The idea arose while planning for an epic New Year’s Eve feast defined by “indulgence.” The initial idea was to fly in a white truffle from Italy and serve simply with fresh linguine, a bit of butter and parmesan. Unfortunately, the white truffle season ended early and the exorbitant prices made us re-think this indulgent pasta dish. Next on the list? The Raviolo di uovo, suggested by Mike of Rooftop Gourmet. For a meal that revolves around all things glamorous and decadent, his suggestion seemed just the thing, and I happily took on the challenge.

While the egg is certainly the star of this dish, you can’t forget about the cheese. So off to South End Formaggio I went to buy our favorite ricotta from Narragansett Creamery, parmesan, and of course, some farm fresh local eggs.

The filling was composed of just a few quality ingredients: ricotta, freshly grated parmesan, salt, pepper, sliced black truffle in olive oil (I had a sample in the pantry that I’ve been eyeing for over a year now) and freshly grated nutmeg.

Next came the dough. Since I made the pasta by hand, I altered the Nella recipe a bit to include more all-purpose flour which is much easier to work with if you aren’t using a machine. Once the dough was rolled out, I used a glass I had in the house to trace a circle, piped in the filling and oh-so-carefully dropped in the yolk from a separated egg.

This is one of those don’t-stomp-touch-anything-breathe-etc. recipes where you just need to concentrate on being super careful with the ultra fragile egg. The result was worth it. Once topped with another layer of pasta, I was left with a beautiful raviolo, filled to capacity with a brilliant orange egg yolk still entact, visible from the thin sheet of dough that covers it. I treated the ravioli (now were talking multiple ravioli, so the -i works) like tiny sleeping babies on the walk over to Mike’s, walking carefully and not letting a sole touch them until it was time to cook.

When the time came, the ravioli took a quick 1 minute swim in boiling water, then another minute in some bubbling butter with thyme and reserved mushroom liquid and then for the shining moment…..the fork pierced the yolk and just as we had been anticipating from the moment the recipe came to mind, the gorgeous ooze of the semi-raw farm egg.

Sometimes I laugh when food is referred to as sexy…but this, my friends, defines sexy food. Try these at home and I promise you won’t be disappointed. Thanks Rooftop Gourmet for the inspiration to create this incredible dish!

We know… you don’t even want to hear the word stove today. We get it– it’s too darn hot! If you can bear a mere 2 minutes of heat, here are some fantastic (and cold!) add ins to make a complete dinner with Nella Pasta linguine or ravioli is just about 5 minutes….

-tuna packed in olive oil with arugula, tomatoes and fresh lemon juice (try with our classic linguine)

-fresh chopped tomatoes with balsamic vinaigrette and basil/ parsley/ chives and/or herb of your choice (try with any linguine or our zucchini & caramelized onion ravioli)

-throw together a mix of herbs (mint, basil, parsley, chives, green onion) into a food processor with some butter and/or olive oil, add to pasta and mix with a handful of spinach or arugula (try with our roasted beet & goat cheese ravioli or wheat & ground flaxseed linguine)

-peel zucchini, summer squash or carrots into long ribbons and add to hot pasta (the heat from the pasta will wilt the veggies), toss with extra virgin olive oil or your favorite vinaigrette and serve cold or room temperature

-shred some rotisserie chicken (no cooking needed!) and add chopped tomatoes, olives and capers with a lemon vinaigrette

-again shred some rotisserie chicken, tear up some basil and serve with our Broccoli, Feta & Toasted Cashew ravioli (for a way better and healthier version of the ever-so-popular chicken, broccoli & ziti dish)

Your get the idea: fresh veggies (no cooking needed!), a fresh herb, a yummy cheese (fresh mozzarella, feta, goat cheese, shaved parmesan) and some olive oil or vinaigrette and you have yourself a fast, healthy meal that requires only 1-3 minutes cooking time. For more ideas, see the “Simple Summer Pastas” section in the August Issue of Martha Stewart Living. Stay cool!

Cooking with Our Ravioli This Summer

“I’ve been working at Nella Pasta for a few months now, and it’s so much fun.  I love helping to create our yummy pasta varieties, and of course, I love tasting all the different flavors!  As we move into the height of summer, it’s exciting to see New England’s local produce being transformed into our pastas.  Nella’s flavors shine on their own, but they are also a great base for of lot of creativity in the kitchen.

