Ravioli di Mamma Egi

With Massimiliano Campanari

Mamma Egi Maccioni’s Recipe of sheep's milk Ricotta, spinach, Swiss chard and butter sage sauce. Massimiliano Campanari, Executive Chef at Osteria del Circo, Bellagio, Las Vegas prepares one of the most popular recipes from the cookbook of Edigiana Maccioni, “The Maccioni Family Cookbook.” Upscale Tuscan food is the main interest of legendary restauranteur Sirio Maccioni and his wife Edigiana, also known as “Egi.”

Ingredients

Ravioli di Mamma Egi - Mamma Egi's' Recipe of Sheep's Milk Ricotta, Spinach, Swiss Chard, in a Butter Sage Sauce

10 to 12 raviolis (filled with sheep's milk Ricotta, spinach, Parmigiano and nutmeg)
1 stick butter
6 to 8 fresh sage leaves
3 to 4 tablespoons Parmigiano cheese, grated

Instructions

1. Cook ravioli in boiling water for 6 to 7 minutes.
2. Melt butter in saute pan and add sage, stirring to mix with butter.
3. Add cooked ravioli to butter sauce and swirl, and then add 1/2 of Parmigiano cheese to mixture and let melt and mix with butter sauce.
4. Continue to swirl and add rest of Parmigiano sauce.

Serve in shallow bowl or plate with all of the sauce.
 
Recipe courtesy of  Executive Chef Massimiliano Campanari from "The Maccioni Family Cookbook" by Edigiana Maccioni, 2010.

 

Executive Chef, Osteria del Circo 

Under the expert direction of Executive Chef Massimiliano Campanari, the Maccioni family tradition of passion for the palate is maintained. Upscale Tuscan fare takes center stage in the surroundings overlooking Lago di Como enhanced by the finest of 900 wine selections imported from all around the world.

 

From Lauren Romano, Green Valley View:

 

For Massimiliano Campanari, cooking and passion are one and the same.

 

"The passion comes from my heart to my arm to the dish," he said.

 

The executive room chef of Green Valley Ranch Resort's new Italian restaurant Terra Verde said his adoration with food began in Genova, Italy, when he was a child.

 

"In Italy, of course, you train in the family. You look at your grandmother; you look at your grandfather. I was the guy making the meatballs at 6 years old because nobody wants to sit there and roll and roll."

 

With some encouragement from his father, Campanari decided at age 13 to go to culinary school.

 

The chef honed his skills in restaurants throughout Italy before landing a job at Genova's historic Zeffirino's, a popular eatery that has been in the city since 1939.

 

He planned to spend six months in Las Vegas. Eight years later Campanari remembers how he didn't even know where the neon city was.

 

"I had to go home and look at the atlas with my dad," he said. "I looked and saw New York, Boston, Philadelphia. He told me to 'look west,' and there was Las Vegas."

 

Campanari spent six years at The Venetian and another two at Bartolotta Ristorante di Mare in the Wynn Las Vegas.

 

The flavor of the chef's Italian region, Liguria, can be found at Terra Verde. Each dish was personalized to reflect Campanari's region and style.

 

Terra Verde's menu features many authentic Italian dishes, including homemade pastas, wood-fired pizzas and fresh fish.

 

Some of the chef's favorites are risotto con cappesante e asparag, which is carnaroli rice with scallops, fresh asparagus and saffron sauce; branzino alla ligure, which features Mediterranean sea bass filet with potato, black olives and white wine; and pansotti in salsa di noci, which has fresh pasta filled with green swiss chard and ricotta in a creamy walnut sauce.

 

Campanari also is thrilled to bring a hometown favorite to the restaurant. Genova is famous for its pesto, the bright green sauce made of pine nuts, basil, garlic and Parmesan cheese. And that makes the chef Las Vegas' resident expert. He's known in some circles as Mr. Pesto and has been asked to jar and sell the sauce.

 

"I want people to know the real pesto," Campanari said. "The basil makes it green. Some people cheat with parsley. They ask, 'How do you do that?' But I know how to make it."

 

Although the chef said he misses the seaside town he comes from, he doesn't plan to leave the valley anytime soon.

 

"I'm living my dream right here," he said.