Friday, April 21, 2017

Fried Chocolate Ravioli


I made chocolate ravioli a while back. I stufffed them with some of the jellies and preserves I had canned in the fall. They were a disaster. HA! It's not that they didn't taste good. The chocolate pasta was exquisite! The fillings were delectable! I just couldn't figure out how to keep it all together.
First, I tried a simmer, and then a poach. It didn't matter. They fell apart. The fillings leaked everywhere, leaving me with empty pasta shells floating in watered-down fillings. It was inedible. I'm hoping experience and thought has taught me a fix. That will be a future post. 



After a few destructive attempts, and the realization this wasn't going to work, I put the rest in the freezer where they would patiently wait for me to decide what to do with them. Today, I am trying again. I took my carefully wrapped, frozen ravioli out of the freezer. Most of them had broken, so they were unusable. However, I managed to salvage a few.



As they started to thaw, they were sticky. The fillings were wanting to come out of the shells. All I needed was a food glue and I knew I could make something delicious.



So, I mixed some caster sugar and all-purpose flour with some almond flour (because how could almond flour taste anything but good in a dessert?) in one bowl. In another bowl, I whisked up an egg with more caster sugar and some some cream. In a small fryin pan, I melted a little butter with a little olive oil.



First, I coated the ravioli in flour. Not hard to do, since it was a little gooey. I was not shy with these coatings.



Next I dipped it in my egg mixture. If the egg slid off the flour, I just kept turning it until it stuck. I want glue.



Another dip into the flour, and it's ready to fry. This last dip took me a minute too, because I wanted the flour to completely cover my egg. I didn't want any of my ravioli showing. I needed a complete coating so that my ravioli didn't fall apart or leak.



After I have coated my ravioli fairly thickly, I fried them in butter and olive oil over medium to medium-high heat. It cooked fairly quickly. About 5 minutes. The bottoms should feel stiff when you slip a spatula under them. If there's any give, fry a little longer.



Give them a flip and fry another 2 minutes. 



Transfer to a wire rack. These look almost burnt, but remember I am using chocolate ravioli. They're perfect.



After I plated, I used a fine grind on some good white chocolate. 



It melted perfectly over the warm ravioli. The touch of white chocolate was an ideal complement to the dark chocolate ravioli. 

I am thankful for the "mistakes" in my kitchen. They usually turn into something better than I could have imagined had I not made the mistake in the first place. This is no different. I really will post a chocolate ravioli recipe in the future, but for now, know that this can be done in a savory way.  I've heard that a certain Italian restaurant chain makes good fried ravioli. I've never had it before, but I imagine it's this easy.

  • 6 frozen sweet ravioli 
  • 1/2 C all purpose flour
  • 1 t caster sugar
  • 1/4 C almond flour
  • *
  • 1egg
  • 2 T cream (milk is fine)
  • 1 t caster sugar
  • *
  • 2 T butter
  • 2 T olive oil
  • *
  • White chocolate (I ran a grater over mine a few times. It doesn't take much)

If you decide to fry a savory ravioli:
  • 6 large frozen ravioli (cheese, sausage, or any dinner ravioli)
  • 1/2 C all purpose flour
  • 1/4 C italian breadcrumbs
  • 1 egg
  • 2 T cream (or milk)
  • 2 T butter
  • 2 T olive oil
  • marinara, for topping



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