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This spinach and ricotta ravioli sauce is loaded with roasted garlic, heavy cream, chicken stock and parmesan. It is elegant, yet very easy to make.
Here is a beautiful, heartwarming recipe that is sure to spruce up any pasta dish. Today we’re looking at a lovely spinach and ricotta ravioli sauce.
We’ll be taking some delicious roasted garlic, browned butter,chicken stock, and cream to make this sauce. We strongly recommend using roasted garlic and browned butter, but if you’ve only got the fresh version of each, that’s OK too. The roasting process really brings out sweet, nutty flavors in the garlic, however, and this beautifully complements the filling in your ravioli.
Roasted Garlic
Roasted garlic is one of those things that seems tricky to make at first, but is actually very straightforward. Once you’ve got the hang of it, you’ll be adding roasted garlic to everything you can!
Roasting makes the garlic sweet and sticky, lending it a gorgeously nutty flavor. The sharp garlic tang, by comparison, becomes more subtle, making it perfect for sauces and stews. The trick with roasting garlic is low and slow. Low temperature for a long time gives the naturally occurring sugars in your garlic time to caramelize.
For this recipe, you’re better off using fresh garlic diced, minced, or very thinly sliced, than flash-frying fresh garlic. If you go for too much heat too fast, you’ll burn the garlic and make it bitter.
Making Garlic Cream Sauce
Once you’ve roasted your garlic, it’s time to set about your creamy sauce.
Browned Butter
Browning butter helps add an extra dimension of flavor to the sauce. Like roasting garlic, it’s an easy extra step to take that makes your food taste and feel just a little more luxurious. To brown your butter, all you need to do is gently fry your butter until it goes from a yellowy natural butter color to a browner clarified color. The butter will release a strong, nutty aroma to let you know it’s perfectly browned.
Once you’ve done that, your butter should have a nice, nutty flavor with just a hint of smoky goodness. Roasted garlic and browned butter together are the key components of this sauce’s flavor profile and we couldn’t love it more.
Do I Have to Brown the Butter?
Browning the butter isn’t compulsory, but we do strongly recommend that you give it a go. More than anything else, browning the butter is a low-effort extra step that really adds to your sauce. The butter will be frying in your pan anyway, so you might as well take the little extra step required to brown it.
If you really need to cut the cooking time down, however, simply melting the butter will suffice.
Ravioli Cream Sauce FAQs
So you’re ready to make your ravioli sauce, but you want to know a little more before you get started. Here’s some frequently asked questions about this recipe.
The cool thing about ravioli, like any filled pasta, is that the filling adds depth of flavor to any meal. Often, the ravioli filling is the star of the show. The good news is this garlic cream sauce complements just about any ravioli filling you can think of. The classic ravioli filling of cheese, or cheese and spinach, is a great place to start. You might also want to try mushroom, chicken, seafood, or a pumpkin-filled ravioli. The sweetness of pumpkin ravioli matches very nicely with this sauce’s flavor profile.
Yes! Fortunately for avid fans of pasta geometry – the ancient and noble art of matching pasta to sauce – any small, filled pasta works well with this creamy sauce. You might like tortellini, with its additional grooves and sauce traps, more than ravioli with this recipe.
A non-filled pasta like spaghetti or penne is great for this recipe, too. Be conscious that you’ll need to cook about half the quantity you normally would, otherwise you’ll have far more pasta than sauce.
If you’re using an unfilled pasta, we recommend one with plenty of edges, grooves, and ridges for your sauce to stick to. Fusilli, casarecce, or farfalle are all great choices. Gnocchi, with its starchy consistency, is also a great option.
Serving Ravioli
This rich ravioli dish serves 3 to 4 people, thanks to hearty ingredients like cream, butter, and egg pasta. Egg-based ravioli is especially filling, with a denser texture and more protein. Finish with classic Italian garnishes—chopped parsley, black pepper, and parmesan—for a perfect touch.
Love Ravioli? Try these!!!
- Easy Ravioli Sauce
- Mushroom Ravioli Sauce
- Homemade Chicken Ravioli
- Mushroom Ravioli from scratch
- Lobster Ravioli
- Creamy Lobster Ravioli Sauce
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Spinach and Ricotta Ravioli Sauce
Ingredients
- 2 small heads of garlic
- Salt as needed
- 2 tablespoons avocado or olive oil
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 1/2 cup 350 ml heavy cream
- 1/3 cup 80 ml chicken stock
- 1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
- 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 1 lb 500 g spinach ricotta ravioli
- 2 tablespoons fresh parsley, finely chopped
Instructions
- Roast the garlic in the oven. Preheat your oven to 180 C/356 F.
- Slice the tips tip off bulb of garlic. Place on foil, then drizzle generously with olive or avocado oil and season with salt. Wrap your freshly oiled garlic in the foil.
- Roast in the oven for 45 to 60 minutes. Unwrap the foil and squeeze the sticky, softened garlic cloves out.
- Mash with a fork.
- Alternatively, you can roast the garlic in air fryer in 20 minutes.
- Brown butter. In a large skillet melt butter over medium heat. As the butter melts, keep stirring until it is brown in color.
- Sauce. Once it is brown and smells nutty, add the mashed roasted garlic and stir until combined, about 20 seconds.
- Pour in the chicken stock and simmer for 3 minutes to reduce slightly.
- Add in the heavy cream, season with nutmeg, salt and pepper. Bring to a gentle simmer. Simmer for 5 minutes or until the sauce starts to thicken. Then, add the parmesan cheese and cook until it is melted. The sauce should be thick enough. If the sauce is too runny for your liking, add more parmesan cheese or 1 tablespoon cornstarch ( mixed with 2 tablespoons of water).
- Ravioli. Cook ravioli in salted boiling water according to package instructions. Use a slotted spoon to add the cooked ravioli to the sauce and gently mix.
- Garnish with fresh parsley.
- Serve immediately. Enjoy!
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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This had a great flavor, I loved this recipe! I’m saving this one!
Thank you, Carrie!
Very delicious meal. This recipe was a huge hit at my house.
Thank you, Mabel! -Tatiana 🙂
Easy and very tasty!
Thank you Rose!
Can I make this sauce ahead of time and warm it up when I need it?
Hey, Stephanie! You can make it up to 3-4 days ahead of time and store in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Reheat the sauce over medium-low heat until warmed through, adding milk as needed to thin to desired consistency.
Indeed simple and very easy to make! It definitely is a perfect go to for a side dish.
I’m glad to hear that you found the recipe to be simple and easy to make! Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts, it helps others to know what to expect from the recipe.
This sauce was wonderful hence, it’s going to be a regular in my house from now on! Thank you for sharing this delicious recipe!
Hi Maliyah I’m so glad to hear that you loved the sauce! It’s great to know that it’s becoming a regular in your house. You’re very welcome, and thank you for trying out the recipe!
Delicious! Will definitely do this one again.
Hey Jenny! That’s fantastic to hear! I’m so glad you enjoyed it and plan to make it again.
Easy and delicious sauce
Thank you Anna!
Excellent Ravioli Sauce. I didn’t have any cream, so I used canned evaporated milk and it was perfect.
Thanks so much, Wendy! 😊 I’m really glad you enjoyed the sauce. Great idea using evaporated milk—that’s such a smart substitute when you’re out of cream!