The Bottom Line: March 20th is National Ravioli Day!
The Full Story:
March 20th is National Ravioli Day! As one of the food holidays, it is very popular with all pasta lovers. Ravioli are a traditional type of Italian filled pasta, made up of a filling sealed between two layers of thin egg pasta dough. The ravioli are usually served in either a broth or with a pasta sauce. A variety of filling recipes are available from cheesy to meaty – and while Different sizes and sealing techniques have different names. Whether it says agnolotti, tortellini (the smaller version of a tortelloni) or sachetti on a menu, they’re all the same thing – a type of ravioli.
Served often as the main course, ravioli can also be a side dish, or even an appetizer. Many popular recipes bake or deepfry the raviolis. With chocolate added to the pasta or cream cheese stuffing and a caramel sauce, the dish quickly becomes a dessert!
Ravioli can be homemade or may be purchased fresh or frozen in grocery stores. In the United States, Chef Boyardee is credited with making the canned ravioli popular. This ravioli is filled with either beef or processed cheese and served in a tomato, tomato-meat or tomato-cheese sauce.
And by the way? Many cultures have something similar to ravioli. The Jewish culture has a dish called kreplach, which has meat filling with egg pasta to cover the filling. In India there is Gujiya, but that has a sweet filling made with dried fruit. The Chinese also have wontons, which are the same as the ravioli, but have a thinner outer layer and is roundish but also served in broth. Hungry yet?