A Recipe to Cure the Winter Blues

Posted on: January 30th, 2025 | Posted in: News

Ravioli alla Mugellana (Potato and Pancetta-filled Ravioli with Beef Ragù)

As the winter chill sets in, there’s no better time to slow down and immerse yourself in a rewarding kitchen project. This month, we’re bringing you a comforting and traditional dish: Ravioli alla Mugellana, a hearty potato-filled pasta from the Mugello region of Tuscany.

While making fresh pasta from scratch is an involved process, it’s the perfect way to spend a cozy afternoon indoors. And if you’d rather save time, pre-made pasta sheets work just as well! To complement the rich flavors of this dish, we’ve paired it with Novelty Hill’s Il Corvo, a bold and structured blend of Sangiovese and Cabernet Sauvignon in the style of a Super Tuscan.

This recipe was thoughtfully crafted by Laura Spadaccini Bodstein, our Director of Direct to Consumer, who first fell in love with wine and cooking while attending culinary school and cooking with her family in Italy. We hope this recipe brings a little warmth and inspiration to your winter kitchen!

Ingredients

Meat Sauce
Olive Oil
1 small to medium red onion, finely chopped
1 medium carrot, finely chopped
1 medium celery stalk, finely chopped
2-3 garlic cloves, minced
1 sprig of rosemary, minced
2 sprigs of thyme, minced
1 large bay leaf
1 lb ground beef
½  cup dry red wine
700g bottle of Passata di Pomodoro (tomato puree)
1- 28 oz can of peeled Italian tomatoes, blended until smooth
Salt
Pepper

Fresh Pasta
400g white unbleached flour
4 whole eggs
A pinch of salt
A drizzle of olive oil

Filling
1 lb yellow potatoes, peeled and cut in half
4 oz pancetta
¼ tsp ground nutmeg
3 tablespoons of heavy cream
1/4c fresh grated parmesan
Salt to taste

For the Pasta

Place your flour in a mound on a large, clean surface and make a well in the middle. Add the eggs, salt and olive oil to the center and use a fork to incorporate the egg whites and yolks.  Start incorporating some of the flour into the liquid mixture, being careful to keep the walls intact. Once it’s batter-thick, use your hands to work the dough into a ball.

Start kneading the dough vigorously with the palm of your hands until totally smooth, about 10minutes (do not try to cut this step short; this is essentially for developing gluten in the dough). The dough will feel dry at first, but will become less so as you work it. If it still feels too dry, wet your fingertips with cold water and keep kneading (repeating if necessary). If it feels too wet, add flour to the kneading surface.

Shape dough into a ball and wrap with plastic wrap. Let rest at room temperature for 30 minutes to 1 hour.

Once dough has rested, cut the ball into quarters and form each quarter into a thick oval. Feed it through your pasta machine on the thickest setting a twice. Set the stretched dough on the counter and fold it into thirds, with both end pieces meeting in the center to form a clean rectangle. Continue to feed the pasta through the machine on each of the thickness settings (twice on each setting) until you get to the last (thinnest) setting.  Lay your dough sheets flat on a floured surface, covered with more flour to prevent the sheets from sticking to each other if you have limited space and need to layer the sheets.

Lay your dough sheet flat on your work surface, trim the messy ends and cut the sheet in half (width wise). Use one sheet to spoon about 1.5 teaspoons of filling  (or use a Ziploc bag with the corner tip cutoff to pipe) in two rows, spaced two fingers apart across. Brush all sides of the sheet (including outer edges and middles in between each dollop of dough) with water so all sides seal properly. Place the second half of the pasta sheet on top and press with your fingers around the filling, making sure to remove any air bubbles. Press to seal all the sides of the parcels so that the pasta sticks together well and doesn’t come apart when boiling. Use a knife or ravioli cutter to cut each individual ravioli. Set them on a floured sheet pan while you repeat these steps with the rest of the dough. At this point you can freeze the ravioli if you aren’t going to cook them right away.

Filling
Peel potatoes, place in a large pot and cover with cold water. Salt generously and boil until tender.

Meanwhile, place a sauté pan over medium heat with a drizzle of olive oil and fry the pancetta until it starts to get slightly crispy and the fat starts to render out. Chop pancetta pieces up if you have larger chunks. Set aside.

Add the potatoes to a stand mixer along the heavy cream and whisk on high speed until smooth and creamy. Add the pancetta, nutmeg and parmesan. Salt to taste- start with 1 teaspoon and add more if needed; make sure the filling is very well seasoned, otherwise the ravioli will taste bland.

Meat Sauce
Heat a large pot on medium heat with a drizzle of olive oil. Add the red onion, carrot, celery and garlic and sauté on medium to low heat until tender (the veggies should sweat and become soft- be careful not to brown them,  lower the heat if necessary), about 10-15 minutes. Add the chopped herbs and bay leaf and stir. Turn the heat to medium high and add the ground beef, stirring to break it apart and to make sure it browns evenly.

Once the beef is fully cooked, add the wine and let it cook down a little bit until the alcohol evaporates, about 5 minutes. Add the passata (or blended canned tomatoes) and add water to the passata bottle or can of tomatoes until half way up and shake it to make use of all the leftover tomato juices in there, pour it into the pan and bring the sauce to a simmer. Turn the heat down to medium low so that it’s just barely simmering.

Let it cook for about 40 minutes while you make the ravioli, stirring occasionally to make sure the bottom isn’t burning.

To Finish
Once everything is ready to come together, bring a large pot of well salted water (it should taste like sea water) to a rolling boil. Add your ravioli in batches, making sure not to add too many in at a time otherwise they will stick together (they should be able to float around freely). Boil until tender and cooked through, about 4-5 minutes.

Toss the cooked ravioli into a bowl with some of the meat sauce and add to a large serving platter. Repeat these steps until all batches of the ravioli are ready to serve.

Serve with a sprinkle of fresh parmesan cheese, a simple green salad on the side and a bottle of Novelty Hill Il Corvo.

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