We love eating breakfast for dinner, and do so often, considering all the eggs we collect from our chickens.
This recipe comes together pretty quickly, making it a perfect middle of the week dinner. It's the perfect opportunity to use both fresh tomatoes from the garden and fresh eggs from your coop!
You don't want to overcook the ravioli, but instead make sure the yolks are still a bit runny, so the golden orange goodness seeps out and mixes with the delicious marinara sauce as soon as you cut into the ravioli.
Egg Yolk Ravioli on a Bed of Basil Marinara Sauce
And now for the recipe. Make the Marinara Sauce first, so that's ready to go once the ravioli are made and cooked.
For the Basil Marinara Sauce
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 teaspoons salt (to taste)
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper (to taste) 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
In a heavy saucepan, cook tomatoes, onion, and garlic for 10 minutes or until softened, stirring occasionally. Season with salt and pepper to taste and set aside to cool.
When cool, use a food processor (or just rough chop the tomatoes with a knife and break them up with a wooden spoon a bit), then return the sauce to the saucepan and bring to a boil.
Turn down the heat to a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, until the sauce thickens. Stir in the basil and set aside.
(Note: you can easily double, triple or quadruple this recipe and can the extra sauce using a standard water bath procedure.)
For the Egg Yolk Ravioli
Makes 8 ravioli.
By using store bought eggroll or wonton wrappers, you can cut way down on the prep time, but if you're ambitious, you can make homemade pasta sheets to use for this recipe.
Either way, you're going to need a 3" biscuit cutter to achieve the size circles called for.
You can get two 3" circles from each standard eggroll wrapper. Use a sharp paring knife to cut around the outline of the biscuit cutter if needed.
Sixteen 3" circles of dough (eggroll, wonton or homemade sheet of pasta) 8 eggs1/2 cup ricotta cheese
1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon shredded mozzarella cheese
1 tablespoon fresh minced basil
Salt and pepper to taste
Cornmeal, for dusting
Stir the Parmesan and mozzarella cheeses into the ricotta in a small bowl, mix well and season to taste with salt and pepper. Spoon a scant Tablespoon of the mixture onto each dough circle and make an indentation in the center with the back of the spoon.
Carefully break the eggs, one at a time (set aside the white of one egg), and carefully set a yolk into each indentation.
Sprinkle the yolks with the fresh basil, then using a pastry brush, brush along the edges of each circle with reserved egg white and top with a second circle, pressing the edges together firmly with your fingers to seal them, being careful not to break the yolk.
Set each ravioli on a cutting board dusted with cornmeal to rest while you assemble the remaining ravioli.
Bring a pot of salted water to a gentle boil, then carefully slide each ravioli into the water using a slotted spoon.
Cook for 2 to 3 minutes or until the yolk is soft set. Using the slotted spoon, remove the ravioli and place each on top of a plate of the marinara sauce.
Garnish with fresh basil leaves, a sprinkling of sea salt and fresh cracked black pepper.
One ravioli makes a nice appetizer course - or serve 3-4 raviolis per person for a main course.
Step-by-step instructions with photos:
Oh and one last tip: Save those plastic flip-tops from the green Parmesan cheese shaker containers.
They fit perfectly on Ball canning jars, so you can 'class it up' a little and serve some grated Parmesan on the side in a mason jar with a shaker cap! #lifehack
