'll let you know how the curing etc goes once the belly is mine!!   

My ravioli came out great the other night.  The stuffing was a little dry but other than that it was fab.  It was my first time making ravioli solo and I was pretty happy with the outcome.  I used the Thomas Keller recipe for Agnolotti dough.  It worked great.  However, I was really sceptical that it was coming out right.  The dough was REALLY dry.. I mean really.  I was convinced that my eggs, despite being large, were undersized making a less moist dough.  Perhaps I was right or perhaps it was the magic of Thomas Keller and it was totally fine the whole time. 

Pretty nice right!!  They were filled with chestnuts, garlic, parsley, Romano, home made ricotta, salt and pepper.

The finished dish: Chestnut Ravioli with a sauce of duck prociutto, carrots, cherries, and white wine over Khale.

It was pretty tasty, next time I need to get two quarts of milk to make my Ricotta though.  If I had a little more cheese the filling would have had a better texture.  Tonight I'm making the braised short ribs out of the Ad Hoc cookbook.  I'll keep you posted if it comes out great :)

xoxo

Fast Alice