Beets: A Superfood

I had my first experience making pasta this past weekend, and now I like to imagine never buying pasta again. It was so much fun and weirdly gratifying. It took a little extra effort, but come meal time it was so worth it. I got the pasta machine at bed, bath & beyond and used my 20% off coupon, and the total was $30. I made ravioli and I did not splurge and get the ravioli maker (another $18) rather I rolled the egg pasta very thin and used a cookie cutter to cut out squares. I wanted to make sure I liked the pasta machine before buying more gadgets. I have been dying to make Beet Ravioli with Poppy Seed Butter since I bookmarked it 2 years ago. I read through all the reviews and decided I liked what most of the reviewers suggested, so I used very little ricotta and substituted goat cheese instead. I also seasoned to taste and added lemon zest to the filling. For the poppy seed butter I added pecans for a little texture. I paired this with an almond and zucchini side, which everyone seemed to like. Overall I really liked the dish, but it was a love/ hate thing because the Poppy Seed Butter made it delicious and yet I hated the idea of having excess butter on my plate. At the end of the meal we fought over the last few butter drenched ravioli.

The next morning we had so much leftover filling Leeman suggested we use it with poached eggs. While he was out of town I practiced poaching eggs, so I was eager to show off my new skills. We did not have english muffins, so I took some whole wheat pita bread and cut out circles with a cookie cutter. I heated the filling and poached some eggs. I served this with a side of arugula stacked everything, shaved a little parmesan and sprinkled it with poppy seeds. It was quite tasty, but I think I prefer fried green tomatoes or something with a little more weight and substance with a poached egg.