Thursday, June 26, 2014

Blogs, Facebook, Food

Well, it has been a couple of weeks of awkward confusion between all forums and formats.  I would update the blog, load it, thought it worked...alas and behold not so much!  My Facebook link would not work to post to The Cooperstown Farmers' Market; technology, great when it works, horrific when it does not.

Lamenting over.

This past week I scored huge at the market.  Nectar Hills Farm for wonderful ground goat meat.  Acrospire Farm for equally wonderful ground pork.  Painted Goat Farm for eggs.  Hellers for the first of this season's most wonderful tomatoes.  The list goes on!

I picked my favorite dish to make...ravioli.  The recipe for the pasta dough appears in earlier blogs.  I used my homemade ricotta (also in an earlier blog post), and homemade sausage.


I always make bulk sausage when I am producing because it is very versatile.  I also never make a little because it freezes so well.  

Ground Sausage:

1 lb ground goat
1 lb ground pork
3 cloves minced garlic
3 Tbs fennel seeds
1 Tbs course sea salt
2 tsp black cubeb peppercorns
1 tsp crushed red pepper

I have a marble mortar and pestle that I love.   The first step to this is to toast the fennel seeds in a cast iron skillet and let them cool; they go into the pestle with the salt, peppercorns, and crushed red.  Grind these together to break up the seeds and pepper.  You want a fine ground that will distribute well throughout the meat.

Place meat in large bowl.  Work these together until it is difficult to differentiate between the two.  Put in the fridge and allow the fat to cool and solidify.  Add the garlic and about 1/2 cup or so of cold water.  Blend well, the water will absorb into the meat, add the ground spices and rub throughout the mixture.  Chill again.  Separate what to use now and then freeze the balance.

Brown the ground sausage and allow to cool.  

I use a scalloped edge biscuit cutter to create the rounds from the pasta dough.  In this instance, the 3" size.  I use approximately 1 Tbs of ricotta and 1 Tbs of ground sausage mixture.  Use a little egg wash on one half of the round, fold over, and pinch the edges together.  I always freeze my ravioli and then pull them out and either cook them or put them in food saver bags, remove the air, and freeze to cook later.

Bring water to a boil, salt the water, and place ravioli gently in the water, do not crowd.  Reduce the heat so water is moving, but not a rolling boil.  Cook for about 11 minutes.  Remember, the filling is cooked, so all you need to do is heat the filling and cook the pasta.  These are great with your favorite tomato based sauce, pesto, or just plain but really good olive oil and salt and pepper!

Test batch:


These are so good!  I only used about 1 cup of the sausage for one recipe of pasta dough and cheese.