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Spinach Ravioles

Spinach ravioli filled with a mixture of blanched spinach, chicken livers, veal, ox-marrow, parsley, salt, pepper, and Parmesan cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Liver and veal match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 392 recipes. Both carry enoic acid, which smells butter, cheesy. The science ↓

Spinach Ravioles

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the filling

  1. Chop and pound the chicken livers, veal, and ox-marrow to a smooth paste in a mortar.

  2. Add the blanched spinach leaves and season with parsley, salt, and white pepper. Pound again until thoroughly mixed, then rub through a coarse sieve.

  3. Mix in the grated Parmesan cheese.

Shape the ravioli

  1. Roll out the pie crust and cut into 3-inch squares.

  2. Place a spoonful of the mixture in the center of each square.

  3. Brush the edges with the beaten egg, fold in the corners, and squeeze them together.

Cook and serve

  1. Simmer in boiling stock for 10 minutes, then drain.

  2. Bake in a 300°F (150°C) oven for 30 minutes.

  3. Serve on a hot platter garnished with parsley.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Liver + vealtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together392 recipes

    Shared aroma: enoic acid (butter, cheesy).

  2. Spinach + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,025 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  3. Spinach + parmesan cheesetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together889 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Chicken + vealtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,243 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-butanedione (buttery, creamy).

  5. Chicken + spinachtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,146 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Chicken livers
Give the filling its rich, dense body and savoury depth.
Veal
Adds meaty bulk and a tender texture to the smooth filling.
Ox-marrow
Contributes fat that keeps the filling moist and silky.
Blanched spinach leaves
Add vegetable flavour and moisture to the filling.
Grated parmesan cheese
Adds salty, savoury flavour and helps bind the filling.
Rich pie crust
Forms the pastry wrapper that holds the filling and browns in the oven.

The step that matters

Rubbing the filling through a sieve. Pounding and sieving produce a smooth, uniform paste; leaving lumps can cause uneven texture and make the filling hard to seal inside the pastry without tearing.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, liver, veal, spinach, parsley, parmesan cheese, egg):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, liver, veal, spinach, parsley, parmesan cheese, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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