Ravioli (Dough and Choice of 4 Fillings)

"Posted in reply to a message board request. This is the family recipe for homemade ravioli. I have included 4 filling variations along with the ravioli dough recipe. Please note that this dough was made by hand and not with a pasta machine. Feel free to use the fillings with your own favorite pasta dough recipe (hand or machine). Prep time includes 1 hour drying time."
 
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photo by Ashley Cuoco photo by Ashley Cuoco
photo by Ashley Cuoco
photo by Ashley Cuoco photo by Ashley Cuoco
photo by Kim D. photo by Kim D.
photo by tomsawyer photo by tomsawyer
photo by tomsawyer photo by tomsawyer
Ready In:
2hrs 15mins
Ingredients:
28
Serves:
4
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ingredients

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directions

  • MAKING THE FILLING: Ricotta Filling#1: In a large bowl, blend all filling ingredients together until smooth, set aside filling until needed.
  • Ricotta Filling#2: In a large bowl, blend all filling ingredients together until smooth, set aside filling until needed.
  • Beef and Spinach Filling: Brown beef and veal in butter with the whole clove of garlic.
  • Remove garlic and let meat mixture cool.
  • Mix spinach, parsley, eggs, cheese and nutmeg into cooled meat until well blended, set aside filling until needed.
  • Sausage Filling: Brown sausage in frying pan, drain fat and allow sausage to cool.
  • When sausage has cooled, mix in eggs and cheese, set aside filling until needed.
  • MAKING THE RAVIOLI DOUGH: Sift flour and salt together.
  • Place flour mixture on a board, making a well in the center of the flour.
  • Drop eggs into the flour well, using your hand or a fork, break the yolks and beat eggs slightly.
  • Combine the eggs and flour together, gradually adding enough warm water to make a stiff dough.
  • Knead dough well, until smooth; cover the dough and let it rest for 15 minutes.
  • Cut dough in half and roll each half of the dough out on a floured board, into a very thin sheet (about 1/16 to 1/8 inch thick).
  • FILLING THE RAVIOLI: Drop about 1 to 1 1/2 teaspoonfuls of filling about 1 1/2 inches apart all along the dough.
  • When the sheet of dough is fully dotted with dabs of filling mixture, cover filling with other sheet of dough.
  • Using your fingers, gently press dough between each dab of filling to seal it.
  • Cut ravioli into squares with a (zig-zag edged) pastry cutter, or very sharp knife.
  • DRYING THE RAVIOLI: Allow ravioli to dry for one hour before cooking.
  • COOKING THE RAVIOLI: Drop ravioli into 6 to 8 quarts of boiling, salted water and cook for about 10 to 15 minutes, or until dough is tender.
  • Remove cooked ravioli from pot carefully with a skimmer or a large slotted spoon, and drain well.
  • Place drained ravioli on a serving platter in layers, alternating layers with your favorite sauce and a sprinkling of grated cheese between each ravioli layer.
  • Serve hot.

Questions & Replies

  1. Can you bake these, like crispy ravioli?
     
  2. Do you have a recipe for eggplant filling? Just had these in Mexico and loved the dish.
     
  3. What would be the problem if I use regular all purpose (bleached) flour? That is all I have at home.
     
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Reviews

  1. This recipe is awesome. I found it this past weekend and saved it for a future attempt at making ravioli. However, I was ambitious today and made the dough to use as fresh pasta. I pulsed the salt and flour together in my food processor, then added the eggs and water. I processed only a short time, until the mixture formed into a ball, and only had to knead a few minutes. <br/><br/>To make the noodles, I worked with 1/4 of the dough at a time, rolling as thin as possible, squared off with a small pizza cutter, and cut the noodles as uniform as I could.<br/><br/>Thanks for such an easy, delicious pasta dough recipe.
     
  2. These ravioli turned out great! I used the ricotta and ham filling and pressed the edges down with a fork. The reviewer below said the water amount was way too much, but I actually had to add more water to get the dough to come together. Next time I will add more to get the dough thinner as my ravioli were a bit thick. I also used whole wheat flour and it worked well.
     
  3. I just made this last night, and it was fantastic! I used a slight variation of filling ingredients based on what I had on hand, so I thought I would share it for others to try. I boiled a chicken breast and when it was cool shredded it into small pieces. Then I put the shredded chicken in a bowl with one egg, a couple tablespoons of parmesean, a handful of mozzerella, and some italian seasoning. It turned out really good with a simple tomato sauce to finish the raviolis off, and even my picky 3-year-old loved them!
     
  4. If I could give this dough recipe 100 stars I would! I've made it very often since first trying it. I use a pasta machine and the best tip I came across was to VERY lightly dust the dough with cornflour before passing it thru the machine. It won't stick at all. This tip revolutionised pasta making for me as did this fantastic recipe. Just one note: depending on the egg size (we have our own hens so the eggs I use aren't sized) I sometimes have to add a little water/flour. My original review: I made filling 1 with homemade ricotta cheese. Served it with tomato sauce and cheese. Delicious.
     
  5. OMG really? I never knew that making a homemade ravioli could be so easy. I am legally blind and let me tell you that did not make any differance. The recipe for the pasta was great!! Although I did decide to make my own fillings one was with cream cheese, crab and green onion (awesome) The other was chorizo and jimmy dean sausage I cant believe how easy this was!! TY so much for sharing the recipe I am sure I will use it for years to come.
     
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Tweaks

  1. NO WATER!
     
  2. The ground beef filling is close to what my great-grandma taught the family to use. She came over as a little girl from northern Italy. We use leftover beef roast and pan grilled pork chops for the meat. We grind everything by hand . Since I make about 12 dozen ravioli at a time, I usually make the filling one day and the ravioli the next. This also gives the filling time for the spices to mix. After the ravioli are cut and crimped, I let them sit for about an hour on a floured cookie sheet and then put the cookie sheet in the freezer. After the ravioli are frozen, I put them in air-tight packages of various count and keep frozen until an occasion to serve them. I make marinara sauce to serve over the ravioli. I layer ravioli, sauce, shredded Parmesan several times in a baking dish to serve them. Leftovers are just left in the dish, covered tightly and refrigerated, no longer than 4 or 5 days. Then pop the whole thing in the oven at 350* when you're ready to have them again.
     
  3. I'm reviewing only the raw dough here, not the finished product. The dough seemed great, tho I'm not sure what it's supposed to be like. I somehow messed these up big time, ended up having to bake them instead of boiling, because filling was falling out everywhere, they somehow ended up the size of pancakes, and we ended up having cheeseburger meat pies. I will ABSOLUTELY try making these again, at which point, let you know how they come out once I finally get it right.
     
  4. This recipe is fantastic! I made the dough with the spinach beef filling, but I subbed beef for the veal, left out the parsley, used garlic powder in place of the clove, and added some basil. I'm also a clumsy college student and this was my first time making dough, but it was easy and I had a lot of fun breaking the yolks with my fingers! :) I ended up pan-frying some of the dough I had left over and the bits were delicious. Overall awesome recipe; I'll certainly make it again, and it has encouraged me to cook more overall!
     

RECIPE SUBMITTED BY

I'm married (53 years to the same lucky guy) and have 2 kids, a daughter 47, a son 43, and 2 beautiful grand daughters (11 yrs and 14 yrs). I have always enjoyed cooking and baking, especially breads :)
 
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