How-to: Toasted Ravioli

Last October, I went to St. Louis for the first time. Every person who I told I was going highly recommended the same 3 things to eat: (1) gooey butter cake; (2) frozen custard; (3) toasted ravioli. I was obsessed with all of the foods but I was most impressed with the toasted ravioli! My friends and I went to St. Louis' staple food chain, Imo's, on several occasions to get our fix. Toasted ravioli is essentially ravioli that has been breaded, fried to perfection, then dipped in marinara goodness. Sounds simple right? Well, to make it all from scratch, it took quite a bit of time!

There are 2 ways you can go about this:

• Option 1: Buy pre-made ravioli (e.g. from Trader Joe's). This will save you a lot of time since all you'll need to do is bread your ravioli, then fry it.

• Option 2: Make your ravioli from scratch then bread and fry. This will take much more time but the fresh dough texture will be worth the effort!

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What you need to make toasted ravioli from scratch:

• Pasta machine

• Ravioli stamp (at least 2.75" like this one)

• Homemade pasta dough (example recipe for reference)

• ​For 2 servings, I used 1 cup of flour and 1.5 eggs.

• Preferred meat ravioli filling

• For 2 servings, ​I used 1/2 ground beef, 3 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp pepper, 1/8 tsp basil, 1/8 tsp parsley, 1/8 tsp rosemary

Other ingredients (for 2 servings):

• Canola oil for frying (enough to fill 1/2 inch within frying pan or pot)

• 2 eggs

• 1/2 cup milk

• 1 cup bread crumbs

• 1/4 tsp salt

• Parsley (for garnish)

• Grated Parmesan cheese (for garnish)

• Marinara sauce (homemade or store-bought) (for dipping)

Directions (if making ravioli from scratch):

Step 1: Run your homemade pasta dough through pasta machine to thin it out. Start with a higher setting (~6) then work your way to lower setting (~2 or 3). Cut into long sheets (about 4" in width).

Step 2: Mix together your preferred meat filling.

Step 3: Place spoonfuls of the filling along your sheet of dough. Note: You will need to set aside another sheet of dough of equal size without filling.

Step 4: Place the other sheet of dough you've set aside on top of the sheet of dough with filling.

Step 5: Using your ravioli stamp, carefully place over each mound of cheese and yolk. Press down firmly before moving onto the next mound.

Step 6: Carefully remove the excess dough around your ravioli.

Step 7: Using the tips of your fingers, seal around the edges of the ravioli.

Step 8: Boil a shallow pot of a salt water. Once boiled, lower to medium heat to reduce the bubbling.

Step 9: Add the ravioli into the water and let cook for about 5 minutes.

Step 10: Drain the ravioli and transfer to a plate.

Continued directions (with ready-made ravioli):

Step 11: In a shallow bowl, mix together eggs and milk. In a separate bowl, mix together bread crumbs and salt

Step 12: Add frying oil to frying pan on medium high heat (about 1/2 inch full). Once hot, dip ravioli into wet mixture, then dry mixture, then carefully add to the oil. Fry each side for about 4-5 minutes (or until both sides are evenly golden brown).

Step 13: Once ravioli is nicely fried/toasted, transfer to a plate with a paper towel (to soak excess oil). Then transfer to serving plate.

Step 14: Garnish ravioli with Parmesan cheese and parsley. Serve warm with marinara sauce, and enjoy!