Ravioli Stuffed with Anchovies, Buffalo Mozzarella and Raisins, Served with an Artichoke-and-Thyme Sauce: Ravioli Stuffed with Anchovies, Buffalo Mozzarella and Raisins, Served with an Artichoke-and-Thyme Sauce: This sounds terribly complex. However, Chef Giorgio Niccolini prepared these fish ravioli in less than a half hour, and cooked the sauce too...
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Ingredients:
- For the filling
- 1/2 pound (200 g) cleaned, boned fresh anchovies or sardines (3/4 pound, or 300 g uncleaned)
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- A hot pepper, seeded, ribbed, and shredded
- A buffalo milk mozzarella weighing 10 ounces (250 g; cow's milk mozzarella will work if need be)
- 2 heaping tablespoons raisins, rehydrated briefly in warm water
- 1 cup freshly grated Parmigiano
- Olive oil
- Salt & Pepper to taste
- --
- For the pasta
- 5 eggs
- 4 1/5 cups (500 g) flour, 70% high gluten durum wheat flour, and the remainder all-purpose flour
- A pinch of salt
- --
- For the sauce
- 1 clove garlic, crushed
- 3-4 artichokes, the tough outer leaves stripped and discarded, and the tender hearts julienned (discard fuzz if need be)
- A tablespoon fresh thyme, shredded
- A little parsley, minced
- Olive oil
Preparation:
Continuing with the introduction, I tend to prefer traditional ravioli stuffed with greens and ricotta, but his Ravioli di Alici con Mozzarella di Bufala e Uvetta in una Salsa di Carciofi Profumato di Timo (Ravioli stuffed with fresh anchovies, buffalo mozzarella and raisins, served with an artichoke-and-thyme sauce) were very nice, and quick too. Anchovies are quite similar to sardines, and the latter will work well as a substitute. The above quantities will serve 4.Begin by making the pasta: Make a mound of the flour on your work surface, scoop a well in it, crack the eggs into the well, add a pinch of salt, and knead the dough until it is firm and elastic, about 10 minutes. Cover it and set it aside.
Heat a quarter cup of olive oil with the garlic and the hot pepper, and sauté the fish for a few minutes. Remove it from the fire, and while it's cooling shred the mozzarella into a bowl. Add to it the fish, Parmigiano, raisins, and check seasoning.
Roll half the dough out into a sheet that's dime-thin (less than a mm, if you can). Roll out the other half of the dough into an equally thin sheet of the same dimensions. Dot one of the two sheets at 2-inch (5 cm) intervals with teaspoons of the filling. Lay the second sheet over the first, press down around the filling with your fingertips to stick the sheets together, and cut the ravioli free with a serrated pasta wheel. Put the ravioli on a cloth dusted with cornmeal to keep them from sticking, and set pasta water to boil while you prepare the sauce.
Heat the crushed clove of garlic in about 1/4 cup of olive oil, and when it begins to color add the julienned artichokes and the thyme. Cook for 3-4 minutes, then cover and keep warm. In the meantime cook the ravioli -- they'll only require a couple of minutes -- and transfer them to a serving bowl with a strainer. Pour the sauce over them, add a few drops of raw olive oil and the parsley, and serve. Vermentino works quite nicely here.
A note: Mr. Nocciolini says not to use store-bought sheets of fresh pasta because in his experience they're rolled with lasagna in mind and are consequently too thick. If you can purchase commercially prepared pasta that's rolled very thin where you live you could use it.
