Ravioli Al Uovo Recipe

I was looking through some of my archived photos and realized that I had a whole slew of photos that I had not yet blogged about! These home made Ravioli Al Uovo or sometimes called Uova da Raviolo (Ravioli with an Egg inside) pictures were a subset of these 'forgotten' photos. The reason we made these (during the summer of 2014!) was that our friend Addie was back in Edmonton and wanted to cook a meal together. As I recall, that summer we had already made these Ravioli Al Uovo once or twice since they were popping up in all sorts of food magazines and restaurants. Addie had been baking a lot of bread and cheese that summer, but hadn't had a chance yet to make these Ravioli Al Uovo.   

One fun "behind the scene" fact is that these photos aren't actually taken at our place, but at a fellow food blogger's home Michelle (over at The Tiffin Box). Addie was cat sitting at her place for a bit that summer (thanks Michelle for the gorgeous table and plates that show up in these photos). 

The ingredients for these delicious pockets of goodness are just a few, but when all combined together they can only be categorized as good food done right. You definitely need to make your own pasta for these Ravioli Al Uovo as fresh pasta just makes it taste that much better! We also used Heritage Eggs from our adopted chicken (you can read more about our experience here) for making these as the heritage eggs not only lend the dish their gorgeous golden yolk but make each bite taste wholesomely good.

Ingredients

• One ball of Beyond Umami's homemade pasta dough (with a handy Ratio Calculator for Eggs to Flour that Dan made)
• Egg yolks (1 per ravioli)
• 1-2 cups of Ricotta cheese (1 small tub)
• 1 lemon 
• salt and pepper to taste
• freshly grated pecorino romano

Directions

1. Scoop about 1 cup of ricotta cheese into a bowl. Squeeze the lemon juice from half a lemon into the ricotta. Add freshly cracked pepper and salt. You want the ricotta mixture to be slightly on the tart side (a bit more sour than you like). That way, the flavour of the ricotta will come through after being cooked.
   
2. Separate a large piece of dough from the main ball of dough and wrap the rest up in food wrap. Roll the piece out on the pasta maker. In these photos we rolled the dough out to the second thinest setting which on our pasta machine is a "5". If you roll the pasta dough out to 5, be sure to adequately flour your surfaces as well as the pasta sheets. Work quickly so that the pasta sheets will not dry out. Make two equal sheets of pasta. Liberally flour each side of dough including the surface you are working on.
   
   
3. Spoon one heaping tablespoon of ricotta onto the pasta sheet and create a well in the middle of the filling. For this particular example, the pasta sheet was long enough to fit 3 large raviolis. Separate an egg yolk into a small bowl and gently transfer the yolk onto the ricotta; being careful to not break the yolk. Only separate egg yolks when you are ready to use them, otherwise the yolk will dry out and break. Also, it's important that you lay your sheet on a well-floured surface because the ricotta is wet and will begin soaking through the sheet and can stick to your work surface making it very difficult to lift later on.
   
4. Gently brush water around the filling. Dipping a finger in water and brushing the pasta sheet can work as well.
   
5. Quickly lay the second sheet of pasta on top (In this picture they had folded the end piece back on top. Either method will work).
   
6. Make a firm cut to separate each piece. Be careful to not puncture the pockets.
   
7. Using a fork crimp the edges of the ravioli al uovo.
   
8. In a pot of boiling water, gently slide the ravioli into the pot. Allow it to cook for 2 minutes (or until they float). With a slotted spoon gently transfer the ravioli to a plate. Garnish as you wish or in this picture we made a quick brown butter sage sauce to have with the Ravioli Al Uovo and some shavings of pecorino romano.
   

The test to see if you succeeded in making these Ravioli Al Uovo is that when you cut into the ravioli, the egg should still be runny and the texture should be creamy!


Food Notes:

• You do need some familiarity with making fresh pasta from scratch including how to use a pasta maker.
• Unlike regular pasta, you cannot make this ahead of time nor freeze the uncooked ravioli.
• We found that each person will not be full after eating just one ravioli (or even two). However each ravioli is quite rich due to the egg yolk in the filling and the eggs in the pasta dough so you probably don't want to serve more than one or two to each guests.

We really enjoyed making these Ravioli Al Uovo. The key to making this ravioli is about freshness and timing: too long in the pot and you will have hard boiled ravioli, too thin of a pasta dough and the yolk will leak out. However, it is a very impressive ravioli and quite tasty as well. Certainly worth the effort and sense of accomplishment from making this particular type of ravioli!

A Microplane Rotary Giveaway! 

Gourmet Buzz has graciously offered to give one of my Canadian readers a Microplane Rotary Grater! I have one of these as well and have been using my rotary grater every chance I can for the past 3 months! Not only do I use it to grate my favourite cheese onto my pastas, salads, and sunny side eggs but I have also used it for grating chocolate onto crepes! A major benefit of having a rotary grater of this type is that you don't need to worry about accidentally grating your fingers. It also is super efficient at grating; especially when you need to grate two or three cups of hard cheeses for a recipe.

Mandatory Entry (+3): To enter, leave me a comment on this Ravioli Al Uovo blog post about your favourite Italian dish to make or eat at a restaurant (and if is at a restaurant - which one?). Please leave a valid email address in the Rafflecopter widget as this is how I will be contacting you regarding details of the prize. You must leave a comment (in the disqus widget) matching your rafflecopter name or your entry will be disqualified. Winner must answer a skill testing question before receiving the prize. Sorry, this contest is only for Canadian residents. Use the Rafflecopter widget to help track your mandatory entry and to also get additional entries!

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