Homemade Ravioli

February 19, 2015Katie

Ravioli

A few months back, I traveled to Michigan to stay with my Mom for a week who had just had surgery and help cook and clean and generally help Dad with whatever we needed to do to keep her planted on the couch all week.


While I was there, Mr. Wonderful made homemade ravioli.

Without me.

Seriously? I cook all week, every week for the man and he chooses the week that I’m away to make homemade ravioli?

Hmph.

Well, ever since he sent me those gloriously wonderful cell phone messages with photos of his homemade ravioli, I’ve wanted to make them again.

Ravioli_with_pesto_and_tomatoes.JPG
You know, as in, make them again since I would be AROUND to taste them?

So yesterday after church we knocked out a TON of them and they were SO good.

I have been wanting to play around with a ratio of semolina flour to regular flour since we first made pasta. I really like more of a “bite” to my pasta than the regular flour recipes offered and I believe I found the perfect ratio yesterday. Since we were making ravioli, we added in some olive oil to help it be pliable for filling and sealing and I played around with the filling recipe as well which turned out fabulous!

This brand of semolina flour is widely available at most stores and it is what I used.

red Mill Semolina flour

I made a double recipe as well, because if you’re going to go to all that trouble, why not freeze some for later? We laid them out on cookie sheets lined with parchment paper and froze them solid then popped them into freezer bags for an easy but delicious meal another night!

I also tried out a new toy I’d ordered, and I can’t tell you how convenient this Ravioli mold turned out to be.
Norpro ravioli mold

It is the perfect width for the noodles that rolled out of our KitchenAid pasta rollers. You can absolutely positively make ravioli without one of these but it’ll be a bit more work.

I just used a large bowl to make my dough in but you can start it on the counter.

Flour eggs pasta dough

I used one cup of semolina flour and two cups of all-purpose flour and whisked them together then cracked in two eggs (I doubled the recipe this time). Using a fork, mix the eggs together in the well they are sitting in, then add in 1/4 cup olive oil, and 1/2 cup of water right into the same well.

Pull the flour into the egg mixture with the fork a little at a time while mixing.

Continue to mix with the fork until it becomes workable for your hands then roll the dough around to get any loosed flour. If you need a tad more water, add it one tablespoon at a time until the dough is soft but not sticky.Turn it out onto a floured cutting board or clean counter top and knead it several times until it becomes smooth. Flatten it into a disk and wrap it in plastic wrap and let it sit for thirty minutes to let the glutens relax.

Follow this post for rolling out the dough.

 

We used our KitchenAid pasta roller attachment, but you could use a countertop roller or even a rolling pin, if you’re feeling ambitious. We first cut our disk into 4 equal sizes pieces and rolled out each one. The width of our pasta roller was absolutely perfect for the ravioli mold, and we only had to cut square corners (work the cut off sections back into the next piece of dough you use.

Ravioli makers

Roll the dough thin but not too thin. On our KitchenAid pasta rollers, we stopped on the #4 setting (On KitchenAid #1 is the thickest and #8 is the smallest).

We laid our ravioli mold (we have this one) next to the dough and leaving about ½ inch extra on the ends, we cut two pieces to fit.

Ravioli molds come in different sizes. The one we have makes the smaller ravioli (1 ½ inches each) but you can also buy them in larger sizes. I prefer the smaller ones for nite-size purposes, but I may have to buy the larger size as well!

Here is how a ravioli mold works. You lay your first layer of dough over top of the metal side.

The metal side has teeth outlining each ravioli square and all the way around the entire thing.

After the first layer of dough is on the metal piece, you gently place the plastic mold (with the round bubbles on the bottom) right on top of the dough and again, gently press down.

 

The plastic bubbles press the dough through the holes in the metal piece to form indentions in your dough for you to uniformly fill your ravioli.

I also put my herbed ricotta and spinach filling into a pastry bag to pipe it into the ravioli dimples I created with the plastic mold to help make the filling uniform in volume on each square. You could use a baggie with the corner cut off or even a spoon though.

To make the filling, dump a 15 ounce container of whole milk ricotta into a mixing bowl. Take about 6 cups of fresh spinach leaves and chop them up. Also, chop up about 8 basil leaves.Add a tablespoon of olive oil to a skillet and bring it up to medium heat. Add the spinach for only about a minute or two until it begins to wilt but is still bright green.

Remove it to the mixing bowl with the ricotta and add in the basil along with one cup of grated parmesan cheese, one beaten egg , a clove of chopped garlic and some salt and pepper.Mix it up really well and then spoon it into your baggie or piping bag.

Pipe it into the indentions on the bottom layer of pasta.

Take a pastry brush (or just use one finger) and brush water in between each line of ravioli, or anyplace that will be sealed for each ravioli.

Lay the top layer of dough over top.

Use a rolling pin to go over the entire thing, pressing down firmly.

This will cause the teeth to cut the ravioli through the dough. Don’t worry about flattening out the filling because the top that you are rolling over is going to be the BOTTOM of the ravioli and it should be flat.

Once you can clearly see the teeth all the way through the dough, Pull off the excess dough from the edges.

