She Forgot to Tell the Story
A Post [and a Recipe] From the Archives
This was originally written in 2021, when the idea for a book about our move was barely forming in my head.
When I wrote this piece, I thought I was writing about the day I brought my pasta maker to show and tell. But what I was really doing was igniting the spark inside my heart to write the story from start to finish.
Today, more than four years later, I sent a very rough draft with lots of holes to my dear mentor, , for her comments, questions, and suggestions. I have not given birth to the book baby yet, but whenever it is fully developed and ready for the world, she will be given credit as the midwife and doula. If you have even a tiny inkling for a book or a blog series or any writing project at all, I highly recommend her Heart to Page course. It is worth every single minute of your time.
She brought her ravioli maker to Show and Tell. But she failed to tell the story.
She talked about when they moved to Massachusetts and joined a CSA, wanting to eat locally and seasonally. She told them she bought a huge chest freezer and now spends her summer and fall preserving food, stocking up, preparing for winter. She told them if they had any questions about canning or freezing or how to eat seasonally, she was their gal. But she forgot to tell the deeper story behind the ravioli maker.
She forgot to tell them she spent that afternoon making ravioli from what she found in her freezer the day before. She found kohlrabi greens and some leftover roasted butternut squash. Not knowing what to do with the kohlrabi greens she blanched early in the summer (who even eats kohlrabi greens anyway?) she left them on the counter to drain for hours before squeezing them until they were completely dry. “I know!” she thought, “I’ll make pasta!” She threw the greens in the food processor with some flour, salt, and eggs and after a minute or two they magically became dough.
She formed the dough into a ball, wrapped it tightly in a plastic wrap blanket, and left it to rest on the counter as she cleaned the food processor for its next task. As she grabbed a towel and wiped the water off the clean food processor, she patted herself on the back for her creativity in the kitchen. Little did she know when her family bought her a pasta roller for Mother’s Day last year that homemade pasta would become her new fallback meal. She never dreamed she’d be here, turning greens into pasta with every chance she could find.
She turned to the counter and stared at the squash, thinking back to when she first roasted it on a sheet pan to go with a Roast Chicken sometime last fall. Knowing it wouldn’t get eaten as leftovers, she froze it for later, and forgot about it until now. She can’t bear to throw away food, not when she knows the work that goes into its growth. In a fit of inspiration, she dumped the squash in the food processor and pureed it until smooth. “This will make delicious ravioli,” she thinks, “but for the kids, I’ll have to make cheese.”
This is why she brought the ravioli maker to show and tell in the first place. She wanted to tell the story of how learning to cook seasonally helped her be creative. It helped her find a purpose. Helped her put down roots.
She wanted to tell them about the time her family first visited Boston so many years ago and found themselves at a Farmer’s Market where they could buy raspberries and butternut squash and celery too. How in that moment she turned to her husband and said, “Okay, we can move here, as long as I can buy all of our food from a farm.” They had been part of a CSA in Atlanta, but the variety was nothing compared to what she saw there. She had been exploring bigger farms in the Atlanta area, and this move felt like an opportunity to find one of the things they had been searching for.
She wanted to tell the story of how that farm they found their first year in MA was the first place that felt like home. That farm-fresh food is a large part of why they stayed in Massachusetts three years ago when all she really wanted to do was move back to Georgia. She wanted to tell the story of how preserving food connects her to family who live so far away; how they too spend their summers stocking up whatever food they can, because it’s what her Grandma used to do.
She forgot to tell the story of how she found herself in that farmstand, her garden, and her kitchen that year. She learned how to be creative with the food they were given. She learned to read recipes—and to alter them—and she learned that everything tastes better when you get it from the farm. She learned that her kids will eat anything if she tells them Farmer Jamie grew it. But most of all, she learned that cooking can be therapeutic, if we give ourselves the space to try it.
She brought the ravioli maker to show and tell because so much of who she is—of who she has always been—revolves around taking what she’s given and turning it into something beautiful. But she forgot to tell the story, so she took her failure and turned it into writing. And she realized that maybe it wasn’t such a failure after all.
Pasta Dough filled with Greens
*Adapted from Smitten Kitchen to use any and all greens found in my freezer.
Ingredients:
1 bunch blanched greens of any kind (to blanch greens, you throw them in a pot of boiling water for 2-3 minutes. Put them directly in a bowl of ice water for 2-3 minutes until cool. Use or freeze.)
1 ½ cups semolina flour
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon sea salt or kosher salt
3 large eggs
3 large egg yolks
Additional flour as needed for rolling out the dough
Directions:
Drain your greens and squeeze as much water out as you can. It helps to use paper towels to get your greens as dry as possible.
Dump greens, flours, and salt in the food processor and pulse until the greens are chopped and mixed into the flour well. Add eggs and egg yolks and pulse until the dough starts to come together. Pour the dough onto the counter and knead into a ball. Let sit for 5 minutes and knead again for about 5 minutes. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit on the counter for at least an hour. You can also stick it in the fridge overnight, just make sure to let it come to room temperature before you try to roll it out.
Divide the dough into six pieces. Roll each piece as thin as you possibly can, or run it through a pasta roller. I use this roller that attaches to my KitchenAid Mixer, and I run it through until I get to number 5. You can use it for lasagna or ravioli at this stage, or you can let the large sheets sit on your counter for 5 minutes before cutting it into its final shape.
Cook in a pot of boiling salted water for 2-5 minutes, or until al dente. Drain and toss with marinara or butter, and top with parmesan cheese. Enjoy, while being completely amazed that everyone in your family has just devoured greens that would otherwise have been composted.
Not much of a failure at all. Amen.