Troy Warren for CNT #Celebrations

NATIONAL RAVIOLI DAY

March 20th celebrates a fun-filled and versatile pasta. National Ravioli Day is a food holiday for pasta lovers! So pick your favorite filling and sauce and cook up a meal everyone will love!

Ravioli are a traditional Italian-filled pasta. Pasta makers fill two layers of thin egg pasta dough with various ingredients. Imagine a small meatball tucked, snug inside two cozy layers of delicious dough. That’s what ravioli is. Some of the fillings include, cheese, meat, vegetables and seasonings. They also usually serve the ravioli in either a broth or with a pasta sauce.

While ravioli often serves as the main course, it can also be a side dish or appetizer. Many popular recipes bake or deep fry the ravioli. The dish also quickly becomes a dessert with chocolate added to the pasta or cream cheese stuffing and a caramel sauce!

Ravioli can be homemade or purchased fresh or frozen in grocery stores. In the United States, Chef Boyardee popularized canned ravioli. This ravioli is filled with beef or processed cheese and served in a tomato, tomato-meat, or tomato-cheese sauce.

But what about toasted ravioli? Where does this delicious creation come from? Well, we turn to St. Louis, Missouri, for the answer. In the 1940s at Oldani’s, a cook accidentally dropped a ravioli into the fryer. And what a delicious accident this ravioli became! The crisp ravioli earned a place on the menu. Or so the story goes. If so, we think it is a tasty one.