Easy & Delicious Crispy Fried Cheese Ravioli

These Crispy Fried Raviolis will probably be the first to go so make a double batch!

Pasta is meant to be al dente and covered with Italian Gravy. And ravioli is never, ever meant to be messed with. Yeah… I missed that last memo.

You see in my family we had a pizza shop where fried foods were a huge seller; deep-fried ravioli being one of those big sellers.

See one of the biggest things you want when you run a restaurant is the ability to use an ingredient in multiple ways.  For example, simple pizza dough you can transform into pizza puffs, deep-fried donuts, calzones, and so forth.  So when it came to ravioli I set out on a mission to use it in a way other than with marinara.

One of my biggest downfalls at the pizza shop was mozzarella sticks.  I love some fried cheese.  I mean who doesn’t?  While I was working, a sales rep came into the shop with a promotion he was trying to pimp – breaded ravioli for deep frying.  Say what???  What the what?

Now truth be told I didn’t like those at all.  I pleaded with my brother to just make our own out of the ravioli we already had.  All we needed to buy were eggs and bread crumbs – not a big deal.  I explained the concept of flash freezing but he said it was too much work. I ‘splained that it could be part of morning prep work but it fell upon deaf ears. Brothers…

Flash forward to Mr. Fantabulous and I living in our first house.  It was pasta night (which if he could, it would have been every night).  This particular night he wanted ravioli. 

One thing I have an issue with when it comes to pre-made ravioli is that when I feed him it, it’s not enough in a single bag to get 3 servings out.  There’s too much for 2 servings but not enough for 3. 

So as I made him his plate of ravioli and marinara I had about 8 ravioli left in the bag.  Not enough for a portion and certainly not enough for a proper snack for him.  Then I got that image of the fried ravioli we used to sell in the pizza shop. 

The next day I thought about how to coat these.  Since they were already frozen I knew dipping them in flour wouldn’t work – it wouldn’t really stick.  I opened up my fridge and spied some leftover buttermilk.  Since I knew that was thick, that would be a great coating – wrong.  I dunked one in the buttermilk and then the breadcrumbs only to have the breadcrumbs slide off into the oil.

Just like any home chef I whimmed it and whisked in an egg to the buttermilk to get it nice and thick.  Then I coated the ravioli in the breadcrumbs and a few minutes later I was met with a golden brown, crispy fried ravioli.

Folks lemme tell you what – I ate all 7 of those at once.  They were so good that I shut the oil off, put the egg mixture into the fridge, and ran out to the store to get 3 more bags of ravioli.  Cheese ravioli that is.  Never meat; at least not in my house. I just don’t like the meat consistency in the ravioli.  It’s weird.

So now fast forward to ravioli night at my house.  I decided to serve it in 2 ways – traditional and this way.

Um yeah.. imagine the look I got when I served these as an appetizer, Deep Fried Ravioli with Italian Gravy on the side!  I’m lucky *I* didn’t get whacked!  But I batted the baby blues and said ‘please’.. and the rest is history.  I didn’t get whacked and Mr. Fantabulous still loves me 🙂

So if you’re tired of the same old same old, try this!  You can use fresh pasta (preferably homemade ravioli) or in a pinch, frozen ravioli from the store.

Enjoy!

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