Eggs Benedict Raviolo Recipe - Tasting Table (2024)

Recipes

Photo: Greg Rannells

You can get brunch every day at Gerard Craft's Italian-inspired Sardella in St. Louis, where executive chef (and James Beard Award semifinalist) Ashley Shelton takes a breakfast staple and turns it into a heady stuffed pasta. Shelton tops the mortadella and breadricotta-stuffed pockets with brown butter hollandaise, which you can do, too, by swapping in brown butterfor the clarified butter here—or just stick with the classic if that's what you prefer. And because carbs always taste better with more carbs, we highly suggest making it a complete meal with a side of breakfast potatoes.

To learn more, read "Arch Madness."

Recipe adapted from Ashley Shelton, Sardella, St. Louis

Ingredients

• For the Toasted Bread Ricotta
• 6 ounces loaf bread, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 6½ ounces whole milk
• 5 ounces heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ¾ cup dry ricotta
• For the Ravioli
• 7½ ounces all-purpose flour
• 2 large eggs
• ½ cup toasted bread ricotta
• Salt, to taste
• 6 slices mortadella
• 6 egg yolks (whole and unbroken)
• Hollandaise sauce

Optional Ingredients

• Fresh herbs (optional)

Directions

1. Make the toasted bread ricotta: Preheat the oven to 325°. Spread the bread cubes evenly on a baking sheet and bake on the top rack for about 25 minutes, until they are dry and you achieve a deep-brown color. Depending on your oven, it could take more or less time, so be sure to check on it regularly.
2. In a small pot, combine the milk, heavy cream and salt, and cook over low heat until it begins to steam. Remove from the heat. Add the toasted bread to the heated dairy and allow it to sit until the bread has soaked up all the liquid.
3. Add the bread and milk mixture into the bowl of a food processor and blend until smooth. Add the ricotta and pulse until just combined. Season the mixture with salt and transfer the filling into a pastry bag (or a repurposed Ziploc). Set in your refrigerator until thoroughly chilled.
4. Make the pasta dough: Add the flour to a mixing bowl and create a small well in the center. Crack the eggs into the well and, using your fingers, briefly and gently beat the eggs together. Slowly work the flour into the eggs until a dough forms. Knead the dough for 5 to 7 minutes, until the outside is smooth and uniform. Wrap the dough tightly with plastic wrap and set it aside at room temperature until ready to use.
5. Make the ravioli: Starting with half your dough; begin rolling it through the pasta machine. Gradually lower the thickness setting every time you complete rolling a sheet through until you have something that is about an eighth of an inch thick. Lay the sheet out and use a ring mold or inverted mug to mark circles in a faint outline. Fold and lay a sheet of mortadella within each outline. Place an unbroken egg yolk in the center.
6. Cut the tip off of the ricotta-filled pastry bag to create a hole about three-quarters of an inch in diameter. Pipe the filling in a continuous stream starting from the inside edge of the outline and working in toward the egg yolk. Once you reach the egg yolk, carefully pipe up and around it. Lay the other half of the pasta sheet on top and carefully press around the filling from the top and working down to the edge to force any air pockets out before stamping and sealing each raviolo. Using your coffee mug or ring mold, stamp the raviolo out and, using your index finger and thumb, pinch the edges of the pasta to seal the raviolo. Place the ravioli in the refrigerator uncovered for an hour to allow the sealed edges to fuse together.
7. Bring a large pot of heavily salted water to a rolling boil. Gently place each raviolo into the boiling water and cook for 3 minutes. Carefully remove each raviolo from the boiling water using a large spoon and set onto a plate to serve. Cover the ravioli in warm hollandaise and a few picked herbs of your liking, and serve.