**Please consider (Please? Please!) taking a moment to vote for this recipe at the holiday bake-off on Bon Appetit.com (click here). You will find it, appropriately, in the “miscellaneous” category, where you need only click on the picture to vote. Vote early, vote often!**

I think that we’ve all grudgingly accepted the fact that the holiday season seems to kick off just a little earlier each year than it did the year before, but today I stopped in my tracks and laughed at the absurdity of the Halloween and Christmas candy displays propped up side by side in the drugstore isle.

To a certain degree, the joke was also on me, because as I left the drugstore on this fine, balmy day in October, I was heading home to my kitchen to test a new holiday recipe that won’t be making its debut for another month. Certainly, I must be the most organized, efficient, forward-thinking domestic goddess that ever walked this Earth, no?

Ahem, not exactly.

You see, I become very motivated when Bon Appetit reaches out to invite me to participate in their holiday bake-off.  It seems only fair, seeing as how I’d spend many a hungry night wallowing in takeout if not for their recipes.

It was an exercise that prompted me, for once, to really put some thought into what I’ll be serving for dessert to friends and family this year, as opposed to my classic approach to the holidays: think about it a week before hand, put it off, procrastinate some more, go out to dinner the night before and it’s still not done, wake up early that morning and FREAK OUT, then throw together a boring tart from crust dough that I froze months ago and forget about cooling it properly as we jump in a cab bound for Penn Station.

This year I’m changing everything with chocolate ravioli. Drawing from my family’s most sacred holiday tradition (more on that here), I have created a dessert ravioli filled with a decadent chocolate ganache and surrounded by the most tender, melt in your mouth crust. It’s so rich it begs for a fruit sauce to balance it perfectly, like the one I’ve made with these just-barely-tart cherries. It’s no more involved than your average pie to make, creates a stunning plated presentation, and, best of all, is so much more portable than any tart, pie, or cake. Let the holiday eating begin!

Chocolate Ravioli

To achieve the perfect tender, melt-in-your-mouth crust, this dough has a high butter content, which can make the dough a bit of a challenge. Keeping the dough cold and working with small pieces at a time makes it a manageable project, as does using a plastic dough scraper to handle the dough. The results are worth the extra effort.

Makes approximately 16 ravioli

For the ravioli dough:

250 grams butter
150 grams granulated sugar
440 grams all-purpose flour
1 egg
1 egg yolk
big pinch of salt

powdered sugar (optional, for garnish)

For the ganache filling:

150 grams good semi sweet chocolate (60% coco solids preferred)
150 grams heavy cream
1 tablespoon corn syrup

For the cherry sauce:

12 oz. frozen cherries, pits removed
100 grams sugar
juice of 1 lemon
2 sheets of gelatin

For the egg wash:

1 egg
1 egg yolk
pinch of salt

Make the ganache:

Chop the chocolate into small pieces (no bigger than 1/2 inch) and place in a heatproof bowl. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, bring the heavy cream and corn syrup just to the point that it starts to boil. Remove the cream mixture from the heat and pour it over the chocolate and allow it to sit for one minute untouched, then whisk the mixture rapidly until the cream and chocolate are uniform and glossy and there are no solid pieces of chocolate. Set aside to cool and then cover with plastic wrap directly on top of the ganache and refrigerate for 4 hours or until cold and solid. Can be made up to a week in advance if it is stored in an airtight container with plastic wrap pressed on top.

Make the cherry sauce:

Put the frozen cherries, sugar, and lemon juice in a medium sized pot. Cook over medium heat until the cherries are thawed and the sugar has completely dissolved. Transfer the cherries to a blender and run the blender for a 2-3 minutes. You want the cherries to be mostly liquid. Strain the juice from the blender through a medium to fine strainer. Discard the solids and return the strained mixture to the pot over medium-high heat and allow it to simmer for approximately 20 minutes with the top off, until the liquid has been reduced by half. Bloom the gelatin in cold water for one minute, and once it is flexible, squeeze out all of the excess water. Remove the cherry juice from the heat and wait for it to stop bubbling, then add the gelatin and stir until dissolved. Allow the cherry sauce to cool, then place it in an airtight container and refrigerate for at least 6 hours before using. The sauce can be made up to two days in advance.

Make the ravioli dough:

In the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar together until very light and fluffy. Add the egg and egg yolk and beat until the mixture is homogenous and light. Be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl multiple times while mixing. Add the flour and salt and mix on medium-low, just until combined, taking care not to over mix. Turn the dough out onto a piece of plastic wrap. form the dough into a rectangle and wrap it tightly with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least two hours before using. This dough can be made two days in advance.

Make the egg wash:

Beat the egg and egg yolk together with the pinch of salt until the yolks are broken and almost completely integrated with the egg whites. Egg was cab be stored for up to two days, refrigerated in an airtight container. Allow the wash to sit out for at least 15 minutes before using.

Assemble the ravioli:

Slice off a fourth of the dough piece and return the remainder to the fridge. Liberally flour the work surface, top of the piece of dough, and rolling pin, and have a flexible plastic scraper handy. Work quickly (as the dough becomes warmer, it becomes more difficult to work with) to roll out the dough. You may need to press it with your palms a bit to warm it up at first, and as you roll you should pause to push cracked dough back together, and to run the plastic scraper carefully under the dough to ensure that it is not stuck to the table. Continue to add flour as necessary.

