Holy Canoli, It’s Ravioli!

Pack your plates with these plump and perfect little pastas and dig in while we tell the tale of how ravioli became a worldwide phenom. Go back, way back, to Medieval times, when Europe and Middle Eastern chefs were preparing pasta stuffed with sweet goodies like honey, nuts and cinnamon, or savory fillings such as meat, pepper and saffron. According to the Oxford Companion to Food, the earliest records of Italian ravioli appear in the 14th century preserved letters of Francesco di Marco, who described it as “stuffed with pounded pork, eggs, cheese, parsley, and sugar; while in Lent a filling of herbs, cheese, and spices is used.” In the 15th century, this recipe for ravioli emerged: “Get a pound and a half of old cheese and a little new creamy cheese, a pound of pork belly or loin of veal that should be boiled until well cooked, then grind it up well; get well ground fragrant herbs, pepper, cloves, ginger and saffron, adding in a well ground breast of capon, and mix in all of this together; make a thin dough and wrap nut-sized amounts of the mixture in it; set these ravioli to cook in the fat broth of a capon or of some other good meat, with a little saffron, and let them boil for half an hour; then dish them out, garnishing them with a mixture of grated cheese and good spices." (foodtimeline.org) The city of Cremona claims to have created ravioli, but Genoa insists it’s theirs, dating back to the dialect word for the pasta, rabiole, which means "something of little value" and supposedly came from the practice of thrifty sailors who stuffed any and all leftovers into pasta to be used for another meal (Dictionary of Italian Food and Drink).Elsewhere around the world, Chinese won tons, Russia pel’meni, Tibet momo and Jewish kreplachs were on a parallel path.   Today’s chefs are just as rabid about their ravioli. For instance, pumpkin ravioli has enticed everyone from this year’s Pillsbury Bake Off winner (ingredients include canned pumpkin, pumpkin pie spice, cream cheese, butter, flour and crescent dough, topped off with salted caramel whipped cream) to Wolfgang Puck, who uses 5 oz. of unsalted butter, a pound of fresh pumpkin, 2 cups of heavy cream, bay leaf, sage, thyme, eggs and spinach pasta dough in his creation. Experienced chef, food writer and creator of the Culinary Master Class website, Leslie Bilderback, will have you craving a forkful of her favorite recipe, described thusly: “The sweet creamy texture of roasted squash is so perfectly paired with browned butter and sage; the two flavors melt together in my mouth like butter. To top it off, these ravioli are finished with a crumbling of an amoretti cookie, a stroke of genius that I can only attribute to a culinary savant. Whoever you are, I am not worthy!” Savory versions, such as ravioli made with porcini mushrooms and white truffle oil, are equally prized by the hungry but discriminating diner. Top quality olive oil, infused with white truffles, provides an earthy flavor, while porcini mushrooms have a chewy texture and a strong, sweet and meaty taste. US Foods has just launched 3 new Chef's Line stuffed pastas.