French Ravioli

SCRAPS #54: ravioles au Dauphiné

Last month, while on a work trip to NYC, I stopped to try Dauphiné ravioli at a newly opened restaurant, only to discover they sold out just before I got there. While I never tasted these in my life, the craving never left me. This started me down a rabbit hole, leading me to make this French speciality at home. I couldn’t find many recipes out there, since the dish is not commonly known outside of France. In certain regions of France, ravioles au Dauphiné is so popular, you have the luxury to buy these little ravioli sheets premade, straight out of the grocery stores. They usually come precut, so once you cook them in boiling water, the sheets break into tiny little ravioli bites. You’ll typically find these stuffed with a Comté or French Emmental cheese filling mixed with parsley.

They might look a little intimidating at first, but I promise you I troubleshooted all the hard stuff to make the process as easy as possible. It was such a rewarding and fun dish to develop, I really hope you enjoy it! While I left out the traditional parsley in my recipe and used brown butter instead like the NYC restaurant does, you can feel free to play around with the flavors.

If you have any questions I will be here for you in the comments. Thank you for being here!

Best,

Carolina xx

Prep time: 2 hours

Cook time: 15 minutes

Chill time: 30 minutes

Total time: 2 hours 45 minutes

Makes 6 ravioli sheets

INGREDIENTS

Printable recipe here:

Ravioles Au Dauphiné

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PASTA DOUGH

300 g 00 flour or all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting

4 large eggs

CHEESE FILLING

4 tablespoons (60 g) unsalted butter

150 g Comté cheese, roughly cubed

35 g Crème fraîche or heavy cream

Kosher salt

WINE BUTTER SAUCE

1 cup white wine, such as Pinot Grigio

4 tablespoons (60 g) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1 tablespoon (15 g) pieces

TO SERVE

Extra-virgin olive oil

Freshly cracked black pepper

INSTRUCTIONS

To make the pasta dough:

In a medium bowl, combine the flour and eggs. Vigorously mix using a fork until you’re left with a shaggy, sticky dough. Lightly flour your countertop or work surface. Place the sticky dough in the center, dust more flour on top, using a bench scraper, incorporate all the dry crusty bits in the dough, then knead until smooth. Flour your hands to prevent them from sticking to the dough. The dough should look smooth after 2 to 3 minutes of kneading.

Lightly flour the dough and tightly wrap it with plastic wrap to prevent it from drying. Set aside for at least 30 minutes to rest at room temperature on your countertop or kitchen table.

To make the filling:

In a small saucepan over medium heat, add the butter. Cook for 6 to 8 minutes, while constantly stirring with a silicone spatula or wooden spoon, until the butter turns golden brown and develops brown bits all over. Remove off heat and pour the melted brown butter in a heatproof bowl. Give it a few minutes to cool down, then place it in the fridge or freezer to harden.

In a small food processor, add the cubed cheese. Pulse to finely grind the cheese until it gets crumbly and looks like tiny pebbles. Scrape the sides of the food processor bowl using a silicone spatula, as needed. Add the hardened, cold butter and the creme fraîche or heavy cream. Pulse to bring everything together, then blend for a couple of minutes until smooth and emulsified. You will have to occasionally scrape the sides of the food processor bowl to help with the blending, since the mixture will be really thick. The final cheese filling will have a similar consistency to cream cheese, it will be thick and smooth.

Add the cheese filling to a piping bag, cut off a small hole for the cheese to come out and set aside. This can be made ahead and stored in the fridge, then brought to room temperature a couple of hours before assembling the pasta.

To assemble the pasta:

Time to make the pasta, prepare your work station: you will need a rolling pin (or pasta machine), extra flour for dusting, a bench scraper, a pastry brush (you could also just use your fingers in case you don’t have one), a bowl of cold water and a pasta/pizza cutter.

Prep the pasta dough

Get the relaxed dough ball out of the plastic wrap. Cut the ball into quarters. Cover 3 quarters with the same plastic wrap and work with one quarter at a time. Roughly shape the pasta dough into a rectangle, lightly dust the work surface with flour and roll thin (about 0.3 cm thick), using a rolling pin or pasta machine. Try maintaining the rectangle shape so you’re left with about a long pasta dough sheet that’s about 9 to 10-inches (22 to 25 cm) wide.

Slice three 6 x 8-inch (15 x 20-cm) rectangles out of the pasta sheet. You’ll work with one pasta rectangle at a time, so loosely cover the 2 remaining pasta sheets with plastic wrap to prevent them from drying out.

Filling the pasta

Lightly flour the work surface to prevent the pasta from sticking. Place the pasta sheet on the work surface and lightly brush with water on top, using a pastry brush or your fingers.

Pipe 24 cheese filling dots (4 columns and 6 rows), leaving about 1/4-inch or 0.5-cm space in between dots and leaving a little border on the edges for cutting the pasta later.

Shaping the pasta

Grab another rectangle sheet of pasta, lightly brush it with water on one side, and place it on top of the cheese piping, wet-side down, dry side up.

Using a long chopstick, press the two sheets together to seal in the cheese filling, going from the center of the pasta out to the exterior. Go in between the ridges created by the cheese dots and lightly roll the chopstick to better define the cheese squares.

Using a pasta or pizza cutter, cut out the edges of the pasta to get an even rectangle (about 4 1/4 x 6 1/2-inches or 10 x 16-cm ). Using a bench scraper, lift the ravioli and set it aside on a floured surface.

Repeat this process with the remaining pasta dough.

To make the sauce:

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, add the wine. Simmer the wine for 6 to 8 minutes. Add a tablespoon of cold butter at a time, while constantly whisking to emulsify. Once that is incorporated, repeat the process until all butter has been added. Remove the saucepan off the heat and set aside for later.

To cook the pasta:

Fill a large saucepan or pot with water, halfway through and bring to a boil. Season with a big pinch of salt and lower the heat to medium low so the water comes down to a gentle simmer. Lift a sheet of ravioli using a bench scraper and slowly drop it in the simmering water. If there's enough room in the pot, you can work with 2 ravioli sheets at a time. Cook for 2 minutes, then remove and add them to the wine sauce (over medium heat), alongside a splash of pasta water. Swirl them in the sauce for 1 minute, then serve right away with more sauce on top, olive oil and freshly cracked black pepper.

Repeat with remaining sheets of pasta or freeze them in a ziplock bag for later.