Ever since our last cooking class with Casey Schanen, I’ve been thinking fondly of his ravioli stuffed with fresh peas and feta, served in a lemon beurre blanc. We received a ravioli making kit for Christmas, and fresh shelling peas just appeared in the market. Our choice for Sunday dinner was clear.

For the filling, I wanted to use Gothberg Farms fresh chevre, because I am still newly in love with this cheese and I want to use it in everything. This particular ball of cheese had a distinctly grassy note entwined with its sweet milkiness. It seemed made to go with peas.

First, we shelled our peas. I blanched them in boiling water for two minutes, then drained and cooled them. I set aside a few peas to go on top of the ravioli, but mashed the rest lightly with a spoon before adding the goat cheese along with some salt and pepper. In retrospect, a little lemon zest would have been nice as well. And perhaps a little chopped fresh mint. Next time…

I made a small amount of pasta dough with one egg and about equal parts unbleached flour and semolina flour. The ravioli mold is exactly the width of a sheet of pasta made from our hand-crank machine, so we had some fun trying to get the dough to come out full width. The mold worked great, though – you lay a sheet on the bottom mold, then press it down with the top piece to create hollows for the filling. Then you lay another pasta sheet on top and roll over it with a rolling pin to seal and cut the edges. Very easy, and makes much prettier ravioli than the ones I’ve done by hand.

The finished ravioli went into the pot of boiling salted water, inflated beautifully and danced around for five minutes (not a single one leaked, yay!). I fished them out carefully and dressed them with hot butter, peas, parsley and tarragon. A sprinkle of coarse salt at the end made it perfect.

With small filets of pan-seared sockeye salmon and an incredible Cabernet Franc rosé from Chinook Winery, this made a beautiful spring supper.