No. 2976

Ravioles a la Bellini

Prepare some ravioles as explained in No. 158. After being blanched and drained put them in a saucepan and cover with broth (No. 194a); cook for a few minutes, then drain and dress in layers in a vegetable dish, alterating each one with grated parmesan; pour over some thickened gravy (No. 405), mixed with meat glaze (No. 402) and tomato puree (No. 730), then serve. Ravioles can also be prepared the same way, and when drained and placed in the vegetable dish pour over some melted butter, strew over grated parmesan and bake in a moderate oven for a few minutes.

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For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes for a brigade that already has stock, gravy and glaze on the stove, so this entry is really an assembly method. Everything hinges on the sauce components, which you either build or substitute.

The hinge: brief cooking in brothThe ravioli are already blanched; the broth stage is a two- to four-minute finish that seasons the pasta and warms the filling. Left longer they split and shed their stuffing into the layers.
The cross-referencesNo. 158 is Ranhofer's ravioli proper; No. 194a the broth he calls for; No. 405 a thickened brown gravy (close in effect to a demi-glace); No. 402 meat glaze; No. 730 tomato puree. Any fresh meat ravioli plus a good demi-glace works.
Meat glazeGlace de viande is stock reduced to a syrup. A tablespoon of commercial demi-glace concentrate or a heavily reduced homemade brown stock gives the same gloss and depth; without it the sauce reads thin.
Sauce proportionsThe original gives none. A workable ratio is about 1 cup demi-glace, 1 tablespoon meat glaze and 1/4 cup tomato puree, adjusted so the sauce coats without flooding the dish.
"Vegetable dish"A period serving dish for vegetables, usually covered, brought to table. Any wide gratin dish serves, and it should be warmed first so the layers do not chill on contact.
Moderate ovenFor the second, buttered version: 350F, and only long enough to melt the cheese and take on a little colour, five to eight minutes. This variant is a gratin, not a bake.
ParmesanGrate it yourself from a wedge of Parmigiano-Reggiano or a comparable aged grana. Pre-grated cheese with anticaking agent will not melt into the layers the way this dish needs.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of some three decades as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and it shows Italian pasta being handled in a French kitchen rather than an Italian one. The ravioli here are treated as a French garnish would be: blanched, finished in broth, sauced with thickened gravy, meat glaze and tomato, and named for a person in the manner of the period. Dishes styled a la Bellini are generally taken as compliments to Vincenzo Bellini, the Sicilian opera composer whose works were staples of the New York stage in Ranhofer's day, though he assigns the name without explanation and the attribution is traditional rather than documented. The section title, "Macaroni, Rice and Farinaceous," shows how such food was still classified: starches grouped together as a category of their own.