Celebrations in the time of Covid 19

Mushroom ravioli with truffle butter and hazelnuts, by Pasta Evangelists

So, yesterday was our wedding anniversary. We had planned to be on holiday, in a hotel by the sea, which has an excellent restaurant, and a good wine list. Instead, we were exactly where we’ve been for the last week, at home. So, not quite the celebration we’d planned, but we still managed to celebrate. We got dressed up as if we were going out (actual proper clothes!), had a nice meal and a nice bottle of wine, and stood on the doorstep to applaud the NHS at 8, which was a proper spine-tingling moment.


The meal in question was from a company called Pasta Evangelists, who make and deliver fresh pasta nationwide. If you fancy a lockdown treat, give them a try. It’s not exactly cheap, but it’s probably similar price to a takeaway – maybe even a bit less, and their pasta is properly delicious and easy to cook.  We’ve been getting deliveries form them for ages, but we appreciate them even more in this age of lockdown.


We were even able to have a side salad with our mushroom ravioli, thanks to a delivery from our local farmer’s market, the magnificent Goods Shed. Its arrival felt not unlike a visit from Food Santa, causing levels of giddy excitement that have not been felt in our household for some time. Milk! Cheese! Fresh vegetables! Eggs!!! (I am only slightly over doing it on the exclamation marks here.)


This also calmed fears of starvation in the face of overstretched supermarket delivery systems (there were twenty thousand people ahead of me in the Ocado virtual queue the other day - my husband is over 70 so we are planning to not leave the house at all if possible), and indeed worries about food supply generally. If you are having trouble getting food, it’s worth thinking locally. Lots of farm shops, bakers, butchers, grocers, etc have started offering delivery – sometimes not just of their own range, but other things too. And it’s good to support local where you can, especially now.


The wine, if you’re wondering, was from Chapel Down: they’re fairly local to us in Kent, but deliver nationwide, if your supermarket is failing to meet your wine needs. I imagine lots of other producers will also deliver direct.

As I don't have any other pictures for this blog, I thought you might appreciate a photo of our clematis. It's cheering me up no end. 

I am now off for an afternoon of converting some of the aforementioned fresh veg into meals…