One of my favorite types of pizza is fig and prosciutto. Topped with little dollops of whole milk ricotta cheese and fig jam, it is perfectly sweet and salty.
For Christmas, I was given a cookbook by Joshua Weissman, a chef with over 6 million followers on TikTok, “Joshua Weissman: An Unapologetic Cookbook.” I’ve always loved his recipes, but I had never taken the time to follow one. As I flipped through his book, I came across a recipe for handmade pasta. Thrilled, I was inspired to use that recipe to turn my favorite, the fig and prosciutto pizza, into ravioli.
To start, the recipe instructed me to form a well in three cups of flour. I cracked five large eggs into the well, which I then carefully whisked, combining the eggs while avoiding incorporating the flour.
Once that was finished, I slowly whisked in the flour. I grew concerned as it wasn’t fully incorporated, so I then worked the dough for 5-7 minutes. At first, the result was a scary-looking dough, inconsistent in both color and texture, that was incredibly difficult to knead.
Weissman recommends flattening the dough by pressing it with the heel of your hand. Once it’s slightly flattened, you should bring the top of the flattened piece towards the other end of the dough, as if you were folding a piece of paper. Then, press the dough to combine and continue to knead. As I followed his instructions, the dough slowly became less frightening and more uniform as all of the flour was finally incorporated.
I placed the kneaded dough in the fridge for an hour to chill, which felt like forever – though an hour is nothing compared to overnight, as Wiessman also recommends as an alternative. Once the hour was up, I rolled the dough out onto my clean countertop and worked on getting the dough as flat as possible.
After rolling out the sheets, I added little dollops of fig and ricotta cheese. I sliced the prosciutto, rolled the slices into balls and placed them on top of the jam and ricotta on half the sheet of pasta. I folded the other half of the sheet on top, cut the ravioli and dropped them into a pot of boiling water for 5 to 6 minutes.
At first glance, the raviolis were incredibly thick. It almost ruined the ravioli, so a thin dough is best as to not overwhelm the flavors. I plan on rolling the dough even thinner the next time I make them.
However, when I bit into the pocket with all the ricotta, fig jam and prosciutto, I was in heaven. The saltiness of the prosciutto perfectly complemented the sweetness from the jam. The ricotta almost married the flavors, so that they didn’t overwhelm each other like they would on their own.
You can find more recipes and helpful cooking information by Joshua Weissman via his website and on his notorious TikTok page, @flakeysalt.
