Ravioli with braised beef are a typical pasta dish of the oltrepò pavese and especially of the area of Zavattarello and Varzi. Although it requires quite long preparation, given the prolonged baking of the meat, it is definitely a tasty and rich dish. Today we will see a variation famous especially in Varzi, the one prepared using Bonarda wine for brazing.
Ingredients for 4 people
For the dough
400 g flour
4 eggs
1 cup of water
For the filling and seasoning
500 gr beef
100 gr grated parmesan cheese
1 egg
50 gr dry breadcrumbs
4 tablespoons of oil
50 gr butter
2 onions
2 carrots
2 stalks of celery
10 cloves
half a cinnamon stick
5 bay leaves
salt
2 bottles of Bonarda red wine
Method
We begin by sautéing, in a fairly large saucepan, the beef with oil and butter. We add the cloves, cinnamon, bay leaf, the rest of the chopped vegetables, salt and cover everything with bonarda. Let it simmer for an hour and a half on low heat.
After removing the cooking juices, which we will strain to make the sauce, we chop everything with a food processor and add the egg, breadcrumbs and grated grana cheese. We mix everything together until we get a smooth dough.
We start making the dough by placing the flour, eggs, a pinch of salt and a glass of water on a pastry board. We knead with our hands for 15 minutes until we obtain a smooth and rather firm dough that we will roll out with a rolling pin, obtaining a thin sheet.
On half the sheet we lay, at an even distance of about 2 centimeters, small balls of filling and cover them with the other half of the sheet. We press with our fingers to seal and cut the ravioli with a notched wheel.
Let’s cook the ravioli for 10 minutes in salted water and, once drained, sauté them in a pan with the strained braised meat sauce adding some grana padano before serving.
