Wayne's Weekend: Chocolate Valentine Ravioli

Make a strawberry cream filled ravioli for your Valentine’s Day celebration.

Strawberries and chocolate seem to by synonymous with Valentine’s Day. So, as a twist to this traditional combination, I’ve created a strawberry cream filled chocolate ravioli and a creamy strawberry sauce topping. It’s a decadent little treat and will make a tasty end to a Valentine’s Day celebration. The ravioli and strawberry sauce can both be made well in advance. Final preparation takes just minutes so you can enjoy them anytime.

Valentine Ravioli with Strawberry Sauce (makes about 32)

Pasta

  • 1 cu Semillonia Flour
  • 1 1/2 cu All Purpose Flour
  • 2 lg Eggs
  • 2 lg Egg Whites
  • 1/2 cu Cocoa Powder
  • 2 tbl Vegetable Oil
  • 1/3 cu Water
  • Strawberry Sauce
  • 1 pint Fresh Strawberries, hulled and finely chopped
  • 1/2 cu Sugar
  • 1 tbl Fresh Lemon Juice
  • 1 tbl Grand Marnier

Filling

  • 4 oz Cream Cheese
  • 4 oz Mascarpone Cheese
  • 2 tbl Strawbeerry Sauce (from this recipe)
  • 1 1/2 cu Powdered Sugar


Additional Materials

  • Pasta Maker
  • Heart Shaped Cookie Cutter (about 2 3/4” wide)
  • Fresh Mint, optional, for garnish
  • Additional Whole Strawberries, optional, for garnish

Method

Make the pasta dough. Sift together semolina, all purpose flour and cocoa powder into a large bowl. Separately, whisk together eggs, egg whites, vegetable oil and water. Make a well in the center of flour mixture and gradually stir in wet ingredients. Work mixture until a dough forms. Turn onto a lightly floured board and knead for about five minutes. Wrap dough in plastic and let it rest at room temperature for at least an hour.

Make the strawberry sauce. Place strawberries, sugar, Grand Marnier and lemon juice in a pot over a medium high heat and bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat to medium low and continue to cook mixture for 15 minutes, stirring often. Remove from heat and let mixture cool for about 10 minutes. Pour mixture into a blender and blend until smooth. Strain sauce through a fine mesh strainer to remove the seeds. Pour into a sealable container and refrigerate until ready to use. Tip: if you have an immersion blender, blend the mixture once while it is boiling, then again in a blender after it has cooled. It creates a bit more sauce.

Make the filling. Cream together cream cheese and mascarpone cheese until smooth. Stir in strawberry sauce. Add powdered sugar and mix until smooth. Cover and refrigerate for about 30 minutes.

To make the ravioli, work with 1/4 of the dough at a time (keep remaining dough covered in plastic). Flatten dough into a rectangle and run it through the pasta maker at its widest setting. Fold dough into thirds onto itself and run it through the pasta maker again. Lower the setting and run it through again. Continue lowering the setting until you're 2-3 settings above the lowest setting. You should have a rectangular sheet of pasta about 5 1/2" wide x 26" long. Lay the sheet flat on your work surface. Imagine a line down the middle of the pasta length wise creating two long rectangles. Place 1 1/2 teaspoon sized dollops in the middle of the lower half, about 3" apart from each other. You should have 8 dollops on the pasta. Using a pastry brush, moisten the area around each dollop. Gently fold the top half over the dollop half matching the outer edges. Using your fingers create a seal around each dollop pushing out excess air and flatten all areas away from the filling. Using the heart cutter, cut out heats around each sealed dollop. Place heart shaped raviolis in a single layer (not touching) on a wax paper lined cookie sheet. At this point, raviolis are ready to cook. If you aren't cooking them right away, place the cookie sheet in the freezer. Once the raviolis are frozen, place them in either a plastic bag or sealable container and return them to the freezer until ready to use.

To cook pasta, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Place pasta in boiling water and cook for 3 minutes if pasta is fresh or 5 minutes if pasta is frozen. Remove from water with a strainer and drain. Place on a tea towel or paper towel to remove excess moisture. Place on a serving plate and top with strawberry sauce. You can also decorate the plate with sliced fresh strawberries, a bit of sauce and fresh mint. If you want an even richer dessert, you can sauté the ravioli in a bit of butter after removing them from the water before plating.

If you have any comments or questions, please send me an email at wayne@waynesweekend.com or follow me on Facebook or Twitter.

Contact Us