# Storing and Cooking Protocol for home made Ravioli and pastas.



## cyclechef (Jan 22, 2008)

My restaurant will be starting a seasonal ravioli on its menu in the very near future.  I have made lots of fresh pastas , but am a little concerned about freezing fresh gourmet raviolis. I generally make egg pasta with all purpose flour.  I am testing a few blends of semolina, durum, and 00 flours.

I have great success with plating fresh raviolis that are not frozen.  After I make the ravioli I let them dry in the walk-in cooler.  Cook 3 minutes, toss in sauce and plate.  However ravioli from the freezer look like shit.  The pasta becomes brittle and does not hold up in boiling water.   There must be a few techniques that will allow me to freeze homemade ravioli frozen for a week and then cook with pride? 

Perhaps I should not even freeze but make fresh ravioli every two days with modest par levels and smart food storage? 

I am looking for a pasta dough recipe that is versatile, cost effective and durable (w/ quality) in a professional American-Italian kitchen. 

Grazie.


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## cyclechef (Jan 22, 2008)

protocol..oops, bad typing.


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## chefwriter (Oct 31, 2012)

When I made fresh ravioli I used all purpose flour for the pasta, then laid them on cornmeal before freezing in a single layer,

Once frozen packed them in layers in a deep plastic fish box, separated by parchment paper and cornmeal with the lid on tight. That worked pretty well.


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## mboshka (Mar 10, 2013)

Keep em' fresh. Make em' often. In my opinion there is not much point in making raviolis with nice seasonal ingredients and beautiful hand made pasta if you're gonna through them in the freezer! Don't let them get too dry in the walk-in however. Personally, I'd rather risk running out raviolis one night then cooking them off from frozen and I bet your customers would too. Good Luck!


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## cyclechef (Jan 22, 2008)

"Keep em' fresh. Make em' often. In my opinion there is not much point in making raviolis with nice seasonal ingredients and beautiful hand made pasta if you're gonna through them in the freezer!"

Thank you Chef, that is good advice. Just what I was hoping to hear. Any thoughts on par levels and storing in a cooler?  I am experimenting with a mix of flours; 00, Semolina and Durum with egg and oil?  Any suggestions on flour ratios is appreciated?


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## pirate-chef (Jan 25, 2012)

depending on volume i found 2 good things to use. i know freezing them seems terrible but i had good luck with it in the past or at least freezing the fillings as you build them. ( doing this we were a 2 man team and selling quite a lot so making them once a week was the only possible option) lay them on a sheet tray wrapped in plastic until frozen then stack. my favorite way for cooking is to use a cheap deep frier filled with water or even a large deep frier because you can set it just around boiling temp, they recover quickly and if its not boiling there wont be as much movement and seem to break less.


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