Homemade ravioli - give me your recipes!

Cafe Society
1

I have the time, so I thought I’d make a stab at ravioli. I’m a passionate cook, but usually avoid ravioli as too much trouble for too quick a reward. But things have changed.

I have 00 Tipo/pasta flour and eggs. I can acquire pretty much any kind of meat or seafood, have no allergies or aversions, I grow most of the ‘usual’ fresh herbs (sage, oregano, parsley, thyme, rosemary). The more complex/challenging recipes, the better.

I don’t have a pasta machine, but am prepared to roll up my sleeves and use traditional elbow grease. I do have a ravioli stamp-thingie to make the shapes.

All advice welcome!

2

Haven’t been very adventuresome in flavoring the pasta or filling for ravioli, but I do use at least 50% semolina in pasta for the flavor.

3

Ah, good tip. I have semolina flour.

4

You’ll need to add a little bit of extra water with the semolina. I think it will make it tougher for you to roll out by hand.

5

Yeah, I’m kinda regretting selling my pasta machine on ebay. But back then, I never had time to use the thing.

6
  1. Make your own riccota. its really easy and makes a difference.
  2. Get a long rolling pin. Makes rolling thin pasta easier.
  3. check out Pasta Grannies on youtube. Its a bunch of old Italian grammas in Italy making various types of interesting pastas. Watch their rolling technique.
7

A chef friend made Raviolo al’ Uovo and I have been meaning to give it a try. Each ravioli has a “nest” of ricotta in which you place an egg yolk. Here is one recipe.

8

Ooh, sounds nice and fiddly. Just the job.

9

I didn’t think this needed pointing out until I watched a friend make them, but do make a whole sheet as one, and *then *cut your ravioli, rather than cut out and try and fill and seal each individual raviolo. I have never laughed so hard.

I generally go with a filling of mixed minced herbs, cheese, poudre douce (spice blend of white pepper, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, sugar) and finely-chopped ham.

Ricotta and lemon zest is good, too, although better with a light broth than tomato sauce.

10

Not exactly a recipe, but my wife picked up some lobster ravioli from Costco awhile back and it was yummy. Served it simply with melted butter, a squeeze of lemon and some grated parm. Not sure exactly what was in the filling other than lobster, but it was very lobster-forward-- really lobstery tasting with discernible pieces of lobster and little or no other filler. Unlike the disappointing lobster ravioli I got at a restaurant once that barely hinted the filling had any kind of seafood in it.

So that would be good to make the day after having a lobster, or crab feast, and you had some bits of meat left over, but not enough to make a meal on its own.

11

For years, making ravioli in the spring with a group of lady friends, when the hens started laying in earnest, was a favorite party activity at my house. Everyone would bring their special ravioli cutters and pasta rollers, I’d lay clean sheets out on all the beds so we’d have enough room to let the finished ravioli dry, someone would open a bottle of wine and we’d get to work. We’d make hundreds, then divvy up the spoils at the end of the afternoon. Fine, fun memories! That’s obviously not possible at the moment, however. :frowning:

Definitely add semolina to the dough, for texture as much as taste.

Some filling recipes:

Chicken and Spinach

1 c. (4 oz.) ground cooked chicken
fresh spinach*, steamed and chopped with residual moisture squeezed out (about 8 oz. cooked)
3 TB butter, melted
3 TB Parmesan cheese
1/4 tsp salt
nutmeg to taste (about 1/8 tsp)
dash of white pepper

Combine chicken, spinach, and melted butter. Stir in cheese, salt, nutmeg, and pepper. Place 1 teaspoon filling on one 2 inch square of dough. Set aside to dry for 1 hour, turning once.

Cheese and Spinach

1 lg. carton Ricotta (or make your own)
2 bunches spinach
1 handful chopped parsley
1/2-1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 egg whites
nutmeg to taste
salt & pepper to taste

Cook spinach*, squeeze out moisture and chop. Chop parsley and add to other ingredients, combining well.

*Pro tip for processing large amounts of spinach as called for in 2 of the above filling recipes: Stuff a large microwave-safe bowl with dry spinach. Nuke for 1-3 minutes. The spinach will be nicely wilted with very little residual moisture.

Ground Beef

½ lb ground beef
3 oz Parmesan cheese
¼ onion
2 - 3 cloves garlic
1 egg
fresh oregano (don’t get carried away), chopped
fresh parsley, chopped

Chop and mince garlic and onion. Grate Parmesan cheese. Brown ground beef and break it up fine. Add in chopped garlic and onion and finish browning beef. Drain browned ground beef, garlic and onion well in a colander. Chop or process fresh oregano and parsley. Add oregano and parsley to browned ground beef, garlic and onion. Stir a lightly beaten egg and Parmesan cheese into mixture.

Have a great time and don’t forget the wine!

ETA: Obviously these are not complex recipes as you requested, but the simple, clean flavors of good, fresh ingredients is what I love. :slight_smile:

12

This is the BOMB. I don’t do it often because it is a lot of work. We also have chickens, so when they are really laying eggs, it is pretty awesome. Plus my son is baking a lot, so we tag team where he does egg white recipes and I do the Raviolo al Uovo.

I have had restaurant Raviolo al Uovo, and i have to say mine stood up to it.

It isn’t hard to do. cut out your pasta shapes, squirt out the ricotta/spinach mix, add in an egg yolk, and then use a fork to clamp it down. may need a couple of test boils for how long to boil.

serve in a browned butter sauce is great. Pesto is good too. I love it

13

So in the end, because I decided not to go shopping, I made use of what I had in the house, which happened to be a frozen lobster.

I followed the Gordon Ramsey method, substituting the salmon for prawns (because I had prawns but no salmon), and using the lobster shells to make the jus.

It was a triumph! A pasta machine (now on order) would have been better than a rolling pin, as pasta dough is quite tough to roll thin enough, but otherwise it was marvellous.

Now the pasta machine is in the post, I’ll be experimenting more, so thank you all for your recipes - I’ll be following them up.

14

A chicken egg yoke sounds pretty large to put inside ravioli. Would quail eggs be easier? I can buy them locally.

15

In the linked recipe it appears to be talking about 3"x3"* raviolis, should be big enough for some ricotta and a small yolk.

*That’s about .000000580644‬ hectares for you Brits.

16

7.62 centimetres thankyouverymuch. We haven’t rejected everything from the continent.

17

One of the nice things about having a few layers around is that we typically get eggs ranging from small to jumbo and can pick whichever work best for a given use. Quail yolks would be too small.

A few years ago we had a goose trying to reproduce. We repeatedly took her eggs (a pair of geese is one too many). I fed most of them to our dogs, but my gf requested a sunny side up goose egg. Keeping the pan mostly covered, peeking only to baste was the key.

18

Actually not that big. maybe 2" x 2" sized squares.

That said, you raise an excellent idea with quail or pidgen eggs. The ravioli would definately be smaller. Not sure if you can get the right cooking time to get the right custardization of the egg. Probably can but the margin of error vs a chicken egg is smaller. I may have to try this (but I have backyard chickens and would need to go to the asian market for pigeon eggs. Still an interesting tweak to add to the to do list

19

Actually not that big. maybe 2" x 2" sized squares.

That said, you raise an excellent idea with quail or pidgen eggs. The ravioli would definately be smaller. Not sure if you can get the right cooking time to get the right custardization of the egg. Probably can but the margin of error vs a chicken egg is smaller. I may have to try this (but I have backyard chickens and would need to go to the asian market for pigeon eggs. Still an interesting tweak to add to the to do list