I always have a couple of bags of homemade ravioli of all shapes and sizes in my freezer and I can’t begin to tell you how handy and lifesaving it is at times :):)
I got into making fresh pasta thanks to my Italian husband and am very passionate about it. I find it to be very therapeutical and love trying out different shapes each time, whether they are the filled type or not. It’s relatively simple to make, especially if you don’t go for a complicated shape, but a little time consuming at the same time. It’s not something you would start making an hour before dinner time and just make enough for the number of people. It could be a great weekend project to make in big batches with someone to keep you company and help out if possible. Then you just freeze what you don’t eat the same day for up to a couple of months and you’ll have a ready meal for when you are short of time or will to cook.
If you’ve ever come across my instagram feed and had a look around then you’ll know how much I love to colour my fresh pasta with beets. The colour comes out so beautiful that it cheers me up and makes me feel like a kid playing with play doh :):) One of the very first posts that I wrote on my blog was of the Beetroot Ravioli which you will need to refer to for the beet pasta dough recipe if you choose to have a colour just like the one above. Other popular ingredients you can use to colour your pasta are spinach, carrots, herbs, saffron, chocolate, peppers and squid ink.
Just wanted to give you a few ideas; they look pretty, don’t they :):) The colours look a little different due to the light conditions when photographing.
As I’ve previously talked about how to make the beet dough in this post, I’d like to give you my recipe for the classic spinach and ricotta filling, with a couple of twists of course. You can go ahead and make plain dough if you like, you will need one whole egg per 100 gr of all purpose flour for each person. The process is pretty much the same as you make a well in the centre of the flour, lightly whisk the eggs, bring it all together and knead for about 10 mins.
And this is to show you how to make tortelloni, you can just leave them as triangles and press down the edges with a fork for a simpler and much quicker version.
- 1 kg spinach
- 350 gr fresh ricotta
- 40 gr pine nuts (lightly toasted)
- 75 gr parmesan
- 50 gr cream cheese
- 2 Tbs olive oil
- 1 Tbs butter
- 1 big clove of garlic
- ¼ tsp grated nutmeg
- salt and pepper
- Wash and trim the spinach.
- Heat the olive oil and fry the garlic, add the spinach and cook for a few minutes until the liquid released is absorbed.
- Add in the butter, nutmeg, salt and pepper.
- Drain the spinach and roughly chop.
- Mix together the ricotta, parmesan, cream cheese and the roughly chopped pine nuts.
- Combine the cheese mixture with the spinach, add more salt and pepper if needed. Cover and keep in the fridge.
- Divide your pasta into 6-8 pieces and working with one piece at a time keep the rest wrapped until needed.
- Flatten the piece of dough in your hand and dust lightly with flour on both sides. Start feeding it through the widest setting of your pasta machine (I use the Kitchenaid pasta roller). Folding and rotating, repeat for a few times on the same setting to smooth the dough.
- Change the setting to the narrower one and continue passing through twice on each setting, dusting lightly if it seems to stick to the pasta roller. When you reach the desired thickness (I prefer 5 or 6 on Kitchenaid) place the pasta sheets on a lightly floured surface and cover with a tea towel to prevent from drying.
- Once you have your pasta rolled, transfer filling into a pastry bag and start having fun :):)
- Don't be intimidated with making of the ravioli and go for a simple shape if you are not experienced. You can make squares, triangles, circles, half moons...using a pasta cutter or even a cookie cutter. When you put the second pasta on top of the filling make sure to press around to exclude any air gaps.
- Cook the raviolis for 2-3 minutes in a large pan of boiling, salted water. Serve at once with a simple sage butter and grated parmesan.
I also enjoy them served with a simple tomato and basil sauce for a lighter meal.
I always end up with some leftover filling, which I just freeze for later use or make little hand pies using puff pastry squares. If you prefer you can decrease the ingredients by about ¼-1/5.
[…] recipe of the filling of my ravioli. So before we move on with this galette recipe you can click here to check out my friend Hati’s blog and her delicious ravioli […]