For a pot luck in my neighborhood recently, I decided to make a pasta salad using our Roasted Beet & Goat Cheese Ravioli.  This ravioli is flavored with tarragon, which works well with citrus, so I decided to use preserved lemons to the vinaigrette.  You can buy preserved lemons already made at most specialty stores, but honestly, they are so simple to make—and once you do, you’ll find all sorts of uses for them. Check out this recipe for preserved lemons.

But back to my pasta salad… With the lemons for flavor, I went with watercress and pistachios for crunch.  And voila!  A great salad that disappeared quickly at the pot luck. Here’s what I did:

Pot Luck Ravioli Salad

12 oz. (1 box) Nella Pasta Roasted Beet & Goat Cheese Ravioli

1 small bunch watercress, washed and trimmed of stems

½ c. shelled pistachios

2 T. preserved lemons, diced small

3 T. extra virgin olive oil

1 T. white wine or sherry vinegar

kosher salt and ground black pepper to taste

1. Mix the olive oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, and lemons in the bottom of a large serving bowl.

2. Following our instructions, cook ravioli 2-3 minutes until tender.

3. Drain the pasta.  While still warm, toss the ravioli with the vinaigrette.

4. Add watercress leaves and pistachios.  Toss together, and adjust for taste.

I hope this inspires you to create your own summer meal using Nella Pasta.  Next up on my table: our Zucchini & Carmelized Onion Ravioli with some roasted veggies and pancetta.”

And that’s where you come in…. we’re looking for qualified part-time candidates to assist in the sales of our products for the rest of the 2011 farmers market season. We have markets around the Boston and South Shore area Tuesday-Sunday.  Ideally, anyone interested must be willing to commit to this position from June through the end of October.

The candidate must have their own transportation (SUV a plus) and be willing to travel up to 50 miles per day with gas reimbursement available. Responsibilities will include arriving at our kitchen to pack the car with farmers market supplies (cooler, tent, signage etc.) and the cooler with product.  Next, the candidate will drive to the specified market to set-up the stand, give out samples, sell and inform customers about our product throughout the farmers market. At the end of the market they will breakdown and drive back to the kitchen to drop off excess product (if applicable!) and supplies.

We are looking for an outgoing and responsible individual with a love and knowledge of food and sales experience a plus.

Training will be provided for the right candidate. Various days and hours available (particularly Thursdays starting immediately and Sundays starting in July), please inquire for more information.

Spend the summer outside chatting with fellow food lovers and help us spread the word (and of course, ravioli) about Nella! If you are interested in applying, please send resume and cover letter to Nellapasta@gmail.com and include availability. Also, please describe your favorite meal and why!

Over the past 6 months we’ve been busy re-vamping our logo, changing our packaging, nailing down 12 varieties of ravioli, finding a new ravioli machine, creating a new website and…. well, obviously not blogging. I was actually a bit mortified when I clicked on the blog tab on our brand spankin’ new website to find our last post, “Hingham Holiday Market.” Oops! So clearly it’s a bit late for six month’s worth of posts, so instead we’ll run through a cliff’s notes version of our winter…

First, as everyone is well aware (because we would tell anyone who would listen), our search for the ravioli machine… After our big DailyCandy win, the sometimes-working-but-more-often-not ravioli machine would just no longer do. So off to PA we went to visit Arcobaleno, an Italian pasta machine distributor that offers training on the actual machines you buy before you purchase them. Not a bad idea huh? So after making sure we found the one, we welcomed our new baby, affectionately nick-named “Mama Nella,” to CropCircle Kitchen.

Never afraid of a challenge, our first order filled using the new machine was not 1 lb, not 10, but 400 lbs of Roasted Local Winter Squash Ravioli for the Brookline Public Schools served during their “Climate Week,” teaching students how food choices affect the environment. What an amazing way to break in the new machine while helping a very worthy cause!

