Minnesota Cooking: Fried Ravioli With Crispy Crust

There it was. On the bottom shelf. A red bag. It was amongst the bags of frozen chicken strips, and boxes of frozen fish and Brussel sprouts. It had been opened previously, so there were only a few in the bag.

It was time to get creative.

The last time I had the ravioli, I think I layered it with some sort of pasta sauce. I probably made some sort of lasagna. I don't remember.

I just know that I wanted to do something different. At one time, I remembered eating deep fried raviolis at Olive Garden and those were so good, I decided to try making them with these frozen raviolis.

Looking on the bag, there was no instructions for making crispy raviolis, so, I was on my own. There was, however, cooking instructions for boiling them in water.

So, I got out a frying pan with high sides and filled it with water, up to the handle rivets. I brought that water to a boil and added my raviolis. I also started up the deep fryer. That deep fryer of mine takes ten minutes to heat up. It was one of those moments of boiling my raviolis for the four minutes the bag said, and getting to the 10 minutes of my deep fryer readiness.

I had the raviolis in the boiling water and as the eggs cooked inside and the noodles cooked, I got out some Fry Magic coating mix and had that waiting in a covered plastic box. I like using Fry Magic for deep frying fish and chicken and thought that its flavor would really taste good on a cheese filled ravioli.

Deep fryer ready light on. Green means go. So. I then coated the first batch of raviolis with the coating mix. Some of the spots were not very wet and the coating mix did not stick very well, so I ran some water over those spots and redabbed the flour mix on them.

Satisfied with the coating being even, I lowered the frying basket into the oil. I gently dropped my coated raviolis into the hot oil and watched as the raviolis and the coating started to cook. It was interesting how the raviolis got bigger and bigger, like little pillows or balloons.

The deep fryer seems to cook them on the bottom only, so I took a spoon and tried to flip them over. It's not easy to do so, since the filling clumps to one side and with the air inside, they float and fight you. Ah, well. I did my best to flip them over.

As they browned, I got ready to put them on a paper plate that was covered with a single paper towel.

I like to put a paper towel on the plate to absorb the excess oil. It works great! I had the rest of the raviolis still in the hot water, and coated them with the mix and placed them into the fryer. Same thing, floating and bobbing. Had to flip them over to cook the other side.

Now. I have a plateful of cooked raviolis.

They relax a bit and flatten slightly once they rest on the paper toweled plate. I cannot wait to try them, but I must, since they are hot from the hot oil.

But they look yummy....

Crispy outside, cheesy inside. A little bit of seasoned salt flavor and melted cheese. Yes. I am glad I thought of making this. It was really good.

You should try it!!!

Yep. Those raviolis are now just a faded memory, but some day, since I have one more bag of them in the freezer, I think I may just have to fry some more.