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Recipes

Egg Yolk and Ricotta Ravioli

upclose egg yolk and ricotta

Egg yolk ricotta ravioli is a simple dish that’s sure to impress any dinner guest.

I’ve been wanting to make this dish for a few months now, but always managed to find something else to make instead.  Well, I’ve seen it popping up more and more lately so I finally made it this past weekend. 

I made a traditional pasta dough and then got sorta fancy by pressing basil into the dough during the rolling phase.  My cheese mixture was just ricotta cheese and minced garlic.  **Fun fact: this cheese mixture makes an excellent “just cheese” ravioli.**

Because this ravioli was very delicate, I didn’t want to cover it with a heavy marinara sauce.  Instead, I made a hot tomato oil and drizzled that over the ravioli.  

The entire dish took about an hour to come together, one of my longer dishes, but meohmy … it was worth the process.

uncovered egg yolks and ricotta

Ingredients for egg yolk ricotta ravioli:

Dough —

  • 2 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 3 eggs
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 10 basil leaves

Ravioli filling —

  • Egg yolks
  • 12oz ricotta cheese
  • 1 tbsp minced garlic

Hot tomato oil —

  • 1 lb tomatoes, chopped
  • 1 cup olive oil
  • 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
  • 1 tsp minced garlic

Directions:

Dough —

Using a stand mixer and the bread hook, add the flour and salt to the bowl. Turn on low and slowly start to add the eggs, one at a time. As you continue to add the eggs, you can turn the machine up to medium speed. Once all of the eggs/egg yolks have been added, let the mixture come together. **If the dough is looking a little dry, start by adding a teaspoon of water at a time.

When the dough has all come together, knead on low speed for 10 minutes. Once done, let the dough sit for 30 minutes.***

After 30 minutes, remove the dough from the bowl and separate into three sections. Using a pasta roller, roll out each section into a sheet of pasta to be cut for the ravioli. Before your last pass through the pasta roller, press your basil leaves into the dough. The last run through should press the leaves into the dough.

Once each section has been rolled into a sheet (I went up to the #5 setting), cut out your ravioli shapes. (**I used a cocktail shaker to cut the circle shapes for the ravioli. Use what you have, but make sure that the width will be large enough to cover an egg yolk.)

Ricotta filling —

In a food processor, add the entire container of ricotta cheese and the minced garlic. Pulse until well combined. Add mixture into a piping bag (or into a ziploc back and cut off the corner).

Hot tomato oil —

In a large pot, add the tomatoes, oil, red pepper flakes, and minced garlic. Let the mixture come to a simmer and reduce the heat. Cook for an hour and then remove from heat. Once the mixture has cooled slightly, purée the mixture using an immersion blender (or food processor).

***To make sure you keep your time in the kitchen as brief as possible, start the tomato oil first. Once the oil is simmering, make the dough. When you’ve set the dough aside to rest, now’s a great time to make the ricotta filling.

Assembling and cooking the ravioli —

Take your ravioli shapes and line them up with their partner. One of these will act as the base and the other will be the topper. On the base of each pair (and making sure to leave a border of at least 1/4″), pipe a ring of ricotta, leaving the center open for the egg yolk. After you’ve piped the ricotta, carefully separate the egg yolks from the whites and place the yolk into the center of the ricotta. Once you’ve filled each ricotta ring with an egg yolk, top each with the remaining dough and use a fork to seal the edges.

In a large pot, get your water boiling. Once boiling, add salt and a little olive oil. Stir and then very carefully add a few ravioli at a time. For a runny yolk, cook for about three minutes. For a slightly firm yolk — with a little runniness — cook for four minutes.

To serve, plate a few ravioli and then drizzle with the hot tomato oil.

upclose cooked ravioli

For additional ravioli recipes, check out my Cheese Ravioli with Lemon Butter Sauce.