Toasted Ravioli

As you might know, Jim and I spent three out of the first four years of our marriage in St. Louis. We both attended grad school there. This week I was pleased to find a recipe for a dish that is unique to the St. Louis area, toasted ravioli. You can find it on the menu of most places in St. Louis, but I have yet to see it offered anywhere else. We used to order it from Imo's. We didn't like their pizza (much to the chagrin of the natives), but we loved the toasted ravioli.

Toasted ravioli is fresh ravioli that is breaded and fried. Delicious. Filled pastas (ravioli, tortellini, etc) are some of my favorite foods. So when I saw Rachael Ray make it on an episode I had DVRed a few weeks ago, I was very excited to try it.

Toasted Ravioli

Ingredients:

2 eggs

Splash of milk

Salt and pepper

1½ cups Italian bread crumbs

½ cup grated Parmesan

¼ cup parsley, chopped

12 large fresh ravioli, about ¾ lb.

3 tbsp olive oil

Marinara sauce for dipping

Directions:

Beat eggs and a splash of milk seasoned with salt and pepper in a shallow dish. Combine bread crumbs with cheese and parsley in a second dish. Coat the fresh pasta in egg then bread crumbs. Heat olive oil over medium heat in a skillet then toast the ravioli until deep golden, 3 to 4 minutes on each side.

Serve with marinara sauce.

Makes 2 servings.

Awesome! Hilary was here the night I made it and we gobbled it all up! It really does taste just like the kind they make in the Lou.

I really didn't change much about the recipe. Unfortunately, I was unable to find the large raviolis when I went to the store that day, so I used regular-sized ones. It really doesn't make any difference, except it takes longer because you have to bread and fry more of them to equal the same number of servings. But they taste just the same. Rachael's recipe called for spinach and cheese ravioli, but I don't see why you can't use any kind you like. We used Buitoni Four Cheese Ravioli, but even one with a meat filling would be fine. I saw that Buitoni has a new kind, called Wild Mushroom Agnolotti, that I can't wait to try.

I didn't have fresh parsley, so I used a smaller amount of dried. She said to use either milk or half & half in the egg, but I don't keep half & half on hand. Milk worked just fine.

If you look at Rachael's original recipe, she included a recipe for a red pepper dipping sauce to go with the ravioli. Jim and I don't like red pepper, so I omitted the sauce. I picked up a yummy jarred marinara sauce, Classico Florentine Spinach and Cheese. It's really good. It has spinach running through it and it gives it a great flavor. I really like spinach. It made a great dipping sauce for the toasted ravioli.

Using the small raviolis would make a nice party dish.

I hope you try this. If you do, please leave a comment and let me know what kind of ravioli you used and how it turned out.