Ok, machine- check! But put beautiful new ravioli in the same ‘ol packing? No way! Back to the drawing board to come up with a new way to showcase our products now that we’re ready to sell wholesale. Not only does the packaging have to pass the easily recycled test, but it also has to embody Nella as a brand and stand out on a shelf. After months of planning, proof-reading, and playing with design ideas, we unveiled Nella’s New ‘Do…

So speaking of streamlining our packaging, now might be the time to explain  our new menu. In the past, we’ve made a different variety of ravioli (not to mention a handful of other pasta shapes) each and everyday. While we loved the variety, flexibility and creativity that went into changing up our varieties, labeling logistics were a disaster. Also, we had many customers asking for previous varieties that they tried and loved and we never brought them back. Well we think we’ve come up with the perfect solution: narrowing our menu down to 12 varieties (5 fall/ winter, 7 spring/summer) based on customer favorites over the last 2 years. Everyone wins!

With all this beautiful packaging and the capacity to make a ton of ravioli, where, you may ask, can you find it?? Over the winter we have been participating in the Milton Farmer’s Market at Thayer Nursery every Sunday and the Plymouth Winter Farmer’s Market at the Historic Plimoth Plantation every second Thursday of the month.

Also, we are finally selling wholesale to local grocers and specialty stores! Our list is constantly growing, but you can currently find Nella Pasta at the South End Formaggio, Hingham Fruit Center, Sherman Market, City Feed & Supply, and Allandale Farm. Later this week we’ll also be expanding to the Milton Fruit Center and Wasik’s Cheese Shop. If you have a favorite shop that you don’t see listed here, please let us know (better yet, ask the store manager for it!). Look out for free tasting at the stores mentioned above, we have at least 1-3 tastings a week– we’ll be at Wasik’s Cheese Shop tomorrow from 11-2!

Lastly, we now have a new, comprehensive website (that’s just about finished) where you can find just about anything you’d ever want to know about Nella Pasta. Take a look around, learn a bit more about how we got started, what we’ve been up to over the past two years, where we operate and lots more. Feel free to send along your feedback– we’d love to hear it!

So we may have missed a thing or two (MA winter are long), but that’s a brief synopsis of what we’ve been up to while hibernating from the blog all winter long! We’re so thrilled to be up and running in markets and stores and can’t wait to expand ten-fold come the start of the farmer’s market season. Hope you all have had a great winter and stay tuned for our list of farmers markets for the 2011 season!

-L & R

Also since we love to multi-task, we spent the day prepping for a catered luncheon including a maple roasted butternut squash & orzo dish with a brown butter sage sauce and chicken saltimbocca with local kale, prosciutto, mozzarella and sage in a marsala wine reduction sauce. You can imagine how good the kitchen smelled today!

Hope to see you tomorrow at Hingham High!

Local herbs and vegetables? check. We’ve spent the past two seasons forming relationships with local farms to obtain the very best seasonal produce. Local flour?  yup, we’ve got that too with Four Star Farms, a locally grown and harvested wheat farm in Northfield, MA. We discovered this family-run farm earlier this summer and couldn’t be more thrilled with the quality of this locally-sourced flour. So what’s next? Local cheese of course! And Narragansett Creamery ricotta is the perfect place to start. We’ve been using this ultra creamy ricotta for the past few weeks and we’re loving the difference in consistency, color, and most importantly, taste. As luck would have it, this superior product also comes from a small producer close to home in RI and uses milk from local dairy farms.  So boil up some water, throw in your Nella ravioli and raise your spoons for delicious, creamy, locally sourced cheese!

Even though the Farmer’s Markets are brimming with the most beautiful and varied produce in July and August, there’s just something about the fall markets that stand out as our favorite. The zucchini may be gone and tomatoes trailing close behind, but the piles of pumpkins, gourds, winter squashes and baby brussels sprouts on the stalk seem to more than make up for what’s missing from the warmer months. Ok, enough poetic talk for now… we’ll let the photos speak for themselves….

The weather may be getting colder, but we’re still in the Hingham Farmer’s Market for 3 more weeks!

We ARE the next big thing! To all of you who spent the time each day to vote via DailyCandy and Facebook, this win is all thanks to you! We are thrilled (read: jumping-up-and-down-in-sheer-euphoria) to have made it to the top of DailyCandy’s “Start Small, Go Big” Contest. With their help, we’ll now have the tools we need to take Nella Pasta to the next level. So, again, dear friends, fans, readers and eaters, thank you for this amazing opportunity. We’re off to NYC!