Spinach Ravioli

Hi! Welcome to my Instructable on how to make spinach ravioli. I have to say that pasta is my all time favorite food, and making pasta from scratch used to be a very common occurrence for me. I don't know why, but I stopped a few years ago. I was recently struck with inspiration to try it out again. I am so glad I did, and I really hope more people can discover the joy of making pasta.

This is my first instructable in 5 years, so I hope you try it out! Handmade pasta is a bit time consuming, but it is a fun process with a delicious result. For this recipe I made a mushroom ricotta filling, but you can easily change it up. I like a ricotta base because it is nice and creamy, and you can mix all kinds of different things into it. My suggestions are sausage, bacon, fresh herbs, or mozzarella.

For the pasta dough:

• 2 1/4 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 eggs
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 9 oz frozen spinach

For the filling:

• 1 1/2 cup ricotta
• 1 egg (optional, but makes the texture a little firmer)
• 8 oz Mushrooms
• Salt
• Pepper
• Garlic powder (I used a garlic salt mix)
• Left over spinach from the dough if you have it

Equipment

• Pasta roller (If you don't have one, I still encourage you to attempt some ravioli. Step 6 is for no equipment ravioli)
• Ravioli press, tray, or stamp. (Again, this helps but you can still make tasty ravioli without. See step 6)

Make sure the spinach is fully thawed. It should have directions on the package for thawing. If it does not, you can microwave first for one minute and then in 30 second intervals until warm.

Drain off any water. Take some napkins or paper towels and gently press on the spinach to remove some of the remaining water. Separate 1/3 cup of the spinach and set the rest aside for the filling.

In a food processor or blender, blend the 1/3 cup of spinach as finely as you can. If it wont blend, add a tablespoon of water and try again. You can also chop the spinach, but again you want the pieces as small as possible.

Some people find this step a bit intimidating, but I promise it is super easy. Read through the instructions once before starting and look at the pictures. You might make a bit of a mess, but you will have a dough in the end.

On a clean surface, put your flour in a mound. Sprinkle the salt over the flour and make a nice ditch in the center of the mound. In the center of the flour nest, add the eggs, spinach, and olive oil. Try to break up the eggs as best you can with a fork. From here on, it is best to work with your hands to mix and knead. Gently start mixing the flour walls into the egg mixture, a bit at a time. Keep mixing until it is fully combined. It may seem to dry at first, but keep going for about a minute. If it is still dry, add water one teaspoon at a time until the flour is completely combined.

Time to knead the dough. For the first few minutes, you may notice the dough getting sticky. Go ahead and add one tablespoon of flour every time it gets sticky until it stops. Keep kneading for a total of ten minutes. By this point the dough will be nice and smooth. Wrap it in plastic wrap or place in a sealed bag and let rest for 30 minutes.

I made a mushroom filling, but you can easily substitute the mushrooms with other veggies, bacon, or sausage.

Finely dice the mushrooms. Lightly oil a medium frying pan and saute the mushrooms over medium heat until they are soft and starting to brown. Take them off the heat and let the cool for a few minutes. In a mixing bowl, combine ricotta, egg, leftover spinach, mushrooms, salt, pepper, and garlic powder. You can add other seasonings if you'd like, thyme would work well in this. Place this mix in a quart sized bag and set aside until you are ready to fill the ravioli.

Now that the filling is ready and the dough is rested, it is time to make the magic happen. I am using the pasta roller attachment for a stand mixer, if you use a manual one the instructions should be about the same, just with a lot more elbow grease. You should check the instructions that came with your machine if you have them. If you have neither of these rollers, skip to the step 6 for no equipment ravioli.

First, we will be working with 1/4 of the dough at a time. Put the rest back in plastic wrap or a sealed bag so it doesn't dry out. The pasta roller has settings for thinness, we will start at zero and work up to 6. First take a rolling pin and flatten the piece of dough until it is about half an inch thick. Make sure you have a clean place to work and lightly flour the surface. Then start the machine on the lowest setting and place one end of the dough into the top of the roller. The dough is pretty resilient so be gentle but don't worry too much. Place the dough on the floured surface and lightly flour the top. Now turn the roller up to the next setting, and repeat. Just send it through the roller, lay it down and flour it, turn up the roller one setting. Keep doing this until you get to the setting number 6.

Your dough should be nice and thin, and laying out on a floured surface. Take the bottom part of your ravioli press (the part with the squiggles, often metal), and give it a good spray with some oil. Don't be like me and forget this part, it makes things difficult.

Lift up your dough and place the bottom part of the press under it, try to line it up so half your dough is on the press and half is hanging off. Take the top part of the press and set it on top of the dough and bottom part. Gently apply pressure until the edges are flat with the dough, and then remove. This will give us some nice dimples for the filling. Cut the a tip off the bag of filling and pipe about a tablespoon and a half of filling in each dimple. Fold the loose half of your dough over the filled half. Gently roll over the whole press with a rolling pin. This will cut out your raviolis. I like to gently press with my fingers the corners and edges of each ravioli just so they have a more distinct shape. Now just turn the press over and lightly tap the corner. The ravioli should fall right out, but if not don't be afraid to give them a little push.

Transfer the ravioli to a floured plate or tray, and refrigerate until your ready to cook. You can repeat with the other portions of the dough. This dough also makes great pasta. Just roll it flat and then use a pasta cutter if you have it, or you can cut by hand for some nice fettuccine.

To make ravioli without a roller, we are just gonna roll it out nice and flat with a rolling pin. For this you really want a straight cylinder rolling pin, not one of the wooden ones that taper at the ends. Start with 1/4 of your dough and just roll it thinner and thinner, try to keep it long and thin like in the pictures above. Aim for about 4" wide. Keep rolling until it is about 1/8-1/16" inch thick. Lightly flour if it gets sticky. It will likely be a little thicker than the pasta roller can make, so you will have to cook it a little longer.

Once it is thin enough, pipe the the filling in 1 1/2 tablespoon piles every 3 inches down the center of one half of the dough. Gently take the other half of the dough and fold it right over the half with filling. Lightly press around the piles of filling with your fingers. Now take a glass, a wine glass works perfectly, and center it over a pile of filling and press. This will seal and cut out your ravioli. Continue with the rest of the dough. You will have a lot of extra dough if you do it this way, so just ball it all back up and roll it out again.

These ravioli cook a lot faster than dry pasta. Fill a large pot about 2/3 of the way with water and bring to a boil over medium heat. Once at a rolling boil, add the ravioli. Once they are all floating at the top, take one out to test. It should be soft and not chewy. It should take about 3-4 minutes of cooking. Once done, strain ravioli and enjoy with the sauce of your choice.

These ravioli are quite delicious on their own, so you don't have to dress them up much. I sauteed four cloves of garlic in two tablespoons of butter, and then just mixed the cooked ravioli right in. If its your first time making ravioli, I definitely suggest this method, so you can fully taste your handiwork.

However you decide to serve them, please post some pics if you make these raviolis! I would love to see them :D