Ravioli

I've been incredibly busy all month, and the next two weeks are no different. Nonetheless, I am hoping to set aside a couple more times to fry during May so I can bring you, the reader, more exciting posts. Please don't worry that I'm running out of ideas. I actually have tons of ideas, but just not enough time to make them all happen right now. Keep sending your ideas too, though!

Last week, I had one free night to try out some stuff, but I didn't want to have to make anything too complex. So, I decided to deep fry some ravioli. I found a few recipes, and I narrowed it down to two that I wanted to try. Also, I had both cheese ravioli and spinach ravioli, so with the two recipes, that was four possible combinations to try out.

The first recipe didn't involve any breading. You just drop thawed raviolis into the oil. The recipe didn't specify a temperature, so I went with 350F. No real reason for that; it just seemed right. I lowered a bunch in and cooked them for a few minutes. Mine didn't quite get the bumpy, smallpox-ish look that the recipe's pictures had. Below isn't a great picture, but the shells got a bit harder,with some bumps, and for a couple of the raviolis, the cheese started exploding out.
My roommate and I both tried these, and our reaction was the same: "Hmm, it's OK." We had marinara sauce to dip them in and also ranch dressing, which the recipe I linked to had recommended for spinach ravioli. both were decent, but I didn't love the texture of the deep fried pasta shell. The cheese inside was quite good, however.

To be fair to the recipe above, I should mention that 1) I just guessed what temperature to use, 2) I may not have totally thawed the ravioli (I'm a bit impatient at times), and 3) I didn't follow through with the Kosher salt and parsley, which I think could have helped these. It still kind of worked as a finger food, though.

Then I moved on to the next recipe, which called for dipping the thawed raviolis (These were more thawed, since this was the second batch cooked.) into an egg wash, then into breadcrumbs, and then into the oil, which I kept at 350F, since this recipe also did not specify.

These were outstanding. They were way better than the first batch. The bread crumbs brown nicely, and they protect the pasta shell from getting too hard. I dipped these in both the ranch dressing and the marinara sauce, and the marinara sauce was way better. The ravioli shell had both a crunchy and soft component to it, which was great, and the cheese was very hot and delicious inside.
These were the same Progresso bread crumbs I have used for mozzarella sticks and the mushrooms I have made previously, and these have yet to fail me in any deep frying endeavor. I might have to buy stock in that company. I also want to try this same method with other similar foods, like tortellini, perogies, and maybe manicotti and other stuffed pastas.

This post is a bit long, so I'll wait until my next post to cover what I deep fried for dessert afterwards. That one should be coming soon, and don't worry, I will get back on a more rigorous deep frying schedule soon enough!