How to make spinach ricotta ravioli from scratch! Learn how to make ravioli dough, shape and fill ravioli with or without a pasta machine and ravioli tablet. Homemade ravioli are easy and will be on your table in less than an hour.

Spinach Ricotta Ravioli

With this recipe, we’re making delicious, fresh ravioli from scratch. That’s right, we’ll be preparing the dough as well as our awesome spinach and ricotta filling. Perhaps best of all, you don’t need a pasta machine to make these gorgeous little ravioli, and you can make it in less than an hour. If you’re a little pressed for time and need to impress your guests - or just feel like giving the kids a dinnertime treat - this ravioli recipe is sure to hit the spot.

Homemade Pasta

Some people seem to think homemade pasta is for professional chefs, a secret closely guarded by ranks of Italian nonnas with wooden spoons. Although secret family recipes abound in Italy, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Pasta is a classic example of Italian peasant cuisine, designed to be made, and consumed, by the masses. Even ravioli, filled pasta, is astonishingly simple to make. Sure, it might take a little practice to really perfect the process, but if Italian families could make pasta from flour and water for generations, so can you!

Today we’re going old-school and making a super simple spinach and ricotta ravioli filling.

Here, we’ve included plenty of little tricks and tips earned by making this recipe many times over. You’ll be a pasta master in no time!

You'll Need

To make the pasta dough you will need soft wheat flour, durum wheat flour, eggs and salt.

We use steamed spinach, wholemilk ricotta, Parmesan, nutmeg, salt and pepper to make the filling.

Ravioli Pasta Dough Recipe

First of all, to prepare your dough, you’ll need flour and eggs. Generally speaking, we’ll use about 2 cups of flour, and three eggs. Throw all the ingredients for the pasta dough into your food processor. Pulse until combined. Transfer on the working surface.

Now you’re going to lightly knead your dough, using your hands, until it’s smooth. You want a silky, smooth consistency. This should take five to eight minutes. If the dough gets a bit dry, you can add a tiny amount of water to smooth it out. Don’t use too much water, however, as then you’ll need to add more flour.

Once your dough has smoothed out, shape it into a ball, place it in a bowl, and cover the bowl with a kitchen towel or some plastic wrap. Let it rest for thirty minutes.

The resting phase is critical to the success of your pasta! Allowing it to rest for half an hour lets the gluten in your dough relax, giving you the stretchy, silky consistency we’ll need to form thin ravioli dough.

Spinach Ricotta Ravioli Filling

While your pasta dough is resting, we’re going to prepare the spinach and ricotta filling.

Firstly, you’re going to steam your spinach. Allow it to cool a little bit before squeezing as much water from it as you can. Do this either by hand, or by placing your spinach on a fine mesh surface (such as a sieve) and pressing down on it with a spoon or even your hands.

Once you’ve done this, it’s time to mix up our filling. Add your spinach to a bowl, and to this bowl add your ricotta, Parmesan, salt, and nutmeg. Stir this mixture to incorporate it, and season with salt and pepper to taste. Remember that a little bit of seasoning goes a long way, and you’re better off using too little salt than too much.

How To Make Spinach and Ricotta Ravioli

Now for the fun part! We’re going to roll out the pasta dough. This is usually easier to do if you have a mechanical pasta machine, but don’t worry if you don’t have one handy. People have been rolling pasta by hand for centuries, so that’s a perfectly fine way to do it. All you need is a rolling pin and a flat surface.

Firstly, chop your dough into four roughly equal pieces.

Roll out your pasta pieces on a flat surface lightly dusted with flour. You want to get the pasta as thin as possible. This way, you avoid having chewy or undercooked ravioli! One old trick is to hold the sheet up to the light. If you can see the silhouette of your hand through the sheet, it’s the right thickness! Remember that pasta expands as it cooks, so if this feels too thin to eat, don’t worry.

Do this to each piece of pasta in turn, placing each flattened strip beneath a damp kitchen towel when you’re done with it. This prevents the pasta from drying out.

Place the sheet of pasta on the ravioli tablet. Press each mould with your fingers to make pockets.

Fill each pocket with 1 teaspoon of the spinach ricotta filling.

Place the second sheet of pasta over the ravioli and seal the sheets together. Use a rolling pin to cut the ravioli.

Making Ravioli by Hand

Roll out each piece of dough to 1/16" thickness.
Cut each sheet in half crosswise to get 8 sheets. Work with one sheet at a time and keep other sheets under a damp kitchen towel to prevent from drying out.

Fold it along its midline and open it up.
Place four evenly spaced teaspoons of the filling, about ½-1 inch apart. Brush with water around the filling. Fold it over and seal.

Use a pastry or pasta cutter to cut the sides and cut them into squares. Press the edges with a fork to seal again.

Filling & Sealing Ravioli

There are two main ways to fill and seal your ravioli when you are making them without a ravioli tablet. By hand, or using a specialized cutter.

They are very similar to one another up until you’re actually cutting the ravioli.

First, place a teaspoon’s worth of your filling on the pasta sheet laid out before you. Each teaspoon should be about two centimetres to an inch apart from its neighbor. You can brush the edges of your pasta strip with water if you like, to create a tighter ravioli seal between the pasta layers.

Now, using a sharp knife, a pastry cutter, a pizza cutter, or your preferred ravioli cutter or mold, carve out each ravioli. Use your fingers or a fork to press around the edge of each piece, sealing it. Do this with the remaining pieces of pasta, being even with your portioning to ensure that each piece cooks evenly.

Cooking Fresh Ravioli

Fresh ravioli will cook very quickly. Simply place them in salted boiling water, and when the ravioli rise to the surface, give them another minute. Five minutes is usually enough, depending on how al dente you like your pasta. If you’re making this recipe for the first time, test the first ravioli before you remove the rest.

Serving Fresh Ravioli

Any sauce that you’d normally serve with pasta is perfect for this recipe! We recommend a smoother sauce, like Napoli or a simple creamy sauce, because the star of the show here is the pasta itself. Marinara, homemade pesto, or even a simple saute with sage and butter are all great ways to serve your fresh homemade spinach and ricotta ravioli.

More Ravioli Recipes

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Mushroom Ravioli Sauce

Mushroom Ravioli from Scratch

Chicken Ravioli

Easy Ravioli Sauce

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