fbpx
Roast beef doppio ravioli

Sunday Roast Beef & Mashed Potato Doppio Ravioli

Recipe and photos by Jon Bennion


There were few Sundays growing up where we didn’t sit down to a nice roast beef dinner with potatoes, gravy, and other roast vegetables. Either my mom or dad would do some prep in the morning to get it going just before we left for church. We would return to a heavenly scent of slow-cooked roast upon our return. It’s an ideal dinner for a Sunday when you have a bit of extra time for it to cook nice and slow.

Combining these tasty memories with my love of pasta is how you get these Sunday dinner doppio, or “double,” ravioli. Leftover meat and veggies serve as excellent ravioli fillings, which means you can get two meals out of this entire recipe – a beef roast with mashed potatoes followed by these special doppio ravioli. There is just something remarkable about using this silky, egg yolk-rich pasta dough and pairing it with the beloved combination of tender beef and buttery mashed potatoes.

Essential to this dish is a good, slow-braised beef roast. Pick a chuck roast with some good fat marbling. Tiny bits of fat speckled throughout the roast will melt down over the long process, creating the most flavorful and fork-tender beef. Fat is your friend here!

Don’t skip out on that initial sear either. It creates some brown bits at the bottom of the pan that you can scrape up when the wine goes in, providing great flavor. The crust you create with the sear, coupled with the portion of the meat that remains above the braising liquid while the lid is off, makes for a delightful contrast in textures.

The blending of the tiny bits of veggies into the sauce at the end creates the most flavorful, silky gravy to baptize the beef and sides with. The color is a nice, deep brown that will beat any gravy you’ve ever had. You’ll want every day to be Sunday.

Sunday Roast Beef & Mashed Potato Doppio Ravioli

Serves 4-6

Prep time: 2 Hours
Cook time: 4.5 Hours

Special Equipment

Dutch oven
Immersion blender
Pasta machine 
Small wooden dowel (optional, but helpful)
Fluted pasta cutter

Ingredients

For the beef roast:
3 pounds chuck roast
1 medium red onion, chopped (about 2 ½ cups)
2 carrots, chopped (about 1 ½ cups)
2 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
1 large sprig fresh rosemary
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 (14.5-ounce) cans low sodium beef broth
3 tablespoons flour
1 cup red wine
2 cups water
4 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper

For the mashed potatoes:
3 pounds russet or Yukon Gold potatoes
8 tablespoons unsalted butter
1½ teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon freshly cracked pepper
1 cup cream

For the ravioli:
1 pound shredded roast beef
1 pound mashed potatoes
2 cups gravy
2 cups Italian 00 or all-purpose flour
1 whole egg and six egg yolks
Optional: carrots, mushrooms, shallots, peas

Method

To make the beef roast:

1. The day before, unpackage your thawed chuck roast and pat it dry with paper towels to help with the browning process. Place it on a wire rack on a baking sheet in the refrigerator to dry out the exterior.

2. The next day, let your roast come to room temperature for an hour. Heat a cast-iron Dutch oven on medium-high heat. Season your roast with plenty of salt and pepper on both sides. Put one tablespoon of the olive oil in the pan and sear your roast for at least five minutes on each side, or until a brown crust forms on both sides. Place the roast on a plate and set aside.

3. Turn the heat down to medium and add the red onion, carrots, and the rest of the olive oil. Season with salt and pepper and sweat for 10 minutes, stirring every few minutes. Add garlic and sauté for five minutes.

4. Add tomato paste and flour and stir to spread out, allowing the ingredients to cook together for three minutes. Add the red wine, stir to scrape up any bits off of the bottom of the pan. Once the wine has reduced by half, add the beef broth, water, and rosemary sprig, and bring to a simmer. Place the roast and any juices from the plate into the Dutch oven. The roast should not be totally submerged.

5. Cover and place cook in the oven at 325°F for two hours. Then, pull off the lid and cook for another hour to hour and a half, checking whether the roast is fork-tender and shreds easily.

6. Turn off the oven heat. Remove roast from the Dutch oven and set aside while you finish the gravy. Take out the rosemary stem and use an immersion blender to blend the sauce and remaining contents of the Dutch oven into a smooth gravy for two minutes. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

To make the mashed potatoes:

1. Peel and slice your potatoes into 1-inch wide pieces and place in a large pot. Cover with cold water until it’s an inch higher than the potatoes. Add a generous amount of salt and bring to a boil. Cook for 10-15 minutes once boiling, or until potatoes are soft when pierced with a fork.

2. While your potatoes are cooking, melt your butter in a pan on low heat. Once melted, add the cream and let it heat through.

3. Drain all of the water off and place back on the burner for a minute to let more water evaporate. Rice or mash your potatoes until smooth, and then add the heated butter and cream, along with salt and pepper. Taste for seasoning and adjust to your preferences. Serve alongside the roast while hot.

To make the ravioli:

1. Dump the flour on your counter and create a well in the middle with the bottom of a bowl. Add one whole egg and six egg yolks to the center and mix, first by breaking the yolks with a fork and then by bringing bits of flour to the center. As the mixture gets thicker, pull in greater amounts of flour until you can use a fork or bench scraper to start cutting/smashing all of the flour into the wetter parts of the dough.

2. At this point, it’s time to get your (clean) hands dirty. Fold the dough onto itself just until it comes together to form a cohesive mass. Knead it for 10 minutes. This will be messy at first but it will start to magically smooth out around 6-7 minutes of kneading. Once the dough is smooth, wrap it in plastic wrap and let it rest for a minimum of 30 minutes. If you are not rolling it out right away, store the dough in the fridge for up to 12 hours, bringing it up to room temperature before shaping.

3. To make the filling, bring the shredded beef and mashed potatoes up to room temperature. Add a bit of gravy to the shredded beef for a smoother consistency.

4. Run a ¼ of your dough through the thickest setting on your pasta machine, fold it back onto itself and run it back through again. Do this 10-12 times or more, which helps smooth out the egg dough. If the dough feels too sticky, dust with flour. Roll the sheet through to setting 7 on your pasta machine then cut into 6-inch squares.

5. On the bottom half of each square, put 2 tablespoons of potato and shredded beef on opposite ends of the dough with about ½-inch separating each filling. Fold the top half of the dough over the bottom half. With a wooden dowel (you can also use the sides of your fingers), seal the center portion separating the two ingredients by lightly pressing the dough together. Next, seal both of the outside edges with the wooden dowel. Finally, seal the top of the dough trying to make sure you get out any air pockets.

*I used my gnocchi board to create some nice grooves in the pasta for texture and sleek appearance. This step is 100% unnecessary your first time trying doppio, but 100% fun!

6. Run a fluted pasta cutter or a knife across the top to remove excess dough, leaving at least ¼-inch of dough from where the fillings are. Bring the two outside edges of the doppio together and press together gently to seal together. Run your fluted pasta cutter or knife along the edge to create a clean edge. Place finished doppio on a flour-dusted, parchment-line baking tray.

7. When you are almost ready to serve, get a large pot of salted water boiling and your gravy heating on low. If you want to add veggies to your final dish (carrots, mushrooms, shallots), this would be a good time to get them roasting about 20-30 minutes ahead of plating.

8. Boil the doppio ravioli for about 4 minutes, or until the pasta is cooked through the filling is heated throughout the inside (you can test one). Serve with warm gravy and any of your favorite roasted veggies.

Post a Comment