And then flip the metal piece upside down and give it a good shake a couple of times to dislodge the ravioli from the mold

A few of ours had to be helped by gently pressing them out but it left a little dent in the top of the ravioli.

Ugly ravioli makes me upset!

Not really. It still tastes fine.

To cook these, bring a large pot of water to boil. They only need about 3-4 minutes tops. I used a spider to gently stir them to make sure they didn’t stick to each other and then to lift them out into a bowl afterward. I also only boiled about a dozen at a time because you don’t want to overcrowd the pot.

We tossed them with homemade pesto I had in the freezer due to the enormous amounts of basil I grew last year. While the ravioli was in process, I added about 20 cherry tomatoes into my small iron skillet with a tablespoon of olive oil and cooked them until they were soft and the skin was blistering in places. It leant just the perfect amount of acidity to the richly filled ravioli and the pesto.


I am so excited to start experimenting with new fillings now like mushrooms, butternut squash, roasted vegetables and seafood.

Homemade pasta is so unbelievably delicious.

 

5.0 from 1 reviews
The Best Homemade Ravioli Ever
 
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
 
Author:
Serves: 4
Ingredients
FOR THE PASTA:
  • 1 c. semolina flour
  • 2 c. all-purpose flour
  • 2 eggs
  • ½ t. salt
  • ¼ c. olive oil
  • ½ c. water
  • FOR THE FILLING:
  • 1 T. olive oil
  • 1 (15 oz) container whole milk ricotta cheese
  • 6 c. fresh spinach leaves, chopped
  • 8 basil leaves, chopped
  • 1 c. parmesan cheese, grated
  • 1 whole egg
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 1 t. salt
  • ½ t. pepper
TO SERVE:
  • 1 c. basil pesto
  • 20 cherry tomatoes, blistered or ½ c. chopped sun-dried tomatoes
Instructions
FOR THE PASTA DOUGH:
  1. Using a fork, mix the eggs together in the well they are sitting in, then add in ¼ cup olive oil, and ½ cup of water right into the same well.
  2. Pull the flour into the egg mixture with the fork a little at a time while mixing.
  3. Continue to mix with the fork until it becomes workable for your hands then roll the dough around to get any loosed flour. If you need a tad more water, add it one tablespoon at a time until the dough is soft but not sticky.
  4. Turn it out onto a floured cutting board or clean counter top and knead it several times until it becomes smooth.
  5. Flatten it into a disk and wrap it in plastic wrap and let it sit for thirty minutes to let the glutens relax.
  6. Unwrap your dough and cut it into 4 equal pieces
  7. Cover three of these with a bowl to prevent them from drying out. Then take the fourth one and kind of pull it out into a sort of rectangle. Sprinkle it with flour.
  8. Put your pasta attachment on or use your pasta roller set to the widest setting
  9. Run pasta through
  10. Take it out and fold it in half lengthwise and run it through again. (Fold the two short ends together).
  11. Take it out and fold it in half lengthwise and run it through again. (Fold the two short ends together).
  12. After your fourth time (on that setting), change the pasta roller to the next size smaller (setting 2 on the KitchenAid wheel). Run it through the first time just as it is, then three times more after that folding it in half again long ways after each run. Then change your roller setting one size smaller to 3.
  13. Continue on to number 8 setting.
  14. Cut dough into one foot sections
  15. Place dough over ravioli press and use metal insert to press indentions into bottom sheet of dough.
  16. When filling is done - pipe or spoon into each indention.
  17. Place top sheet of pasta over top and roll a rolling pin over top to cut.
  18. Empty onto cookie sheets lined with cornmeal
FOR THE FILLING:
  1. Heat olive oil in large skillet and saute spinach until just bright green and wilted
  2. Add all other ingredients to large bowl and mix well.
  3. Use piping bag or teaspoon to fill indentions in ravioli
TO COOK THE RAVIOLI:
  1. Bring large pot of generously salted water to boil.
  2. Add ravioli (about 12-18 at a time)
  3. Let cook 3½-4 minutes
  4. Lift out with spider or slotted spoon
  5. Continue cooking until all are cooked
TO MAKE THE BLISTERED TOMATOES
  1. Add one tablespoon of olive oil to hot skillet,
  2. Add about 20 cherry tomatoes and continue to stir until they collapse and begin to burst and brown, about 10 minutes.
  3. Mix pasta with pesto and tomatoes and toss.

If you like this, check out what other wonderful food bloggers are making for Food Network’s Comfort Food Fest below!

Feed Me Phoebe: Sesame Soba Noodle Salad with Cabbage Slaw
The Mom 100: Creamy Goat Cheese and Spinach Linguine
The Cultural Dish: Homemade Pasta and Top 3 Light and Easy Pasta Recipes
Taste with the Eyes: A Unique Pasta Made of Black Beans – Gluten-Free, Lower-Carb
Napa Farmhouse 1885: Ravioli with Asparagus, Green Pea Sauce & Sauteed Scallops
Red or Green: Pasta Cacio e Pepe (pasta with pecorino & black pepper)
In Jennie’s Kitchen: Spaghetti Limone
Dishin & Dishes: The Best Homemade Ravioli Ever
FN Dish: 5 Back-Pocket Pastas That Always Have Your Back

How to make ravioli

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