The Mysterious Origins Of Toasted Ravioli

St. Louis isn't the first city that comes to mind when one thinks of regional cuisines. However, the Gateway to the West does have one dish that puts it on the culinary map: toasted ravioli. Don't be fooled by its name, though, this dish isn't toasted, it's deep-fried. It's usually made by breading stuffed ravioli (the stuffing depends on your taste) and frying it. Once the squares are cooked, they are usually served with marinara sauce and Parmesan cheese. The result is absolutely glorious. Which isn't surprising, given that deep-frying any food (from Chipotle burritos to Nashville hot dogs) instantly makes it better.

T-ravs (as St. Louis locals call the dish) are indisputably good and have now expanded to Italian restaurants all over the US. Even chain restaurants like Olive Garden offer toasted ravioli plates as well-loved appetizers. But the dish isn't safe from controversy. For decades, there has been a debate about who invented this meal, with different restaurants fighting over the honor of calling themselves the birthplace of toasted ravioli. Who has the rightful claim to this title? And, more importantly, was toasted ravioli even invented in St. Louis? The reality is that no one can answer this with certainty, but we can follow the paper trail to see what the most likely story is.

Most accounts place the origin of this famed dish in The Hill, an Italian neighborhood in St. Louis. Three legacy restaurants compete for the right to say they served toasted ravioli before anyone else: Mama's on the Hill, Charlie Gitto's, and Lombardo's. The first two have a suspiciously similar tale of how the dish came to be: A chef mistakenly dropped ravioli in hot oil rather than in boiling water. Though both restaurants say this happened in the 1940s, Charlie Gitto's (then called Angelo's on the Hill) didn't open until 1947. Meanwhile, Mama's on the Hill (which was called Oldani's) advertised its toasted raviolis in the St. Louis Star and Times back in 1943. Lombardo's claims its menu has served the dish since the 1930s, but there is no hard evidence that the menu it presents is from this decade.

The conclusion, then, continues to be murky. And it becomes even more so when one considers calcionetti, a traditional Italian holiday treat from the region of Abruzzo that is made by deep-frying ravioli stuffed with walnuts or chestnuts. It's possible that Italian immigrants simply transferred the technique to savory ravioli, and made this dish at home without leaving written evidence of it. In fact, it's not unfathomable to think that, either on purpose or accident, different chefs started serving this without knowing others were doing so. Whatever the case may be, we can be certain that "toasted" ravioli will remain a beloved St. Louis staple.