Praise then darkness, and creation unfinished

This is from Valicenti Pasta Farm, who come to Boston-area farmers' markets with ravioli flavors like carrot and chickpea, lamb and sweet potato (those are the others currently in my freezer), mushroom and duck, and braised beef.

cattitude is very fond of thyme, and thought this would be interesting. It is. I wouldn't call it a success, at least not as dinner, though it was food. It's very sweet, and tastes mostly of the strawberries and cheese. We were thinking it might work better as dessert: two or three pieces to a serving, with something bitter to contrast with it: walnut pieces on top, or black tea or espresso alongside. At that point Cattitude thought "very dark chocolate." We have some, so he got a piece, and it did set the pasta off well.

We had the pasta with just extra virgin olive oil and some fresh ground pepper; this works well with most of their ravioli.

Dinner also included one home-grown diva cucumber, the first of this year's crop, which I picked off the vine about eight hours ago.

I wanted to do something different on/with pasta. Hence, rotini and broccoli florets agli e olio, which is to say topped with lightly browned garlic and lots of olive oil. The recipe I found called for sauteeing fresh parsley in the oil along with the garlic, but we didn't have any. (I didn't decide to do this until late afternoon, well after we went out shopping.)

With that, we had little mackerel filets, cooked quickly in more olive oil and topped with fresh ginger. (Also a bit of dill, but I could barely taste that.)

Next time, maybe a bit less garlic, and parsley or maybe fresh basil.

Which reminds me, the three of us had pho for lunch on Friday (at Le in Harvard Square, "formerly Pho Pasteur" as it says on the menu), with lots of fresh basil, and it was very good indeed.