Chocolate & Poppy Seed Ravioli

I have a large cannister of poppy seeds in my cupboard. I can't remember why or when I bought them, only that they do not get used as often as they should. The flavour of sweets made with poppy seeds seems to me to be a dark and sensual, musky, sweetness. It calls to (my) mind smoky fires, dancing, feasting and red-cheeked merriment. Not at all a standard North American sweet, some of which are overly sugary and juvenile in comparison. Poppy seed sweets are more grown up tasting to me.

I discovered, when living in Melbourne, that the poppyseed has a natural affinity for chocolate, another of my favourite sweets. How fortunate for me. Maybe not so fortunate for the size of my ass.

Completely randomly (as is my habit) I decided to make some sweet ravioli for a special dinner last week. Cakes had put the idea of ravioli in my head while we were at the Italian Centre Shop last week and for some reason I became fixated on sweet ones. So I whipped up a lovely chocolate pasta dough, based on this recipe (although I doubled the amount of cocoa), and filled it with a mixture of poppyseeds cooked in sweet milk and ricotta. They were heaven. Especially when topped with chocolate whipped cream! Even cakes, who has texture issues with small, gritty things, loved them.

Chocolate and Poppyseed Ravioli

• 1 recipe chocolate pasta dough, rolled out thin
• 1/2 cup poppyseeds
• 125 ml (1/2 cup) milk
• 50 gm (1/3 cup) brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 180 gm (about 3/4 cup) smooth, creamy ricotta (if yours is watery or chunky, you might have to pop it in the food processor or blender with a bit of cream)
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh cinnamon

Place the sugar, poppyseeds and milk in a small saucepan and cook over medium heat until poppyseeds are soft and liquid is almost totally gone. Be careful not to let the milk scorch. Remove from heat and stri through the vanilla. Mix in the Ricotta and cinnamon.

Roll the pasta dough out very thin, suing a lot of flour or cocoa to keep the dough from sticking, and cut into strips 4" (10cm) wide. along one edge of each strip, leaving a border, dollop a heaping teaspoon of filling. repeat, leaving 2" between dollops, up one long side of each strip. Use a damp pastry brush to wet the bare side of the strip and gently fold it over so both long edges line up. use your fingers to press the dough together between the lumps of filling, taking care to make sure not too much air gets trapped. You should end up with several long strips containinf 4 or 5 ravioli lumps. Separate them into individual raviolis by cutting them apart, either with a knife, or a ravioli cutting wheel. Make sure all the sides of each ravioli are well sealed.

Boil the ravioli in a large pot of unsalted water for 3-5 minutes or until they float and are done to the teeth. If you're serving 4 people, there will be a few extras (5 is a plenty big serving for each person) so test some to make sure they are cooked to your liking. If you're not going to cook the ravioli until later, spread them out on a cookie sheet sprinkled with cocoa or flour. If they dry a little, that's okay, just remember to increase the cooking time to account for the dried-outness. Drain.

Sevre them with chcolate whipped cream: whipe one cup of heavy cream and fold in 1/4 cup of commercially prepared or homemade fudge sauce. No extra sugar is necessary. Dust with a bit of cocoa.

Comments

[Bea at La Tartine Gourmande]

Mmmmm, intriguing! I made chocolate pasta a while ago and loved it. Your recipe looks very tempting!

[Stephanie]

This looks gorgeous!

If only I could get someone to come for dinner, I'd have a good reason to make this!

[MulattaPreta]

where i come from, a nice plump ass is an asset! enjoy every single bite! looks deeeelish...

[Lyn]

MulattaPretta

I guess I'd be a very popular girl. BTW. Am loving the grits. Thanks so much.

L

[Marilyn]

Looks wonderful...a nice change from the ordinary!

[MM]

Oh yes ... yes, baby, yes! I love chocolate and poppy seeds. Did you know poppy seeds are banned in Singapore? I bought a bottle when I was in Australia and have been hoarding it lovingly, watching in quiet panic & desperation as the level goes down.

I do not know if I have enough poppy seeds left to make this but this is just so inviting and delicious!

[Helen]

I am salivating at the mere thought of this, it looks fantastic!

[Ange]

These look divine!

[abby]

looks amazing!

any thoughts on how to serve a far-too-sweet-to-be-savoury almondy pumpkin & amaretto ravioli?

i'm sure sweet is the way to go (although i can't seem to get a chorizo/black pepper style sauce out of my head) but am not sure how - lemony sauces don't seem quite right....

[Lyn]

abby, what about a sweet vanilla cream sauce?