Yummies: Volume 4

To those of you who are fortunate enough to live in the Divisadero neighborhood, you know who I am talking about when I refer to "The Ravioli Lady."

For the past year or so a small, inexpensive farmers market has formed on Grove and Divisadero every Sunday from 10am to 2pm. This works perfectly for me because between Wednesdays at the Civic Center and Sundays around the block from me, I can get all the produce I need for the week. However, there is one stand at the Divisadero Farmer's Market that the Civic Center doesn't have: fresh Italian ravioli, delicious gourmet dips and sauces, and an array stuffed olives - they'll even let you sample all of it before you buy! Three items for only $15!

This past Sunday I was the first to arrive at the ravioli stand, so they gave me a special deal where I got two sauces and 3 boxes of ravioli for $20. I chose their deluxe ravioli (with beef), their classic ricotta, and their spinach pesto ricotta. I was told that the classic ricotta was a nice choice because I could make a more heavy sauce for it. I've recently started making my own pasta sauces, so I found this particular ravioli to be an excellent choice for experimentation.

This is what I came up with:
-Grab whatever ripe vegetables you have laying around from last week's farmers market. Some suggestions include mushrooms, zucchini, peppers, onion, squash, eggplant... anything that you might normally see in a hearty tomato sauce.
-Saute some garlic and onions with olive oil in a big frying pan for about 2 minutes. You don't want the garlic to burn, but if it does it's not a big deal.
-Add peppers first, then after three minutes add other vegetables and stir for 2 more minutes
-Add about half a cup of red table wine (anything you have lying around that is under $10)
-Let it simmer for a few minutes, then add two or three tablespoons of a red pesto sauce. I use the one from the ravioli stand that is red pepper pesto; it has a nice consistency and some really good spicy flavors. Continue to let it simmer for a minute or two.
-Lastly, add about 2/3 cup of tomato sauce - nothing fancy, the kind that comes out of the can.
-Stir under low heat for about a minute, then pour over drained pasta (goes best with ravioli but can also be used with any thicker pasta such as rigatoni, fusilli, linguine, parpadalle).
-Eat hot with a little Parmesan cheese and enjoy!