Just like grandmama used to make them in the old country.
Of course it is ten times easier to simply buy spinach and cheese ravioli, and easier still to simply order it, but I do love a putzy meal on occasion made with lots of love and cheese.
Plus, I really cannot tell you enough how delicious fresh stuffed pasta is. It’s a revelation. Bertolli and Olive Garden can’t give you that, baby. Adorable little pockets of ricotta and greens swimming in Marcella Hazan’s tomato sauce. It’s pure bliss.
I recommend doing this when you have some time and have helping hands! This is actually a really good date night meal for a weekend!
How to make fresh pasta dough
I really, really, really, really, really recommend getting a pasta maker if you’re going to make ravioli. Some other types of pasta you can get away without using one, but the straight lines you want in ravioli can only be produced by a pasta roller. I use an Marcato Atlas 150 that I got from Sur la Table and it cost $90.
I think you can get it on Amazon for a bit less, but lately I’ve been feeling a little annoyed with the monopoly Amazon has. They’re pushing out the smaller businesses!
Anyway. I highly recommend watching my video or blog post on how to make fresh pasta. I go into the details in the recipe below, too, but the video is helpful for knowing how to make the trifold.
Spice up the filling!
I like the classic Italian spices and herbs–basil, oregano, garlic, onion powder, etc.–but you can go all out in your filling. I’m definitely going to try mushroom and truffle this fall! Oops, sorry. Just drooled on my keyboard.
I also use thawed frozen spinach. It’s really helpful to wring out the liquid from thawed frozen spinach. If you don’t, your little golf ball-sized fillings are going to be more like puddles. Let the spinach thaw in the bag and then cut a little hole in the bag to let the water out. Give it a good squeeze and then place it on a few paper towels and wrap it up in them. The towels absorb the liquid with another few squeezes and you should be good to go!
Forming the raviolis
This is the fun part! Simply lay the top layer of dough on the dough with the fillings! Press the sides together and use a bench scraper to cut. The cuts will also help seal the fillings. Sometimes a little water brushed on the edges will help seal dried dough.
You can also use a pasta bicycle to get the zig-zag edges that are iconic to ravioli. I have one of these and for some reason I forgot to use it. D’oh!
Pro tip: Cover your dough with damp paper towels if you’re not going to use it right away. It prevents it from drying out.
Now there are tomato sauces, and then there are tomato sauces. I stopped buying jarred tomato sauce when I discovered Marcella Hazan’s recipe. Nothing compares. Plus, fresh ravioli deserves freshly made tomato sauce. (But, hey, I get it if you’re in a pinch and making ravioli isn’t exhausting enough.)
Jim and his brother, Joe, went crazy for this ravioli recipe. We actually had it on St. Patrick’s Day instead of corned beef and cabbage because I had a feeling I was the only one who would be eating it! The green from the spinach was a nice little nod to the Irish, but let’s not kid anyone–this is 100% Italian. No complaints! And we did watch a Disney Channel original movie called The Luck of the Irish, so we got in our holiday spirit there!
Hope you enjoy! If you try it, let me know how it turns out! I love to hear from you!!!
Homemade Spinach Cheese Ravioli
Equipment
- Pasta maker, such as an Atlas 150, 180, or a KitchenAid pasta attachment
Ingredients
Marcella Hazan's Marinara Recipe
- 28 oz Can of San Marzano whole peeled tomatoes Cento brand
- 5 tbsp Salted butter
- ½ Onion
- ½ tsp Sea salt
- 1½ tsp Sugar optional
- 1 tsp Dried basil optional
- ½ tsp Dried oregano optional
- ½ tsp Garlic powder optional
Pasta Dough
- 2 cups All purpose flour
- 2 Eggs
- ½ tsp Sea salt
- ¼ cup Water
Spinach Cheese Filling
- 1 cup Whole milk ricotta
- ⅓ cup Grated Parmesan cheese
- 6 oz Frozen spinach thawed and water squeezed out
- ¼ tsp Garlic powder
- ½ tsp Dried parsley optional
- ½ tsp Dried basil
- ¼ tsp Dried oregano
- ¼ tsp Sea salt
Instructions
Pasta Dough
- In a stand mixer bowl, add flour. Make a large indentation in the center. Add to it the salt, eggs, and water. Insert the dough hook attachment and knead on low speed until a soft dough, about 8 minutes.* Remove dough from the bowl and place on a sheet of plastic wrap, sprinkled with flour. Wrap and place in refrigerator, about 20 minutes. *If flour is not incorporating into the wet ingredients, stop the mixer and un-attach the dough hook. Use it to scrape the flour into the wet mixture. Then reattach it and continue kneading.
Ravioli Filling
- Combine ricotta, Parmesan, dried herbs, salt, and spinach in a bowl, mixing until fully incorporated. Cover and place in refrigerator.
Sauce
- In a medium sauce pot, pour in the tomatoes. Mash tomatoes with a fork or masher. Place the onion half in the center of the tomatoes. Add in butter, salt, and dried spices. Cook on medium-low heat for 45 minutes, uncovered.
- Discard onion and serve.
Roll Pasta Dough and Make Ravioli
- Divide the dough into 4 equal pieces, using a scale, if necessary. Flatten them with your hands until they're half inch (1 cm) thick discs. Dust with flour.
- Insert the first disc of dough, thin side down, into the pasta rollers on the lowest setting and roll it all the way through. Increase the thinness setting and repeat, increasing the thinness again and rolling up to the fourth setting. The dough should look oblong. Create a trifold with the oblong dough so it roughly resembles a square. It is fine if it overlaps. On the lowest setting, reinsert dough through the pasta rollers so the straight edges go in perpendicular to the rollers. Roll dough all the way through and repeat, increasing the thinness each time up to the fourth setting.Repeat the trifold process in the other direction, again creating a square with the dough. On the lowest setting, again reinsert dough through the pasta rollers so the straight edges go in perpendicular to the rollers. Roll dough all the way through and repeat, this time increasing the thinness each time up to the seventh setting.Repeat this process for the remaining three discs of dough and lay flat on a lightly floured counter. You will finish with four, equal-sized sheets of pasta, approximately 6" wide by 18" long.
- You will place the filling on the first two sheets of pasta. Using a tablespoon-sized cookie dough scoop, scoop a scant tablespoon of the chilled spinach cheese filling. Roll it into a ball with your hands and place on the pasta sheet, about an inch away from the edges. Repeat the process, placing the balls about 1.5" apart from each other, in a row. You should end with two equal rows on two sheets of pasta. There will be 24 balls of filling.
- With the other two sheets of pasta, gently place them on top of the other two that have filling on them. Brush the edges of the sheets with water and push the edges together with your fingers.
- Using a bench scraper or knife, cut along the center of the sheet, lengthwise, between the two rows of spinach-cheese balls. Then cut between each set of spinach cheese balls, creating a square around each one. Press edges that have come loose and then gently lift the ravioli up to prevent sticking to the counter.
Cook Ravioli
- In a large pot, boil salted water on medium high flame.
- Cook ravioli in batches of six. They cook for only 2 minutes. You know they are finished when they rise to the top. Remove cooked ravioli using a slotted spoon.
- Ladle the tomato sauce on a plate or bowl, about ¾ cup per plate. Place ravioli on tomato sauce. Garnish with more Parmesan, if desired.