Every year I do a large multicourse dinner around Mother’s day (you can see some in previous posts here and here). My goal always is to come up with new and unique recipes to fill the night with oohs and aahs. Because I try and come up with my own recipes (either entirely original ideas or new versions of the classics), it means that I spend a bunch of time practicing new recipes in the weeks and months before the dinner.  Here is a recipe that I’ve been working on lately that I’m pretty sure I’ll be using this year. I’ve seen this concept jokingly referred to as ‘raviolo’ instead of ‘ravioli’ because raviolo is the singular form and these are large enough that you could conceivably eat just one.

It started with the fact that I found a beautiful locally foraged black truffle at the farmer’s market.

Black Truffle Ravioli with a Soft Egg Yolk Center

1/2 batch – Semolina pasta dough (see recipe here)

2 cups – Homemade ricotta (see recipe here, note: the recipe is found inside the post but is not the subject of that post)

1/4 cup – Mustard greens (about 2 leaves)

10 – small eggs

fresh black truffle (substitute with truffle oil)

4 Tbsp – Truffle butter (see recipe here)

12 – Fresh sage leaves

Kosher salt

White Pepper

For the filling:

Heat a small pot of water until it comes to a gentle boil.  In the meantime, rinse the Mustard greens and cut off the stems.  Prepare a small bowl of ice water next to the pot of boiling water.  Place the greens in the boiling water for 5-10 seconds then remove and plunge promptly into the ice water, cool completely.  Mince the greens as finely as possible. 

Press as much water as possible out of the ricotta then add to a small bowl. Add the minced greens, 2 eggs, some finely minced truffle (I used about 1/2 tsp.), and salt and pepper to taste (but a bit on the salty side).  Mix well and set aside. 

To make the ravioli:

Roll the dough out (using a pasta roller if available) to it’s thinnest setting and lay the sheets on an evenly floured counter.

Place a bowl down onto the dough, acting as a guide, and trace around it with a pasta blade or pizza cutter.  Make 16 large circles.  Place a small mound (about 1/4 cup) filling in the center of 8 of the circles then using a spoon, make a small well in the center of each one. Separate the egg yolks from the whites (save the whites for something fun like macarons) and carefully place a yolk in the well in the center of each raviolo.

Using a small cup of cool water, dip your finger and spread a little water along the edges of the raviolo.  Place a remaining circle on the top of each raviolo and press the edges tightly to seal.  Bring a large pot of water to a low simmer, adding 2-3 Tbsp. kosher salt to the water.

For the brown butter:

Preheat a skillet on med-low. Add truffle butter and finely minced sage leaves.  The butter will first begin to foam then the solids will start to get very brown.  Once the solids are brown the butter will take on a nutty/caramel sort of aroma.  Drop the heat to low (or remove from the heat altogether).  Do not let the solids turn black (this will taste burnt).

Final steps:

Gently add the ravioli to the pot of low simmering water in small batches (no more than 4 at a time). Set a timer and cook them for 2-2 1/2 minutes (depending on how low your simmer is).  Remove the ravioli from the water and place directly into the pan of browned butter, flip each ravioli once (so that they are well coated) and place on plates.  Garnish with shaved truffle and sage leaves.  Eat immediately.

I found a beautiful locally foraged black truffle at the farmer’s market yesterday.

Once I had the truffle, I needed to find some good uses for it. The first thing I did was to make some homemade truffle butter.

Homemade Truffle Butter

2 cups – Heavy whipping cream

1 tsp. – Kosher salt

1/2 ounce – Fresh black truffle

Place whipping cream in a mason jar and place the lid on tightly. Shake (and shake and shake) until the cream breaks and separates into butter and buttermilk (I continue shaking for a bit more after that even). Remove the butter solid from the buttermilk, and while hold it in your hand, place it under cold running water to “rinse” the butter. Remove from water and squeeze (as best you can) and press as much of the liquid as will come out then place the butter into a container. Additional liquid might emerge in the first few minutes, pour off this as well. Stir in salt. Mince the truffle and finely as possible (I use my garlic shaver) and stir into butter. Refrigerate for up to one week or freeze for up to one month. I find that if you freeze the butter into an ice cube tray then you can pop out one cube’s worth for whatever you might use the butter for.

Uses for Truffle Butter

Truffle butter has all sorts of uses. I honestly think the best is for frying eggs/omelettes. It is also good spread on steak (before grilling), in sautéed mushrooms, with sunchokes, and French fries. Anything earthy.