My children and I prepared raviole with mostarda to celebrate Father’s Day.

Raviole are typical stuffed Bolognese cookies, and lately this father was feeling a little nostalgic. 🙂 I discovered by chance (yes, I’m from Romagna, that’s why I didn’t know!) that in Bologna they are also called raviole di San Giuseppe, so without meaning to we actually chose the right dessert for this special day! 😉

Raviole can be filled with a dark jam like plum jam or, in the most traditional version, with Bolognese mostarda. This mostarda has nothing to do with the spicy mustard-like preserve typical of Lombardy used with meats. Bolognese mostarda is a very dense jam made from quince, traditionally used in two typical Bolognese sweets: raviole, of course, and pinza, a dessert that ~~unfortunately I had never made~~… which I finally learned to make!!! the recipe is HERE 😀

I make our raviole with my shortcrust pastry, although traditionally I believe a pastry with more eggs and more butter is used for the same amount of flour. But this is our family’s classic shortcrust pastry, we love it and the raviole turn out great. We ate them this morning for breakfast, and the celebrant guaranteed they resembled the ones he ate as a child! What more could you want? 🤩

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👇 Here are other recipes with Bolognese mostarda: 👇

Difficulty: Easy
Cost: Budget-friendly
Rest time: 30 Minutes
Preparation time: 20 Minutes
Portions: about 15
Cooking methods: Oven
Cuisine: Italian Regional
Region: Emilia-Romagna
Seasonality: All seasons, Father's Day

Ingredients

1 block shortcrust pastry
7 oz (about 3/4 cup) Bolognese mostarda (or plum jam)
3 tbsp milk
1 lemon (grated zest)
alchermes (optional)

Tools

Cookie cutter round
Fork

Steps

Roll out the shortcrust pastry with a rolling pin until about 1/8 inch thick.
Cut the dough with a round cutter or cookie cutter to obtain dough circles.
The cutter size can vary depending on family habits, but traditionally it should not be less than 8 cm (about 3 1/8 inches) in diameter.
Place the mostarda on one half of the dough circle (the amount naturally depends on the size of the dough circle).
Add a light grating of lemon zest and fold it into a half-moon shape.
Slightly press the edge with the tines of a fork to ensure a perfect seal.
Brush the surface with a little milk and bake in the oven at 320°F-338°F (160°C-170°C) for 15 minutes, or until lightly golden on top.
With my oven they browned first on the bottom, and to prevent the bottoms from overcooking I moved them to the top rack halfway through. You should always consider that every oven behaves differently.
After taking them out of the oven, let them cool on a rack.
They can be left plain, dusted with powdered sugar, or dipped in alchermes. Just dip them briefly:
This is exactly how grandma Leda made raviole with alchermes, and this is precisely how this Bolognese dad prefers them.
How delicious!
I wish all dads a Happy Father’s Day! (and papas 😊)
I updated the photos of this recipe today 3/19/19. As always I leave the previous photos here; they date back to the first month after this blog opened, and well… they were exceptionally beautiful by the standards of the time! 😃