Homemade Ravioli

Recipe: Homemade Ravioli

Servings per recipe: 4
Prep time: 45 min
Cook time: 4 min

Ravioli dough from scratch (makes 12-18 ravioli using mold):

• 2 1/2 C flour
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 C hot water
• 1/2 tsp salt

Ravioli filling (makes 12-18 ravioli, using mold):

• 2/3 C spinach, cooked
• 4 oz ricotta cheese
• 2/3 C parmesan cheese, shredded
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• salt to taste

Mushroom and parmesan cream sauce:

• 1 lb mushrooms, sliced
• 4 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 2 C half & half
• 1 1/2 C parmesan cheese, shredded
• 1/4 C chives chopped, for garnish

Directions

Dough from scratch:

Mix flour with salt. Stir water with egg until well mixed. In a bowl, combine flour and egg-water mixture together and mix until well incorporated. Sprinkle some flour over working surface and over your hands as you knead the dough. Knead the dough until well-textured and firm. The dough should not be too wet or too sticky. It should only stick to itself, but not to your hands. It should not be too dry, either. Make the dough into a ball or disk, wrap with plastic wrap. Let the dough stand for 1 hour at room temperature before using. This allows gluten to work. This amount of dough enough to make dough for 12 raviolis, using the mold (ravioli mold makes 12 ravioli). If you need to make 24 ravioli, make a second batch of this dough.

Ravioli filling:

If you don't have cooked spinach on hand, cook spinach until wilted and all liquid is gone. All liquid should be evaporated – it’s important. Chop spinach.

Soften ricotta cheese by heating it up in microwave oven for about 5-10 seconds. Mix all ingredients together in a medium bowl: chopped spinach, ricotta cheese, Parmesan cheese. Add a little bit of nutmeg to taste. Salt to taste. Set aside.

Your filling should not be runny, it should be pretty firm, which is why it’s important to make sure spinach has no liquid from step 1. If your filling is a bit runny from softened cheese, put the bowl with ravioli filling in the refrigerator to firm up.

Ravioli from scratch:

Unwrap ravioli dough from plastic, divide in 2 equal parts. Flour working area. Roll out each part of pasta dough very thinly, on a floured surface, using a roller. Make sure to flour the upper portion of pasta dough and the roller to avoid sticking. Lift the rolled dough several times during rolling to make sure it doesn’t stick to the counter, and flour working surface with more flour, if necessary. Flour the ravioli mold. After you have rolled the 2 portions of dough very thinly, place first layer of dough on the ravioli mold, so that it covers all 12 holes.

Place a small portion of ravioli filling into each indentation, making sure not to overfill. The filling should be at the same level or lower as the flat part of the mold. Place second layer of pasta dough on top of filled ravioli. Using a roller pin, roll across the mold and along the edges to separate ravioli. As you roll the pin, it also removes all air from ravioli, which is very important for ravioli success. By now you should have extra dough hanging off the outside 4 edges of ravioli mold – carefully separate it. Continue rolling the pin along the inside edges of 12 raviolis to separate them from one another: you could also use your fingers to press across the edges to separate ravioli.

Flip ravioli mold to release ravioli. Bring a large pot of water to boil. Boil ravioli for 5 minutes, drain and set aside – to be used with sauce below. Or, alternatively, if you’re not using ravioli right away, place them on a plate or baking sheet in the freezer to freeze. After they are frozen, place them in a plastic bag and keep frozen until needed.

Mushroom and parmesan cheese sauce:

Heat oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms, garlic, a bit of nutmeg and cook for about 7 minutes until mushrooms soften and garlic is fragrant. Deglaze with ver jus/lemon juice/water and cook until almost dry.

Add half-and-half, bring to boil. Remove from heat, add grated parmesan cheese, mix until cheese is melted and mixture thickens. Add salt to taste. After you have boiled ravioli for 5 minutes, drain them and add ravioli to the sauce to coat. To serve, place ravioli and sauce on plates. Garnish with chopped chives.

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