This dish was inspired by the ink raviolis that I had at Gusto, an Italian restaurant in LA. I loved the color contrast between the black pasta, yellow corn and creamy white ricotta filling. However, I was underwhelmed on the umami front. The uni sauce was not “uni” enough. I guess nothing can be too briny or fishy for this Asian. Admittedly uni is expensive and beautiful uni should not be wasted in a sauce. But I did so here just to prove a sick uni point. Again I used dashi stock to punch up the sauce base which included sauteed shallots, scallions (white part), garlic, white wine and cream. The blue crab filling mixed with burrata and seasoned with a touch of white pepper and sea salt made the raviolis simple yet uber decadent.
Ravioli Ingredients:
- 1 cup blue crab claw meat
- 1 Burrata ball, chopped up
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1/4 tsp ground white pepper
- 4 long sheets of very thinly rolled out fresh ink pasta
Uni Sauce:
- 1 Tbsp butter
- 1/2 clove garlic, minced
- 1-2 shallots, thinly sliced
- 1/2 scallion (white part), thinly sliced
- 1/2 cup white wine
- 1/2 cup dashi stock
- 1/4 cup cream
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 cup of freshly shucked corn
- 1/2 scallion (green part), thinly sliced for garnish
Steps:
- To make filling, mix blue crab, burrata and its chopped up mozzarella “skin”, salt and white pepper in a mixing bowl. Taste and adjust seasoning.
- Watch youtube video on how to make raviolis.
- Use rolled out ink pasta sheets and blue crab filling to make raviolis.
- In a sauce pan, heat up butter.
- When butter bubbles, add shallots, garlic, salt and stir-fry. Do not burn garlic.
- Deglaze pan with white wine. Scrap up any brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Burn off the alcohol completely.
- Add dashi stock and reduce to a simmer.
- Add cream and do not allow the mixture to boil.
- Taste and adjust seasoning.
- When sauce has cooled slightly, combine mixture with uni in a food processor. Process until uni disappears.
- Pour mixture into a foamer (I used a Nespresso milk foamer) and foam.
- In a separate pan, saute corn with a 1 tsp of olive oil until partially cooked.
- Boil raviolis in heavily salted water for 3 mins.
- Plate raviolis, layer on uni foam sauce and top with corn.
- Garnish with thinly sliced scallions.