Mareta Ravioli

Out of curiosity, does anyone know where to find Mareta Ravioli in the Chicagoland area?

We have relatives in downstate in LaSalle/Peru area and Mareta Ravioli is often served in restaurants and can be found in the frozen food section of grocery stores.

We recently brought some back and had some tonight. It was some of the best ravioli to be found...

Any suggestions on where this stuff may be found? I was thinking of calling Bari Foods...

You could also try calling the company and asking them if they distribute to anyone in or around Chicago. I've had success with this tactic in the past. Sometimes, if a company doesn't have a local purveyor, you can talk them into shipping to you.

A Google search gave this as their phone number:

815-856-2621

Please report back if you're successful in finding them. I'd like to try them.

Best,
Michael

Woodman's on Randall Road (I believe it is officially Carpentersville) has multiple kinds of Mareta "ravioli" (known as tortellini outside of North Central Illinois) in their massive frozen section.

Dabney's wrote:Woodman's on Randall Road (I believe it is officially Carpentersville) has multiple kinds of Mareta "ravioli" (known as tortellini outside of North Central Illinois) in their massive frozen section.

Well, that's an interesting bit of linguistic arcana. So what we call "ravioli" would be known in North Central Illinois as "square tortellini," I wonder?

No, square ravioli are also "ravioli". You just don't see square ravioli very often. In restaurants, if you order "ravioli", you will almost always receive tortellini. (Often, it will be Mareta.)

Great!!!

I'll check this place out...

Thanks!

Dabney's wrote:No, square ravioli are also "ravioli". You just don't see square ravioli very often. In restaurants, if you order "ravioli", you will almost always receive tortellini. (Often, it will be Mareta.)

Ravioli and tortellini are completely different shapes/sizes with different applications. I think that if a reader of this forum ordered a ravioli dish and then received tortellini, they'd send it back.

Dabney's wrote:No, square ravioli are also "ravioli". You just don't see square ravioli very often. In restaurants, if you order "ravioli", you will almost always receive tortellini. (Often, it will be Mareta.)

No, you wont. Tortellini is shaped stuffed pasta, normally in a ring shape. Ravioli lays flat. It has nothing to do with the outside cut of the ravioli. Square ravioli tends to be easier to cut because you end up with less waste, but i think you see square and round just about equally these days.

Calling tortellini "ravioli", as far as I know, is limited to portions of North Central IL. (where Mareta is manufactured) I do know the difference, even though I grew up in the area...

I grew up in what we call "Ravioli Alley" in Bureau County a bit west of LaSalle/Peru. "Ravioli Alley" is a string of towns running from Spring Valley up state Rt 89 to Cherry (my home town).

Yes, for some reason, in this area, folks call tortellin...ravioli...or "rav's". Have been trying to figure out why for many years.

These towns popped up around 1900....all coal mine, ethnic, Italian, Polish, Irish, catholic oriented. Many of the taverns there have Italian roots and have longer served a unique combination of "rav's" and fried chicken!

My Mother was Italian....my Father was Irish and grew up on a farm north of Cherry. Many of the country boys would make their way into town in the 30's and 40's to have fun at the Italian taverns and chaise the Italian girls.

I have a completely unproven theory that at some point these Italian tavern owners started to fry chicken to appeal to all these farmer boys who were coming to town and maybe didn't think pasta alone was a true meal. Further, maybe these farmer boys incorrectly called tortellini "ravioli"....much like they often would mispronounce "eye-tal-yun" and "pa-sket-ee?" I have heard that "ravioli" was a common canned c-ration during WW II....wondered if "ravioli" was somehow used generically by non-Italians to identify all types of pasta? Again, a completely unfounded theory.

My grandmother would make Mareta's beef tortellini when we were kids in the early 70's. She lived in Utica, Illinois and bought the tortellini in Peru. I can still taste how wonderful it was!!! I have been looking for it for years and found the website the other day. It is www.maretaravioli.com. Unfortunately I live in Colorado now and there territory is only Illinois,Iowa and Wisconson. I bet they would do well if they also sold online. My grandmother used to call it raviola. On the Mareta's website there is a picture of the original owners in front of their factory and the sign said raviola and noodles.