September 1st harvest!

Green beans

Tomatoes

Zucchini

Cucumbers

Stinging nettle(Careful getting it out of the bag! Use gloves, or it It will sting ya!)

Peppers (jalapeno and Anaheim Chili)

Chard

Onions

Sage, Rosemary and Tarragon

Stinging Nettle Ravioli with Sage Butter:  (Borrowed from Fat of the Land)

Filling
Make the filling while your pasta dough is "resting" in the fridge. The hardest part in this step is dealing with the nettles. Wear gloves and clean up carefully—you don't want a stray leaf nabbing you when you least expect it.

10 oz stinging nettles (equivalent to 1 package frozen spinach)
1 15 oz ricotta
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
1/4 cup whipped cream cheese
1 egg
1/2 tsp white pepper
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp grated nutmeg

1. Blanche nettles for 1 minute in boiling water and drain. This is enough to neutralize the sting. Squeeze out excess water, remove stems and then chop the nettles.
2. Combine cheeses, seasoning, and egg into a bowl. Stir in chopped nettles.

Pasta: (You can make your own or buy wontons to use and skip this first pasta step - but there is nothing like fresh pasta!)

Be prepared to add more flour as necessary; as with baking, anything can influence the making of fresh pasta: heat, humidity, the stock market...

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
4 large eggs
1 tsp milk

Combine pasta ingredients in a mixer and mix with dough hook til smooth. Then refrigerate in plastic wrap while you make the filling.



After retrieving the pasta dough from the fridge, roll it into a log and cut it into a dozen equal parts. Each part then gets fed into the pasta maker, starting at 1 and finishing at 6.

Make two leaves at a time (top and bottom layers), trim them, and use a melon ball scoop to add the filling at intervals. Next sandwich the two leaves and use a fluted pasta wheel to get those nice scalloped edges, making sure to firmly press the two leaves together around each dumpling.

Sage Butter Sauce:

Figure a minimum of a tablespoon of butter and a tablespoon of chopped fresh sage per serving. Melt butter in small saute pan over medium heat. While the butter is starting to melt, gently drop ravioli into a pot of salted water on low boil. Add sage to butter. The ravioli should start floating to the surface after a couple minutes. Remove to a warm plate with slotted spoon. Meanwhile, stir the butter and sage as the butter foams, and just as it starts to brown a tiny bit kill the heat and pour sauce over ravioli. Add a few grindings of salt. The specks of brown, caramelized butter sweeten the sauce ever so slightly, and combined with the sage, this simple sauce packs a wallop that belies its meager list of ingredients.













Curried Lentils with Tomatoes and Yogurt Cucumbers:

2 ounces lean thick-sliced bacon, cut crosswise into 1/3-inch strips (about 1/2 cup)
1 medium onion, minced
3 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
1 tablespoon curry powder
1 jalapeno, seeded and minced
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 pound lentils, rinsed and picked over
2 cups water
2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
Salt and freshly ground pepper

For the cucumbers and yogurt:
1 large European cucumber—peeled, halved lengthwise, seeded and thinly sliced crosswise
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup yogurt or sour cream
1/2 teaspoon finely grated orange zest
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons fresh orange juice
1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
1. In a large saucepan, cook the bacon over moderate heat, stirring often, until crisp, about 5 minutes. Drain the bacon on paper towels and set aside. Reserve 2 tablespoons of the bacon fat in the saucepan.
2. Add the onion to the bacon fat and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 8 minutes. Add the ginger, curry powder, jalapeno and cinnamon and cook until fragrant, about 4 minutes. Stir in the lentils, water and stock and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer until the lentils are tender and most of the liquid has been absorbed, about 35 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

3. Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, sprinkle the cucumber slices with a large pinch of salt and let stand for 15 minutes. Drain and pat dry.

4. In a small skillet, toast the cumin and coriander over moderate heat until fragrant, about 40 seconds; transfer to a medium bowl and whisk in the buttermilk, yogurt or sour cream and orange zest. Stir in the cucumber slices and season with salt and pepper.

5. Transfer the lentils to a large shallow bowl. With a rubber spatula, gently stir in the orange juice and season with salt and pepper. Spoon the cucumber salad over the lentils. Sprinkle the bacon and tomatoes over the cucumbers and serve warm or at room temperature.