Ravioli is synonymous with Italian cuisine. So it should not be surprising that ravioli or, more accurately, stuffed pasta is the third most popular item at Italian restaurants across the country.
The stuffed pastas that were staples on menus for years were based on the ravioli that were the feast-day tradition in the Naples area: the familiar squares filled with ricotta flecked with parsley and topped with a tomato sauce. In America, if not ricotta, it was often ground beef. If not tomato sauce, it was a tomato-based meat sauce or mushroom sauce.
For decades, in addition to serving each dish individually, it was very popular to offer “ravioli and spaghetti,” like at Little Joe’s in the 1930s in Los Angeles, or “½ ravioli, ½ spaghetti,” as did Il Forno, “the name that made pizza famous in Lansing,” in the 1950s. This seemingly odd combination was found at moderately priced Italian restaurants through at least the 1970s.
Today, most pastas on menus are far removed from what might have shared the plate with spaghetti. Most follow – or are based on – one of the fresh pasta traditions that are long-established in Emilia-Romagna, Lombardy, Piedmont and elsewhere in northern Italy. Agnolotti, fazzoletti, tortellini, tortelli, tordelli, cappelletti, pansotti and anolini are a few of the names that you might encounter. The famous Fior d’Italia in San Francisco serves a version of the classic dish from Mantua, Ravioli di Zucca, pasta stuffed with pumpkin, mustard fruit and amaretti, butter, pine nuts and a sage sauce. Tony’s of St. Louis offers a rich agnollotti with prosciutto. Vincenti in Los Angeles has a decadent tortelli filled with osso buco, braising reduction, porcini mushrooms and black truffles. Chicago’s Piccolo Sogno takes inspiration from a few places on the Italian peninsula with their tortelloni alla primavera with artichoke and buffalo milk ricotta stuffed pasta tossed with fava beans, peas and parsley.
Like the previous articles in this series, the data is from over 300 current and recent Italian restaurants in thirty-five states in a wide variety of price ranges.
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