Another spectacular recipe from Truffle Shuffle!!  I don’t know how they do what they do, but every recipe continues to impress me.  This wasn’t the first time I’ve made pasta, but it was the first time I ever made ravioli.  I don’t know why it’s so rewarding, but these ravioli tasted extra delicious, knowing I was the one to bring these babies to life.  I was the one to mix the egg with the flour, roll out the dough, put a dollop of ricotta in each ravioli, then fold and seal them shut.  When you make something by hand and from scratch, it gives you a whole new appreciation for it.  It’s one reason I’m so happy to be connected with Truffle Shuffle.  If it weren’t for them, I don’t know if I’d ever have attempted ravioli on my own.  So, thank you, Truffle Shuffle.  You can make your own too.  Visit their website at www.truffleshufflesf.com and keep an eye out the next time this online cooking class comes around. 

Another cool feature of this particular class is that you get to shave your own truffles.  I got to hold (and smell) three whole Burgundy truffles in my hand, one of the coolest experiences I’ve had yet in the kitchen.  Check out the pic below.  They usually come as a carpaccio already sliced in a jar.  It’s the little things… 

This dish melts in your mouth.  Where the ravioli do require some time and patience to make each one by hand, let me tell you, they’re well worth it.  The fresh pasta cooks up in just two minutes, and they’re finished in a lovely buttery shallot sauce.  When making a cacio e pepe, it’s all about the pepper.  Sparing no detail, the recipe uses a Kampot pepper.  Named after its region of production, much in the same way Parmesan cheese and Champagne are named, the pepper is grown in the foot of the mountains in southern Cambodia and is regarded by gourmands as the best pepper in the world.  Topped with freshly grated Parmesan cheese, this dish will rock your world.