3 cheese ravioli with pasilla cream sauce and asparagus

(TPCs 3 cheese ravioli with pasilla cream sauce and asparagus)

This was an excellent combinations of flavors that I served last night with some Alaskan halibut filets that I'll post tomorrow. Per Lloyd's request, I'm developing some Southwest fish dishes for him after he was kind enough to ship me a sampler of some of the most superb seafood I've ever tasted straight from Alaska.

After blackening the skins off of a few pasilla chiles, I pureed them with bit of homemade chicken stock and some heavy cream, then reduced it quite a bit. I balanced the heat with a touch of honey, seasoned with a bit of Hawaiian sea salt, shredded a bit of grana padano cheese, and that was it. It was really good, the pasilla cream sauce paired beautifully with the halibut and asparagus as well. A bright gewurztraminer did a great job cutting through the cream without overpowering the halibut.

Highly recommended. I'll elaborate a bit more tomorrow, but I have to say I'm looking forward to making this again soon for a proper photo shoot.

Update 10/27: I've had some emails asking for more information about this dish. The raviolis, which contain ricotta, mozerella and parmesan cheese, come through a good friend from a company in Los Angeles who makes them only for restaurant use at this time, but they are starting to test locally in a Whole Foods market there on a limited basis. All I can say is that I've had 5 or 6 kinds now, and they're extraordinary.

Pasilla chiles are known as chilacas when fresh and chile negros when dried. The chilacas, which I knew would look great with the asparagus and the halibut, with a nice warmth in the heat profile. Working with halibut, which has such a subtle flavor, I knew I needed to complement it in terms of texture- cream, a bit of crunch in the pine nuts, heat without overwhelming flavor from the pasillas, etc., and not in terms of strong flavors.