Chestnuts roasting? Figgy pudding?

Finally the folks at holidailies have come up with some food-focused writing prompts. Today's query comes to us from The Write Coast: What's the one food it simply wouldn't be [your winter holiday of choice] without?

You can forget the eggnog. Don't bother preheating the oven for a marathon of cookie baking madness. And I've already explained my feelings about fruitcake. It's not a perfectly trimmed tree, mistletoe and holly, sparkly yard lights or piles of packages in festive wrapping.

For me, the holiday season's not complete until we break out the pasta roller and assemble my father's Aunt Lena's legendary ravioli.

Mo (and presumably Lena before him) called them "toothlatch". No amount of googling has satisfied my curiosity about the origin of the name. The result as Mo made them were pillows of ricotta & swiss chard-stuffed pasta slightly larger than traditional ravioli. Adorned quite simply in melted butter and grated parmesan, sprinkled with toasted pine nuts.

My must-have holiday kitchen tradition's going to be a little late this season. Sickness and scheduling issues have pushed the production back a week. Stay tuned -- we'll be making ravioli (and I'll share the recipe and the process) on New Years Day....

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