Happy Fine Art Friday, friends! Today’s recipe is a first for Pickled Rose- a collaboration! with none other than my friend Hannah from the Saveur award winning special interest blog, Make It Dough, where she makes anything and everything with sourdough starter. Hannah and I met at the 2019 Saveur Blog Awards in Cincinnati, and she really opened my eyes to the possibilities and magic of sourdough. She’s also super cool, and we became fast friends. One of her recipes that I knew I had to try when I got home was her sourdough discard pasta recipe, and it did not disappoint.

I used her sourdough pasta recipe to make a batch of classic raviolis for a dinner party I was having. When I told her how wonderful the dough turned out and how much everyone loved them, she mentioned that she had always wanted to make ravioli with it but never had. Several chats later, we thought it would be great to collaborate on a recipe together, and both had the crazy idea to make a dessert ravioli. After bouncing around ideas with each other, we decided on Neapolitan sourdough ravioli, and to have it ready just in time for Valentine’s Day. Because nothing says I love you more than a time consuming over the top dessert.

Originally we had planned to make a strawberry sourdough pasta dough with a chocolate ricotta filling, but the strawberry flavor was overpowered by the chocolate, so we decided to switch gears and go with a chocolate pasta dough instead. The end result was a dark chocolate sourdough pasta stuffed with a strawberry ricotta filling, sauced with vanilla bean sabayon, and topped with fresh strawberries and chocolate curls.

It only seemed fitting to use David Lebovitz’s recipe for sabayon as a point of inspiration as he was honored with the Savuer blog of the decade award, and we had the incredible opportunity to meet him and listen to him speak at the Saveur Blog Awards. I used a sweet, effervescent Moscato d’Asti wine and my vanilla sugar, plus an extra splash of vanilla extract to make the most silky smooth, custardy, vanilla infused sauce. Don’t be put off by the sweetness of the sabayon- it balances out the unsweetened dark chocolate pasta dough and barely sweetened strawberry ricotta. It’s harmonious, decadent, and well worth the effort.

This recipe is easier than it sounds, although requires a bit of planning. The good news is that the raviolis can be made in advance and frozen until you’re ready to cook them, making the final assembly a breeze. The sabayon should be made right before serving, so be sure to have your pasta water boiling while you are making it, since the raviolis only take a minute to cook.

Personally, I like to use half the chocolate sourdough pasta dough to make the dessert, and save the other half for a savory pasta dish. The deep chocolate flavor is pure magic with Italian sausage and mushrooms- perhaps another recipe to post at a later time. And any leftover ricotta makes for a wonderful addition to scones, so nothing goes to waste if you don’t happen to be making dessert ravioli for an army.

So whether you spend your Valentine’s Day cursing Hallmark, with your BFF, or on a hot date, this Neapolitan sourdough ravioli is here for you, cutesy strawberry hearts and all.

Neapolitan Sourdough Ravioli

Ingredients:

Sourdough Chocolate Pasta Dough (adapted from Make It Dough’s Sourdough Discard Pasta)

90 g sourdough starter discard

100 g double zero flour

60 g semolina flour

4 g kosher salt

25 g cocoa powder (I used Hershey’s special dark chocolate cocoa powder)

1 egg + 1 yolk

5 g olive oil

Strawberry Ricotta Filling

1 C whole milk ricotta, drained

2/3 C strawberries, small dice

2 Tbsp strawberry preserves

1 Tbsp freeze dried strawberry powder

1 egg

Vanilla Sabayon (adapted from David Lebovitz)

1/3 C Moscato d’Asti, or your favorite white wine (bubbly included!)

2 Tbsp + 2 tsp vanilla sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 egg yolks

Garnish

strawberries

chocolate curls or shavings

Make the sourdough chocolate pasta dough by combining the sourdough starter discard, double zero flour, semolina flour, salt, cocoa powder, egg, egg yolk, and olive oil in a large bowl, or the bowl of a stand mixer. Mix everything together with your hands and knead until a shaggy ball of dough forms. Continue kneading by hand or with the dough attachment on a stand mixer until the dough is smooth and elastic, approximately 15 minutes. You know the dough is ready when it springs back after touching it. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for two hours. Then place the dough in the fridge to continue resting for another 2 hours.

While the dough is resting, make the strawberry filling. In a small bowl, combine the ricotta, diced strawberries, strawberry preserves, freeze dried strawberry powder, and egg. Cover and chill in the fridge until you’re ready to assemble the ravioli.

Sprinkle a large rimmed baking sheet with a few large pinches of semolina flour and cocoa powder. Mix it together with your fingers. Slice off a 1/4” thick slice of pasta dough, and flatten it out in your hands. Dust the dough with a bit of the semolina/cocoa mixture to keep it from sticking in the pasta machine.

Run the dough through on the thickest setting of a pasta maker one or two times to flatten it out. Fold the dough into thirds, like you are folding a piece of paper to fit in an envelope. Place the dough in the pasta machine with the folded edges running vertically. Run through the machine on the thickest setting one or two times, until smooth.

Repeat this process until you roll the pasta out to the second to last thinnest setting on your pasta machine. Keep the sheets of pasta covered in the flour mixture and covered with a towel or plastic wrap to keep from drying out.

Make the ravioli by placing 1 tsp dollops of the strawberry ricotta mixture on the pasta sheet 1 1/2” -2” apart. Depending on how wide your pasta sheets are, you may be able to fit two rows of ricotta. Brush the edges of the pasta and around the filling with water, and lace another sheet of pasta over the top. Press around the edges and the spaces in between the filling to seal the two sheets together and get rid of any air pockets. Using a pizza cutter or a ravioli stamp, cut out the raviolis. If you are cutting the pasta by hand with a pizza cutter, crimp the edges of the ravioli with a fork to ensure they stay together when cooking.

At this point the raviolis can be cooked or frozen to be used at a later time. If you are freezing them, place on a baking sheet in a single layer and place in the freezer. Once the raviolis have completely frozen, transfer to a freezer safe bag.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. While the water is heating, make the sabayon. In a small sauce pan, bring about 1-2” of water to a gentle simmer. In a large heatproof bowl whisk together the Moscato d’Asti, vanilla sugar, and vanilla extract. Then add the egg yolks and whisk everything together. Set the bowl over the pot of simmering water. The bowl should not touch the water. Whisk continuously until the mixture has thickened enough to hold its shape when you remove the whisk. This should take approximately 10 minutes. Remove the bowl from the heat.

As soon as the sabayon is finished, add the ravioli to the large pot of boiling water and cook for 1 minute. Serve the raviolis immediately with a large spoonful of the vanilla sabayon. Top with fresh strawberries and chocolate curls or shavings.