Difficulty Level Easy

I've only been to Italy once, but oh, what a trip. My husband's present for my 40th birthday was a food trip and I went with a small group where we toured around Tuscany visiting artisans who produced food the same way their ancestors did. It was such a wonderful week, and the memories of what I ate and the people who produced those meals are still vivid.

I'm happily reminded of this because I've been reading Every Day in Tuscany by Frances Mayes. Her previous book, Under the Tuscan Sun, created a tourist buzz in the small Tuscan town when she recounted the tales of living in and renovating Bramasole, the house that she and her husband bought without realizing the amount of work it entailed, or the sheer joy they would feel being there.

It's no wonder people flock to Italy, and then to Mayse's home after reading her books, they are so evocative.The books make me think of my experience in Italy; rosemary plants five feet high that exude their intoxicating smell when you brush past them, the bliss of biting into a perfect risotto, the breathtaking beauty of a hilltop vineyard, the excitement of a truffle hunting dog when he has smelled the right thing, sitting around a table and eating and drinking and laughing until you can't eat or drink or laugh any longer.

The other thing that is so enticing about both Under the Tuscan Sun and Every Day in Tuscany are the people she describes. Mayes has a wonderful way of making the people she writes about very real. It reminds me of the people we met in Italy, an excursion to a family restaurant where a lovely young wife had taken over the risotto making because her mother-in-law admitted with a shrug that the girl had a divine touch, the cranky grappa maker who lived in an old stable where his bed was up against the brick wall heated only by the fire in the next room needed to heat his still, the young man who spent his days spreading lard over the outside of huge ham hocks to make prosciutto who said he always had a girlfriend because he had the softest hands in town. I also loved the woman who ran an hotel and restaurant with her husband. She gave us pasta making lessons and offered me a job. Hmm, husband, two children at home, I was still pretty tempted.

Every Day in Tuscany, Like Under the Tuscan Sun is dotted with recipes. I still make the cold garlic soup from her first book, although when I wrote my post on it I had forgotten that that was the source. I made this ravioli and I quite liked it, although my husband didn't so much. Really, the problem was mine. The potato filling was too soft and loose because I should have drained off a bit of the liquid and I used too much pasta for each ravioli, so the filling kind of got lost in the pasta, but I didn't mind. It actually reminded me a bit of the pierogies I made last week. I loved the sauce, although I left out the zucchini. I saw that the sauce called for speck and I expected I would have to substitute smoked bacon, and hen I went to the farmers' market and there it was. The farmer is from Mennonite country to the west of Toronto and they pronounced it schpeck.

I made my own pasta, but you can always buy fresh pasta in sheets and make the ravioli from that.

INGREDIENTS