roll your own … Hand Rolled Pici

I adore homemade pasta. There is something wonderful about the texture, with just a bit of toothsome quality that I love. Other handmade pastas like gnocchi and cavatelli throw me right over the moon. Sometimes, if I’ve very very fortunate, I’ll stumble upon a restaurant that serves something called 5 or 8 finger cavatelli. Regular cavatelli are small discs or short strips of pasta with opposite edges rolled towards each other to form a hollow shape. I’ve heard them described as looking like tiny hot dog buns and that little folded cavity captures sauces so nicely. 5 or 8 finger cavatelli is the same dough rolled into long strips, 5 or 8 finger lengths long, with the same distinctive edges folded in. They are one of my favorite pastas and one you don’t see very often. I decided to make some.

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end of the season sauce … Ricotta Gnudi with Cherry Tomato Pesto Sauce

The season is winding down for my little community garden plot, yet it still continues to surprise me. I still get a nice handful of tomatoes every week and the basil, giant and bushy all summer, is still showing a little life. The massive kale, surprisingly productive peppers and chilies and other hearty herbs will go strong for a few more weeks at least. To my delight, the beans I quickly planted in late August are doing quite well with a few nice bunches of green, yellow and purple beans just in time for the close of the garden. Typical. Over the weekend I looked at the bowl of tomatoes I’ve been collecting, bright orange cherries and slightly larger golf ball size red ones, and thought pasta. I probably let them sit a little too long so this had to happen fast. It was time for an end of the season sauce.

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