These spinach and ricotta brioche buns, known as ravazzate in Sicily, are a typical Sicilian street food found in bars across the island. The perfect finger food and great for gatherings!
If you’ve had the good fortune to travel to Sicily you have no doubt come across ravazzate. These savory buns are made with a slightly sweet, soft brioche dough and filled with spinach and ricotta.
The traditional and most commonly found filling for ravazzate is ragu with peas, the same as that found in classic arancini. This version made with spinach, ricotta and grated Pecorino Romano cheese is a quick and easy vegetarian variation.
What is rosticceria siciliana?
Ravazzate are basically Sicily’s street food and you’ll find them in bars and rest areas across the island. In fact you’ll find a wide variety of these rosticceria pieces or pezzi di rosticceria as they are called.
Most are made with this brioche dough as a base and can be sweet or savory and filled with a variety of cheeses and coldcuts such as pizzette; calzone; rollo con wurstel; or iris di ricotta. They can be baked or fried.
Best of all, you can easily make an entire meal with a few of these pezzi di rosticceria. And they are perfect for buffets!
Ingredient List
For the dough
- Active dry yeast
- Milk: can be replaced with water
- All-purpose flour
- Granulated sugar
- Salt
- Butter: I used unsalted, chilled butter however they are traditionally made with lard.
For the filling
- Spinach: I used fresh baby spinach leaves. May be replaced with 6 oz. frozen spinach.
- Ricotta: whole milk ricotta cheese, drained if the brand you use is very watery.
- Grated Pecorino Romano cheese: may be replaced with Parmigiano if you prefer
- Nutmeg: optional
- Salt, to taste
- For topping: egg wash and sesame seeds
The following are step by step instructions with images to guide you through this recipe. Please scroll to the end of this post for the detailed printable recipe card.
Step by Step Instructions
Prepare the dough
- Heat milk until lukewarm. Transfer to a bowl and stir in the yeast. Let sit for 10 minutes until foamy and bubbly.
- Meanwhile combine flour; sugar and salt in the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Process until combined.
- Add the cubed butter and process until the butter is incorporated.
- Pour in the yeast mixture and knead for 7-8 minutes until you have a smooth, elastic dough.
- Transfer to a greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm part of your kitchen for 2 hours or until doubled in bulk.
Prepare the filling
- While the dough is resting, prepare the filling.
- Wilt the spinach in a skillet over medium heat until most of the water evaporates.
- Transfer to a bowl and let cool.
- Squeeze out as much of the water from the spinach.
- Give it a rough chop and combine with the ricotta; grated cheese; nutmeg (if using); and salt, to taste.
Shape the ravazzate and bake
- Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
- Divide the dough into 12 -60 gram pieces and shape into a ball.
- Cover and let rest for 20 minutes.
- Flatted each ball of dough with a rolling pin into a 6 inch circle.
- Place about 1/4 cup of spinach ricotta filling in the center of the dough.
- Gather the edges toward the center; pinch the dough and give it a twist to seal the ball.
- Place seam side down on the prepared baking sheets.
- Repeat with the remaining dough and filling.
- Cover and let sit for 45 minutes to an hour.
- Brush with egg wash and sprinkle sesame seeds over each roll.
- Bake for 15-18 minutes until golden brown.
- Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
- Enjoy warm or at room temperature.
Recipe Notes
-Replace fresh spinach with 6 oz frozen spinach.
-Try this recipe with the classic ragu filling.
Refrigerate leftovers for up to 3 days. Warm in a 350 degrees F oven before serving.
Wrap well and freeze for up to 1 month.
Did you try this recipe?
Let me know how much you enjoyed it by rating it in the recipe card below!
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Check out more Sicilian street food recipes!
- Sicilian Rosticceria Small Bites
- Baked Iris with Ricotta
- The Best Sicilian Arancini
- Arancini alla Norma
- Pane Cunzatu: Sicilian Sandwich
- Panelle (Sicilian Chickpea Fritters)
- Focaccia Messinese
- Sfincione Siciliano
- Sfincione Bagherese
- Pitoni Messinese
Ingredients
For the dough
- 8 grams active dry yeast 1 packet
- 1 cup milk or water
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tbsp. granulated sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 3 tbsp. unsalted butter
For the filling
- 5¾ cups fresh spinach leaves
- 2 cups ricotta
- â…“ cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese
- â…› tsp nutmeg optional
- salt to taste
For topping
- 1 large egg beaten
- 3 tbsp. sesame seeds raw
Instructions
Prepare the dough
- Heat milk until lukewarm. Transfer to a bowl and stir in the yeast. Let sit for 10 minutes until foamy and bubbly.
- Meanwhile combine flour; sugar and salt in the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Process until combined.
- Add the cubed butter and process until the butter is incorporated.
- Pour in the yeast mixture and knead for 7-8 minutes until you have a smooth, elastic dough.
- Transfer to a greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm part of your kitchen for 2 hours or until doubled in bulk.
Prepare the filling
- While the dough is resting, prepare the filling.
- Wilt the spinach in a skillet over medium heat until most of the water evaporates.
- Transfer to a bowl and let cool.
- Squeeze out as much of the water from the spinach. Give it a rough chop and combine with the ricotta; grated cheese; nutmeg (if using); and salt, to taste.
Shape and bake
- Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
- Divide the dough into 12 -60 gram pieces and shape into a ball. Cover and let rest for 20 minutes.
- Flatted each ball of dough with a rolling pin into a 6 inch circle.
- Place about 1/4 cup of spinach ricotta filling in the center of the dough. Gather the edges toward the center; pinch the dough and give it a twist to seal the ball.
- Place seam side down on the prepared baking sheets. Repeat with the remaining dough and filling.
- Cover and let sit for 45 minutes to an hour.
- Brush with egg wash and sprinkle sesame seeds over each roll. Bake for 15-18 minutes until golden brown.
- Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Enjoy warm or at room temperature.
Notes
-Try this recipe with the classic ragu filling. Storage Refrigerate leftovers for up to 3 days. Warm in a 350 degrees F oven before serving. To Freeze Wrap well and freeze for up to 1 month.
Valeria Nucci
These look fantastic! I plan on trying them for picnics in the summer.
About the filling, I am wondering if it would be helpful to add in an egg, to bind the ricotta like is done in Ravioli. What do you think?
Nadia
Hello Valeria, indeed they are perfect for picnics. To tell you the truth, I debated about adding an egg in the filling. In the end I felt it did not need the egg as the ingredients came together quite smooth and creamy. However, if you did choose to add an egg I don’t see why that would not work as well. Hope you enjoy them!