Barbecued Rib Stuffed and Fried Ravioli

I first made this dish several years ago when we had leftover babyback ribs that my dad had grilled. It’s time-consuming, but highly satisfying in the end. Totally worth it. Last night we had barbecued ribs again (and jambalaya! and corn sticks with butter honey! and a salad!), and again we had leftovers.

That got chopped up into very fine bits, then blended with chopped sauteed onion, apple and thyme, and held together with a goodly amount of cream cheese.

That’s the assembly line. I used store-bought wonton skins, a little water to hold the edges together, and then powered through about two dozen of these. If you have kids or gullible friends, tell them that making ravioli from scratch is really fun, then get them to do it. It’s called the Tom Sawyer strategy.

The innards:

Dip them in sweet and hot chili sauce or the barbecue sauce that was on the ribs when they were being grilled.

Next time I’m going to keep the filling a little chunkier.

Ogle more fried ravioli here.

Update: This is what they look like when brushed with oil and baked in a 375 degree oven for about 7 minutes per side.

Breaded and Fried

To bread and to fry. These things make almost everything taste awesome. Why? Because of fat and crunchiness.

We had a few leftover spinach-ricotta raviolis, and a few remaining mozzarella string cheese sticks. Dredge those in egg and panko bread crumbs, dip in an arrabiata sauce, and shamonay. Cheese sticks need to go through flour before they go through egg and panko. If they aren’t sealed properly, it’s just cheese all over the place.

I do a shallow pan fry rather than a deep fry. It works just as well and you avoid excessive waste and mess. Obviously if I had friers built into my kitchen, I would deep fry. Stop breaking my balls over here.

With something this good it’s hard not to make the stoner mistake, which is to jam food into one’s mouth before it’s cooled down enough, burning the tongue. Often stoners will make this error in their eagerness to satisfy the munchies. Don’t be like the stoners.

Apparently fried raviolis are a staple of the late-night (drunk) kitchen at frat houses. Dipping sauce is necessary, and this is the spicy kind.

So stoners and frat bros, enjoy.