Christmas Recipe: Ravioli with salted codfish

In Italy, dishes with salted codfish are quite typical in the Christmas period.

The Chef at Palmaria Restaurant in Portovenere, has a delicious Christmas recipe to share: ravioli with Livorno-style salted codfish. His sea-themed proposal revisits a dish that is usually served as a main course, re-elaborating it as a first course with stuffed ravioli. The dish combines ingredients that are typical in the Gulf of Poets in Liguria and in the neighboring coast in northern Tuscany (Versilia and Livorno).

– Baccalà alla Livornese dentro e fuori dal Raviolo –
Christmas Recipe

Prepare the egg pasta

INGREDIENTS

• Soft wheat flour 700 gr
• Durum wheat flour 150 gr
• Kamut flour 150 gr
• Egg yolk 400 gr
• Egg white 100 gr
• Extra virgin olive oil 50 gr
• Double-concentrated tomato paste 50 gr
• Salt – as needed

PROCEDURE
Mix the egg yolks with the double-concentrated tomato paste, olive oil and salt in a medium-sized dough kneader; then add the previously mixed flours a bit at the time. Continue mixing until you obtain a smooth dough that is moderately soft. You can work the dough right away in a ravioli shape.

Prepare the stuffing

INGREDIENTS

• Desalinated cod fillet 500 gr
• 1 garlic clove
• Fresh beef tomato 200 gr
• Soft wheat flour 30 gr
• Yellow potatoes 200 gr
• Vermentino wine 200 cl
• Extra virgin olive oil 100 cl
• Salt, pepper, chili pepper – as needed

PROCEDURE
Cut the salted codfish in small slices, dust with flour and then sauté. In a large saucepan, soften a clove of garlic in olive oil and then add the fish. Simmer with Vermentino wine and add the fresh tomato cut into small cubes. Cut the potatoes into thin slices and add them in the saucepan along with salt and pepper. Let cook at medium heat for about 20 minutes. Use the cutter to obtain a homogenous filling.

Prepare the sauce

INGREDIENTS

• Mussels’ cooking water 300 cl
• Extra virgin olive oil 20 cl
• Fresh parsley 150 gr
• Yellow potatoes 30 gr

PROCEDURE
Cut the potatoes in thin slices and add them to the mussels’ cooking water until the mix is reduced by half; let cool off completely. Parboil the parsley and then cool it with ice. Use a hand blender to mix the potatoes with olive oil and parsley.

Final Touches

Cook the ravioli in abundant salted water for a few minutes, sauté in a pan with a trickle of extra virgin olive oil, then position them on the plate in a geometric way with “brush strokes” of green sauce and pepper threads.

Enjoy… Buon Appetito!

Photo credit: featured image of the ravioli by “Alchimia del Gusto: Il portale gourmet“