SPINACH AND RICOTTA RAVIOLI WITH SAGE BROWN BUTTER

Making the dough for this recipe may take some time, but it is all worth it at the end. If you're short on time just use store bought wonton wrappers!

 DOUGH FILLING
1 ¼ cups flour
2 eggs 5 oz fresh spinach
1 tablespoon heavy cream
4 oz ricotta
 6 tablespoons grated Parmigiano Reggiano
Pinch of nutmeg
1 egg yolk

SAUCE
3 oz butter
1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage
 Pinch of nutmeg

Place flour on a clean work surface, make a well in the middle and add the eggs into the well. Start by beating the eggs with a fork. As the dough thickens, use your hands to knead until it is thoroughly worked together (about 10 minutes). If the dough sticks to your hands, add more flour. Cut the dough in half, dust a rolling pin with flour and begin rolling each piece out into 2 thin sheets. Reserve.

Bring a pot of water to a boil, add salt and cook spinach for about 1 minute. Remove spinach from water and let cool. Squeeze out as much water as possible from spinach and roughly chop. Combine spinach, cream, ricotta, 5 tablespoons Parmigiano Reggiano, and nutmeg in a mixing bowl, season with salt and pepper. Whisk in egg yolk.

Assemble ravioli by placing spoonfuls of filling in even rows, spacing them at 1½-in intervals, on one of the sheets of dough. You could at the this point brush the spaces between the filling with an egg wash, but not necessary. Place the other sheet of dough on top of this one, pressing down firmly between the pockets of filling, pushing out any air. Cut into ravioli squares using a sharp knife or cookie cutter.

Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add sage and nutmeg; simmer for about a minute. Set aside.

Bring a pot of water to a boil, working in batches, add ravioli. When raviolis float to the top (about 2-3 minutes) they are ready.
Reheat sauce if need be. Transfer ravioli to serving dish, serve with the brown butter sauce, top with remaining Parmigiano Reggiano.

Recommended Wine: Pinot Gris/Grigio

Cheat: You can skip the dough making and purchase wonton wrappers instead if you’re feeling lazy.

Homemade Lox

There's nothing quite like the taste of the salty goodness that comes from well-cured salmon. Salmon itself isn't all that cheap, and the cured stuff--forget about it. I only sometimes splurge and spend nearly $10 on a lox bagel for lunch but only when I'm really craving the stuff. Then I realized I could just make my own at home for 1/4 of the price! Lox is similar to gravlax by way of curing. Both are cured with a mixture of salt and sugar, but gravlax typically calls for additional herbs such as dill. I tried a few different variations until I reached what I believe makes the perfect lox. Hope you like!

What you need:

1 lb salmon cut into 2 equal portions
plastic wrap
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons Himalayan Pink Rock Salt
1 teaspoon pepper
baking pan
small baking pan
weighted object

Place salmon portions skin side down on plastic wrap. Combine sugar, salt and pepper in a small mixing bowl and mix until all ingredients are well incorporated. Rub salmon with salt/sugar mixture. Press flesh sides of each salmon against each other as if sandwiching them and wrap with plastic wrap. Make sure it's firm but not too tightly wrapped because you want to be able to release the liquids. Place the salmon in a baking dish. Place another baking dish over the salmon (or a plate) and place a weight on the dish. I used a bottle of olive oil. Place in refrigerator using something to prop up the pan the salmon is in so that it is tilted and the liquids can flow to one side. The object here is to avoid the salmon having to sit in it's own liquids that will be released in the curing process. Let it sit like this for 24 hours. Remove the pan and discard the accumulated liquid--it should have a syrup like consistency. Then place the salmon back into the refrigerator, this time flipping the salmon over and switching the side it was previously tilted towards. Leave for another 24 hours. After 48 hours of curing, you should be good to go but I let mine sit an additional 10 hours mainly out of forgetfulness. Remove the salmon and rinse off all of the salt mixture under cold running water. Slice downwards towards the tail and enjoy!

For a simple tea time snack, I spread goat cheese on sesame flat bread, topped with thinly sliced cucumbers, then with the lox, and a few capers. Cheers!