Discover this easy basic recipe for preparing Italian Ravioli at home, the famous half-moon or circular or rectangular filled fresh pasta, to fill with ingredients you love the most.
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Ravioli are a great classics of the tradition of homemade pasta, probably the oldest Italian stuffed pasta and for sure the most known in the world.
Making homemade fresh Ravioli is one of those rituals that takes me back to the past when I was a little child. At that time, with my mother and grandmother, we use to prepare it together on Sunday morning or on holidays.
The floured pastry board, the smell of the eggs, the sound of the work of the rolling pin. Everything contributes to bringing us back with our mind to a world in which the cure also and above all for food.
Helpful tools to make Ravioli pasta at home
I don’t want to hide from you that to make fresh pasta to prepare ravioli, you need a good dose of patience and work. By the way, there are many helpful tools that can make it easier to make perfect ravioli!
These are my favorites!
Above all, it can be useful to use a Kneading Machine. The dough will be ready in a few minutes and will be smooth and without lumps.
Then, ever since I remember, my family has always used the manual Pasta Machine to “roll the pasta”, the traditional pasta roller that lets you make the freshest pasta you’ve ever tasted right at home.
Moreover, whether you use the pasta maker or you like to do everything by hand, an indispensable tool for the perfect ravioli is a Ravioli Mold. With this tool, you just have to roll out the dough, stuff, and close with the help of a rolling pin.
A few pills of the ravioli’s history
Perhaps, not everyone knows that Ravioli is a specialty known since the Middle Ages. In those days the pasta sheet that enclosed the filling was used to prevent the contents from being dispersed during cooking in boiling water.
According to the legend, “Raviolo” was conceived in Gavi Ligure, and it would be called this because the name of the first cooker would have been “Ravioli”. Even today in that area of Liguria, families living in the area are called this way.
Ravioli are well known worldwide, square or round, and it can contain fillings based on meat, fish, vegetables, or cheese, according to the various local recipes.
Here I propose to you the basic recipe, so you’re free to explore, and test your imagination to fill them with stuffing that you love the most!
For this reason, I have not entered the directions to prepare a specific filling. Anyway, the traditional and classic filling is the one made using simply cow’s milk ricotta cheese, to mix with parmesan, nutmeg, a pinch of salt and pepper.
Extra tips to remember
1. If you’re going to make Ravioli for more than 4 people (or if your diners are starving people :P), the correct proportion to calculate is 1 egg for every 100 grams of flour.
2. If you want, you can try a different flavor of the pasta, mix the basic flour with buckwheat or spelled flour. in this case the proportion is 1/3 special flour, 2/3 normal flour!
Find out fresh ways to fill your Italian Ravioli
So, have you tried, or are you about to try making your first Pavioli Pasta at home? Or are you looking for new original ideas to fill your homemade pasta? Find here our 5 Italian Classic Ravioli Fillings, super easy Italian Classic Ravioli Fillings recipes, to make your homemade ravioli as a real Italian housewife would do!
Homemade Ravioli
Here the basic and extra-easy recipe for preparing Ravioli at home, the half-moon or circular or rectangular filled fresh pasta, which can be filled with the ingredients you love most.
Ingredients
- 400 g 00 flour
- 4 fresh eggs
- 1 pinch of salt
Instructions
Put the flour on the clean, dry work surface and create a volcano. Put the salt all around and open the eggs in the center of the crater. Lightly beat the eggs with a fork, just enough to mix egg yolks and egg whites, then start to incorporate some flour taken from the edges of the crater.
Combine flour with the eggs, taking it from the walls of the fountain: at this point the dough will begin to form granules.
Continue to work the ingredients with your hands until the dough is completely mixed. Work the dough with your hands for several minutes, pulling it back and forth, with energy.
When you see bubbles on the dough, form a ball, wrap it in plastic wrap and let it sit for 30 minutes.
After this time, take a part of the dough and form a ball, flatten it with your hands, then roll out the dough with the help of a rolling pin and sprinkle with flour to prevent it from sticking.
Make the sheet very thin (about 1 mm) and then, if you have a Ravioli mold like mine, spread the sheet over it, press with your fingers in the depressions, and fill each depression with a teaspoon of filling.
Place the second sheet of dough over the surface and pat down. Run rolling pin over dough until ridges beneath become visible. Flip the mold over and gently peel it away.
If you don’t use a Ravioli mold, cut the sheet of dough in half. Starting from 1 cm from the short edge, insert 1 tablespoon of your filling mixture at a time, along the length, spacing about 2 cm. each other.
With one finger, wet the ideal edges of each Raviolo to make the pasta adhere better and then cover with the other half of the sheet.
Press the corners with your fingers so that the dough sticks well.
At this point cut with a knife or with a pizza cutter in the shape you prefer (square or round or half-moon).
Let Ravioli rest on a floured work surface, sprinkled with flour and covered with a tower for at least 30 minutes before cooking.
Now, all that remains is tossing your Ravioli into a pot of salted boiling water to which you added a teaspoon of oil to avoid sticking, and cooking for approximately 4 minutes.
Serve your Ravioli in the sauce of your choice, and enjoy!!!!
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 4 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 72Total Fat: 5gSaturated Fat: 2gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 3gCholesterol: 186mgSodium: 104mgCarbohydrates: 0gFiber: 0gSugar: 0gProtein: 6g
So, did you prepare your first homemade Ravioli? Try them with one of the sauces you find on our Sauce Page !!
I hope you’ve loved this recipe as much as I do!
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Where’s the recipe for the cheese filling? This is just for the pasta!
This is the basic recipe for Ravioli. If you want to make the classic ricotta filling, here are the directions. Use 400 g ricotta cow cheese, 30 g grated Parmigiano, 1 pinch of nutmeg, 1 pinch of pepper, 1 pinch of salt. Mix everything in a bowl and refrigerate for 20 minutes before filling the ravioli. I hope I have been helpful!