Cacio e Pere

On a visit to Bologna some years back, I went on a mission to find Le Sfogline, a little shop that I had heard made the town's best pasta. There I discovered proprietor Renata Venturi and her two daughters, Daniela and Monica, grating fresh pears into a salty mound of shaved pecorino cheese, then stuffing the mixture into golden sheets of fresh pasta. A decade later, with their permission, I started making these most delicious and harmonious ravioli, called cacio e pere, at my Manhattan restaurant Felidia, where I top them with cracked pepper and aged pecorino. Ever since, the dish has been a customer favorite.