San Francisco Fried Ravioli

A few months ago, Nick and I went to San Francisco for a little vacation. I've never been to a city outside of Italy that cared so much about what it put in its mouth. Refreshing.

Anyway, we were there over New Year's Eve, which of course deserved celebration with a nice dinner and some champagne. Unfortunately, I'd hurt my foot earlier in the trip, and by the end of December 31, was in no condition to walk very far for any reason, even great food. Luckily, in San Francisco, great food always seems to be right around the corner. So I agreed to schlep a block and a half to a nice restaurant visible from our hotel window in return for a bottle of California champagne from the wine/convenience store across the street (did I mention I love San Francisco?)

The restaurant was packed when we got there - it was New Year's Eve, after all - so we grabbed a couple seats at the bar and sipped something from Napa or Sonoma until a table opened up. The menu was mostly modern Italian dishes - California twists on lasagna and the like. The most unusual offering was fried ravioli - I didn't know you could fry ravioli! So of course I ordered it.

I was delivered a bed of greens in a light balsamic vinaigrette, topped with a few large, fried ravioli. (Interestingly, ravioli and raviolis are both acceptable plural forms; ravioli is actually the plural of the original Italian raviolo.) They looked much as you would expect fried ravioli to look. But beyond that, they far exceeded expectations! The breaded pasta shell was crunchy but light and never chewy (I'm pretty sure the pasta was homemade.) After the first bite, hot, melted cheese oozed out luxuriously, having been exposed to the heat but not the hot oil of frying. It would have been worth a much longer walk.

Since then, fried ravioli has been near the top of my list of things I want to try to make. So the other night, when Dana and Seth and I were all wondering what to eat, I offered to fry up the package of fresh ravioli I had in the fridge. Dana proffered some brussels sprouts, and we dug a red bell pepper out of our vegetable drawer. Then we did this:

San Francisco Fried Ravioli

1 Red Bell Pepper
1 pkg Fresh (or homemade!) Ravioli
Breadcrumbs (I used some w/ Italian seasoning, although I'm sure homemade would be better)
Olive Oil
Brussels Sprouts
salt & pepper

Put a pot of salted water on to boil and preheat the oven to 425º.

Slice the bell pepper in half, right through the stem. Place cut side down on a foil-lined baking sheet and throw it in the oven.

Slice brussels sprouts in half lengthwise. Toss them on a baking sheet with a generous splash of olive oil and some salt & fresh-ground pepper. Slide the pan into the oven either next to or below the peppers. After about 10 minutes, toss the brussels sprouts around.

Pour your breadcrumbs out onto a plate. Pour a quarter inch of olive oil into a cast iron skillet.

Boil the ravioli until slightly less than al dente - take a couple minutes off the time on the package.

Don't forget to turn the brussels sprouts!

Just before the pasta is done, heat the oil in the skillet until very hot but not smoking.

Take the pasta off the heat, but leave it in the water. Using a slotted spoon - preferably one of those circular ones full of holes - transfer a few ravioli at a time to the breadcrumb plate, and turn to coat.

Use tongs to place the ravioli - carefully - in the oil. They cook fast, so keep an eye on the edges and flip when browned on one side.

Repeat until all the ravioli is fried, adding more oil and letting it heat up as needed. Keep the cooked ravioli on a plate under foil.

Take out the peppers and brussels sprouts, remove the seeds from the peppers and slice them into 1 by 1 inch squares, more or less.

Serve the peppers, brussels sprouts and ravioli together in shallow bowls with fresh ground pepper.

I didn't truly blacken the peppers for this, or do the whole plastic bag/skin peeling thing (mostly because we were hungry) but I like them this way - soft and hot but still bright red and flavorful.

The ravioli were good, but they didn't have the oozy cheese that was so great in SF. Guess I'll have to start making my own pasta!