These egg yolk ravioli (Uovo in Raviolo) are as striking as they are scrumptious. Imagine one large raviolo on a beautiful plate. A thin veil of pasta encases a ricotta and spinach filling that surrounds a golden egg yolk. Once cooked, it is topped with aged Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, high-quality melted butter, and fresh seasonal truffles. When it’s time to serve, the yolk is still runny and luscious. The result is a heavenly, impressive, and downright sexy first course that is perfect for a special occasion. Talk about a showstopper! Happily, they are a lot easier to prepare than you might think.
Ristorante San Domenico in Imola
I wish I could take credit for the invention of this dish but I cannot. These egg yolk ravioli originated in Imola at a Michelin-starred restaurant called the Ristorante San Domenico. Since their invention in 1974 by chefs Nino Bergese and Valentino Marcattilii, Uovo in Raviolo “San Domenico” has been a mainstay on the menu due to its popularity. Some of you may have seen Anthony Bourdain sample the dish years ago in the Emilia-Romagna episode of No Reservations. (I still miss him…)
If you are a pasta fan, you might be familiar with these egg yolk ravioli from Instagram or Pinterest. Considering how fancy and cool they look, it’s not surprising. They are dramatic and lend themselves to all sorts of creative interpretations.
I was lucky enough to visit the restaurant a few years ago so have tasted the dish at its source. Since the Bourdain episode aired, the restaurant had been updated and renovated. It was absolutely beautiful. This recipe is my attempt to replicate the original. The flavor profile is exactly as I remember it. Now, I can bring back fond memories and you can sample the dish for yourselves! Since none of us can travel these days, we might as well do it through our kitchens.
Egg Yolk Ravioli
The recipe below should serve 4-8 people depending on how many ravioli you give each guest. It will serve 8 as a first course with one raviolo per person. (Raviolo being the singular form of the word ravioli.) Or, you can serve it as a main course with two ravioli per serving. When I had it at the restaurant, it was part of a multi-course meal so everyone received only one. I prepared them for the first time recently to make something special for Valentine’s Day. I decided to do them in a heart shape to make them cute and romantic and served two per person to make them a pair. The dish was a great success! They were smaller than the original, so two worked well. I leave it up to you to do as you wish.
Tips for success
The recipe is pretty straightforward. If you are already familiar with making pasta, it’s surprisingly simple to prepare. You can prepare the filling 1-2 days in advance and the condiment is easy as heck. Since the yield is approximately 8 extra-large ravioli (or about 10-12 large hearts if you go that route), the process isn’t overly time-consuming. Isn’t that great? I advise that you eat these on the day you make them. If kept longer, the egg yolk will make the dough soggy. I had two left over from testing and while they didn’t break the next day, they were too delicate for my taste and not as pretty. Why risk it?
At the restaurant, the ravioli were more delicate than I expected. Based on examples I had seen online and from my cookbooks, the pasta is often rolled much too thick. Make sure that you roll your pasta rather thin (try the second to last setting on your machine). It will make the dish more elegant and closer to the original. I will hand-roll my own pasta even thinner the next time. As long as you handle the ravioli delicately, seal them well, and place them gently in the water, they should be fine.
Since pasta making is easier to understand visually, in my opinion, please take a look at this video of the chef at the Ristorante San Domenico making these. I will explain all of this as clearly as I can below but seeing it will make it easier for you to understand.
Ingredient notes
The most important thing to keep in mind is that you need to use the highest quality ingredients possible. It will make the difference between a good dish and a great one. Remember, this is from a high-end restaurant and they use products of the highest quality. This is a given for Italian cooking as a whole – it’s all about excellent ingredients.
Here are my tips to ensure the best results:
- Use fresh ricotta if you can (or make it yourself). If you use supermarket ricotta cheese, make sure to drain it in a cheesecloth for a few hours or overnight to get rid of excess moisture. If your filling is too wet, it will be difficult to work with.
- Try to use aged Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, if you use a younger cheese, you may need to adjust your filling and add more.
- Splurge on European-style butter. At the Ristorante San Domenico, they use something called burro di malga which is an extra rich and fancy pants butter.
- Truffles – if you can get them, use them. If not, feel free to drizzle with truffle oil if you are not a truffle snob! (I like truffle oil myself). If you can’t find either ingredient, add fresh sage leaves to your butter as it melts and it will be delicious.
- Since the drama of the dish comes from the egg yolks, get good farm eggs that should have a darker and more beautiful yolk. As you can see from my pictures, a dark yolk looks absolutely luxurious.
No waste tips
In the interest of reducing kitchen waste, here are a few suggestions. I know that some of you will be forced to buy a 500 gram (1 lb) container of ricotta cheese. (I understand that not everyone can purchase fresh ricotta by weight.) Feel free to double the amount of filling. After using what you need for this recipe, you can use the leftover filling for things like stuffed shells, manicotti, crepes (for instance Crespelle alla Fiorentina), regular ravioli, or add a tablespoon or two of flour and prepare gnudi. If you do decide to make the extra filling, use 1 whole egg instead of 2 yolks. For the small amount of filling in the recipe below, I use a yolk in the filling because a whole egg would add too much moisture. Doubled, 1 whole egg is perfect.
In addition, you will have a lot of leftover egg whites in the making of the recipe. Don’t throw them away! You can make an egg-white omelet, an angel food cake, a Pavlova, meringues, or Brutti ma Buoni cookies, just to give you a few ideas.