Once you have a rectangular piece approximately 4×12 inches, stop rolling. Trim the edges of the rectangle with a pastry/pasta cutter so they are uniform. Using a pastry brush, outline the outer edge of the dough with egg wash, then make a line down the middle (the long way) and three lines perpendicular to that line, each two inches apart. You will end up with eight squares painted onto the dough (see picture in the post). Working down one side of the dough, place a teaspoon of the solidified ganache in the center of the boxes. flatten the ganache slightly. Using the scraper, carefully fold the other side of the dough over the ganache filling, ensuring that the edges meet. Smooth out any cracks using your fingers and press the dough together around the ganache fillings. Use the cutter to cut evenly between the mounds of ganache, and then use the pastry cutter to smooth out the edges of each ravioli. Place the ravioli on a parchment lined tray and refrigerate. Ball up any leftover dough, wrap it in plastic, and refrigerate. If the ganache is getting too soft to handle, chill that as well.

Repeat with the remaining dough pieces and ensure that they have all chilled down for at least 20 minutes before baking. You can assemble these in advance and cover the baking sheet in plastic wrap in the fridge before baking, or wrap tightly in plastic wrap and transfer to the freezer, where they can be stored for up to one month.

Bake the ravioli:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Once the oven has reached 350, remove the ravioli from the refrigerator and spread them evenly on parchment lined baking sheets. When the dough is cold, use your fingers to smooth over any cracks in the top and to press along the seams to ensure that they are sealed. Brush the tops with egg wash and bake for 15-18 minutes, rotating the sheets halfway through, or until the tops have turned golden brown.

Remove from the oven and transfer immediately to a cooling rack using an offset spatula. Allow the ravioli to cool completely for storage, or cool down to just warm for plating and serving. Ravioli may be warmed up in the oven before serving.

Presentation:

Remove cherry sauce from the refrigerator. Fill a squeeze bottle with the cherry sauce. Place the ravioli on plates and decorate them with sifted powdered sugar and cherry sauce, as you see fit.

This recipe involves fresh pasta. To learn how to make fresh pasta at home, see my post on making fresh pasta at home.

Ravioli is on my top ten list of comfort foods and goat cheese is high on my superlative list of ingredients. I love how it instantly add richness and divine flavor to, well, anything that mingles with it. Recently I had purchased very disappointing goat cheese ravioli from Russo’s, our neighborhood cheese and pastisseria (so sad because Russo’s handmade buffalo mozzarella is out of this world), and I was craving the goat cheese ravioli of my dreams: creamy, melty, and delightful. This one totally delivered (do not be deceived by the underwhelming picture above – my camera skills are sadly lacking).

I poured over by cookbooks for inspiration prior to making this dish. The filling on which I decided is based on a pasta dish in Mario Batali’s The Babbo Cookbook. I was running out of time and didn’t plan ahead for the right ingredients, so I made my pasta in a different way that Mario prescribes, so that is where the similarities end. The filling contains sage, rosemary, Italian parsley, fresh goat cheese, parmigiano reggiano cheese, salt, fresh ground pepper, and nutmeg (which really adds a nice touch).

Mix the filling ingredients together and put the the fridge to chill for at least half an hour. It will help the mixture solidify when you are working with the pasta.

Speaking of pasta – remember the fresh pasta lesson? Well that is where we pick up the story. Once your filling is chilled and your dough is rolled out, trim the edges of those long pieces with a pasta cutter so everything is straight and even.

Spoon a heaping tablespoon of the filling onto the pasta, leaving an 1 1/2 inches on all sides (except the ends – leave about 3/4 inch on the ends). 

Use the pasta cutter to cut each piece evenly down the middle.

And now we have come to the panic point – the part where one asks oneself “how the heck are these ever going to stay together when BOILED?” The answer is something we all learned in elementary school art class. Remember making pinch pots? Where you’d roll out a coil of clay and then score and slurry each layer as you stacked them in order to hold them together in the kiln? Well, this isn’t much different, except sometimes you don’t even need to score (make little, shallow cuts in areas where you want to fuse the pasta together) depending on your pasta. I didn’t have to this time, but I did “slurry” (i.e. take a little bowl of water and apply water with my fingers to the areas that I was going to stick together. Just go along the edges. It will re-activate the glutens and help the pasta stick together. Panic was unnecessary! Every single one held – a better track record than some fancy frozen pastas I’ve bought at boutique stores.

Now fold the whole thing directly in half, and seal the edges. And do it for every one. And then let them sit for ten minutes, while you get about 4 quarts of water boiling in a large pot. Also, start a large saute pan on medium heat and fill it with the following: three or four chopped cloves of garlic, a glug of olive oil, a tablespoon of butter and salt and black pepper to taste. (obviously, I neglected to photograph this step – forgive me gentle readers!) Once all that is bubbling (without burning – turn it down if it is!) and the pasta has cooked in boiling water for 3-4 minutes, drain the pasta and then add it to the saute pan.

Once the pasta is coated with the sauce in the pan, add 1/2 cup dry white wine and simmer for a couple more minutes, stirring occationally. Chop some Italian parsley for garnish, remove the pasta from the heat and plate, garnish and serve immediately.

Here’s another sub-par picture that doesn’t do the ravioli justice. Maybe I should take a photography class? Trust me – make this dish!

Fresh Goat Cheese Ravioli
Inspired by Mario Batali’s recipe: Goat Cheese Tortelloni with Dried Orange and Fennel Pollen in The Babbo Cookbook

6 oz. fresh goat cheese (I recommend Coach Farm, if you have the means)

1/2 cup whole milk

1 tablespoon Italian parsley, chopped (plus more for garnish)

5 sage leaves, chopped

1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, chopped

1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg

1/4 cup parmigiano reggiano

salt and fresh ground black pepper

Pasta dough, rolled into sheets (see Fresh Pasta post on this blog)

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon butter

1/4 cup dry white wine

3-4 cloves of garlic, chopped finely