The development of a dish is dictated and guided by what we have, what we want, and what we discover. I try and incorporate seamless ravioli into as many (guest chef, pop-up, traveling minstrel) dinners as possible. Burying a filling in durum flour and patiently waiting for the flour to hydrate and form a skin on the outside is as close to culinary magic as I have witnessed. We were sent some amazing new miso and other fermented treats from our friend Isaiah Billington of White Rose Miso. The sunchoke miso caught our attention, and we immediately put it to use for our dinner at Inferno Pizzeria Napoletana.
When we were at the farm stand, we saw some beautiful eggplant. Immediately there were visions of roasting them in the wood oven and then slowly cooking them down in a tomato sauce, creating a luxuriously silky ragout. At first, we thought of seasoning either the eggplant or the ragout with the miso. But the eggplant and tomatoes’ bold flavors and overall robust natures would cause the miso to fall away into the background. But what if we used the miso to flavor the sauce for the seamless ravioli? This sauce would coat and complement the dumplings while still shining in its own right. The sauce would also blend with the eggplant ragout beneath the dumplings, bringing everything together for the diner with each bite.
We made another bulletproof beurre monte to use as the base and incorporated the sunchoke miso to give it that extra punch of flavor. We cooked the seamless ravioli and glazed them in the sauce. Then we spooned the eggplant ragout into the center of the bowls and topped them with the shimmering ravioli. We finished the dish with basil and parsley and a flurry of 6-month-old Manchego. Each bite was decadent, luxurious, and full of flavor.
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