Lastly
For those of you interested in recipes from Emilia-Romagna, please check out my recipes for Tortellini in Brodo, Spoja Lorda, and my in-depth post on Ragù Bolognese. Also if you are new to pasta making, take a look at my IGTV channel. I have several pasta tutorials. Click the link here for my tutorial on how to make basic egg dough.
Enjoy the recipe!
Ingredients
- For the pasta:
- 200 grams (7 oz/scant 2 cups) 00 flour, or unbleached all-purpose flour, plus extra as needed
- 2 eggs
- For the filling:
- 250 grams (9 oz) cow's milk ricotta, preferably fresh
- 50 grams (1.75 oz/1/4 cup) cooked spinach, squeezed dry and minced fine (100 grams (3.5 oz) raw spinach to start)
- 40 grams (1.5 oz) aged Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, freshly grated, or more to taste
- 1 egg yolk
- fresh nutmeg, to taste
- salt and freshly cracked black pepper, to taste
- 8 egg yolks
- To serve:
- 125 grams (1 stick) butter, melted, or more to taste
- fresh truffle or truffle oil, optional
- or
- fresh sage leaves, to taste
- 3/4-1 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, freshly grated, or more to taste
Instructions
For the pasta and filling:
- Prepare the pasta dough. Place the flour on a clean work surface and form a well in the center by creating a circular wall of flour with a wide enough space in the center to hold the eggs comfortably. Crack the eggs into the well and start beating them with a fork, adding the flour bit by bit in a circular motion from the surrounding wall of flour to create a smooth dough that is moist, yet firm and not sticky. Once you’ve incorporated all of the flour into the eggs (you might not need it all, or you might need more), gently knead the dough until it’s very smooth, pliable, and doesn’t stick to your hands. It should take about 8-10 minutes. Wrap the dough tightly in plastic wrap and let it rest for at least 30 minutes or up to an hour.
- While the pasta dough rests, prepare your filling. Combine the ricotta, spinach, Parmigiano-Reggiano, and 1 egg yolk together in a bowl. Add enough salt, pepper, and freshly grated nutmeg to create a highly seasoned filling as the pasta contains no salt. Reserve the other 8 egg yolks for assembly.
- Place the filling in a piping bag or resealable bag with the tip cut off and set it aside. It can be made 1-2 days in advance, kept in the refrigerator. Cover the tip of the bag to prevent the formation of a crust.
- If using fresh truffle, clean it gently with a slightly damp, soft, clean toothbrush, delicately brushing away any dirt. Set aside.
- Set a large pot of water to boil. Once it comes to the boil, add salt. (It should taste like sea water.)
- Next, roll out the dough. If doing it by hand, use a long rolling pin to roll the dough until very thin and create 8 large ravioli using the technique described below.
- If rolling it out with a pasta machine, divide the dough into 2 pieces, covering the piece not in use to prevent drying and crust formation. Flatten each piece, rolling it with a pin in order to get it thin enough to run it through the machine. Sprinkle very lightly with flour if needed, and run it through the #1 setting once, then proceed, narrowing the setting each time until you get to the 2nd to last setting. Handle with care, using as little flour as possible to prevent the dough from drying out. (I would start with the second to last setting and decide if you want it thicker or thinner the next time.)
- On half of your rolled out dough, mark 10 cm (4-inch) circles, 1 1/2-2 inches apart. You should have 4 ravioli per piece of dough. Leaving a 1 cm (1/3-inch) edge, pipe a 1 cm (1/3-inch) thick circle of filling, with enough space to snugly enclose the egg yolk. Pipe another circle of filling on top of the first. You will have a tall, 2 layer high tower of filling. Place an egg yolk inside each circle of filling. If your stuffing is seasoned enough, you should not need to salt the yolk.
- With a pastry brush, brush each circle edge very lightly with water. (This will help to seal the edges tight.) Fold over the other half of the dough and gently enclose your filling while removing all air, or the ravioli will burst. Try to keep the height intact.
- Take a glass with a 8 cm (3 1/4-inch) rim, and place it on the top of each mound of filling, enclosing it without touching. In a circular motion, move around the filling with the glass. This will help make everything neat and perfect.
- Next, with a 10 cm (4-inch) cookie cutter, preferably with a fluted edge, cut the ravioli into circles. If you do not have a cookie cutter of that size, use a bowl and cut out your circles with a fluted pastry cutter, knife, or pizza cutter.
- Firmly press on the edges of ravioli to make sure that they are sealed tight and to ensure that you have the same thickness as the rest of the pasta. Otherwise, your pasta will not cook evenly. You should have an edge of about 1 1/2 cm (1/2-inch).
- Proceed with the rest of your dough and filling until you have 8 ravioli. If you make hearts, use a cutter with a width of 8 1/2 cm (3 1/4-inch) at its widest point. You should yield 10-12 ravioli hearts.
To serve:
- Melt the butter in a saucepan until foaming. If using sage, add it at this time. Turn off the heat.
- Gently slide your ravioli into the boiling water. They will need approximately 2-2 1/2 minutes to cook. They need to come to a float and once they do, they should cook another minute or so. Feel the edge of the pasta to check that it is tender enough.
- Drain each ravioli on a paper towel to remove excess water and place on a serving plate. Sprinkle very generously with freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese (a heaping tablespoon at least), freshly sliced truffle (if using) and, lastly, the foamy butter. If using truffle oil, drizzle a touch at the end. Serve immediately.
Notes
Depending upon how thin you make your dough, you might obtain more than 8 ravioli. I usually have some filling leftover which will help with such variables.
