Big Green Egg Smoked Chicken Ravioli

The idea of smoking a chicken to make ravioli filling might seem like gilding the lily, but once you've tasted the result, boiled chicken will feel like a half-measure forever afterward. The smoke permeates the meat during a two-hour roast, and when you shred it and combine it with ricotta and lemon, that smoky depth becomes a bass note under the bright, creamy filling—unexpected and completely addictive. Homemade pasta is less intimidating than its reputation suggests. Flour, egg yolks, salt, and time—that's the ingredient list. The dough rests while your chicken smokes, practically making itself while you attend to more interesting tasks. Rolling it thin enough to see your hand through requires either a pasta machine or considerable arm strength, but the silky texture of fresh pasta, its tender bite giving way to the filling within, justifies every minute of effort. The Calabrian pepper butter sauce is deliberately simple—just butter, pasta water, and those fruity-hot Calabrian chilis that have become the darling of modern Italian cooking. The torn basil, added off heat, provides freshness and color. This is not a heavily sauced dish; the ravioli are the star, and the sauce exists to enhance rather than mask.