Ravioles Argentinos

Ravioles are the Sunday pasta of Italian-Argentine home cooking, as central to the Argentine table as asado. Brought by the millions of Italian immigrants who settled in Buenos Aires, Rosario and Cordoba in the early 20th century, the tradition of making fresh ravioli by hand for the Sunday family lunch survived and thrived. The most common filling is ricotta and spinach, though ham and cheese, pumpkin, and beef are also traditional. The sauce is tuco, the Argentine version of tomato sauce, slow-simmered with onion, garlic, and sometimes beef. The dish is served on Sundays, the whole family gathered, and the ravioli are made fresh that morning, the pasta dough rolled thin and the filling spooned and sealed by hand.

Tender, thin-skinned ravioli with a creamy, cheesy ricotta-spinach filling, blanketed in a rich, slow-simmered tomato sauce with a whisper of beef. Each bite is soft, hot and homely, the Sunday table in a forkful.

The dish combines fresh pasta and a slow sauce. The pasta is flour and egg, kneaded smooth and rested, then rolled thin. The filling is ricotta, blanched spinach, egg, grated cheese, salt and nutmeg, spooned onto the dough in mounds, covered with a second sheet, and cut and sealed by hand. The tuco is onion and garlic fried in oil, canned tomatoes added, simmered 30 to 45 minutes with oregano and sometimes ground beef. The ravioli are boiled 4 to 5 minutes until they float, drained, and sauced generously. The Argentine version is characterised by the abundance of sauce and the tuco, which is thicker and more meat-forward than the Italian sugo.