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Ravioli with spinach and ricotta cheese filling, in tomato cream sauce - meatless, Italian style pasta dish, with everything made completely from scratch! Learn how to make ravioli dough from scratch, how to shape ravioli, what filling to use and what sauce to make. Detailed instructions and step-by-step photos to show you how to make the ravioli with spinach and ricotta cheese filling at home!
I was originally planning to post a light-hearted and easy recipe about how to make a yummy plum drink, but I changed my mind and instead I took an endeavor of making fresh pasta ravioli from scratch. So I made super delicious spinach ravioli with ricotta cheese filling in a creamy tomato sauce. Here is my recipe featured on SeriousEats Weekend Cook and Tell: Fresh Pasta. Very exciting!
Even though the below recipe on how to make ravioli has many steps, making fresh pasta ravioli is actually pretty easy, especially because you have a very detailed tutorial that I created below. I have created and tested the below recipe, to make sure I have the exact proportions for the ravioli dough (pastry), so if you follow my steps precisely, you will create a wonderful ravioli dish that will impress your family and/or guests.
The most important part here is to roll your ravioli dough very thinly - that's the secret to great tasting ravioli! To roll it thinly, the dough should have just the right proportion of water to flour, which I denoted in my ingredients section below. It is important to let ravioli dough sit for an hour, covered in plastic wrap, so that the gluten does its job, and the resulting dough is nice and elastic enough for you to work with.
And, finally, I think it's great to learn how to make your own ravioli, because then you can endlessly experiment with fillings instead of just buying what grocery stores offer you. I am personally never impressed with the selection of pre-made ravioli in stores, so that's primary reason why I learned to make my own.
Below are some step-by-step photos illustrating major steps on how to make ravioli from scratch. The actual recipe is below the photos. Make sure to scroll down all the way for the complete recipe.
Ravioli Dough Ingredients
1 ¼ cups flour
1 egg
¼ cup hot water
¼ teaspoon salt
How to make ravioli dough from scratch
First, make the ravioli dough according to the recipe instructions below and let it sit for 1 hour.
- Mix flour with salt.
- Stir water with egg until well mixed.
- In a bowl, combine flour and egg-water mixture together and mix until well incorporated. Knead the ravioli dough until well-textured and firm. The dough should not be too wet or too sticky. It should only stick to itself, but not to your hands. However, it should not be too dry, either.
- Make the dough into a ball, cover with plastic wrap. Let the ravioli dough stand for 1 hour at room temperature before using. This allows gluten to work.
How to make spinach and ricotta cheese filling
- Heat olive oil on medium heat, add spinach and cook covered, stirring occasionally, until spinach wilted, about 15 minutes.
- Cook for 5 or 10 more minutes uncovered until all liquid evaporates.
- Chop cooked spinach finely and move to a bowl. Add Parmesan cheese and ricotta cheese, salt to taste and mix well. Add more salt if necessary.
How to make ravioli from scratch
- Divide the ravioli dough (instructions on how to make ravioli dough from scratch are above) into 2 equal halves and roll each half into a very thin sheet with a rolling pin.
- Make sure to have flour on hand and dust the working surface or rolling pan when necessary, because the dough will be sticky. It's important that the ravioli dough be rolled very thinly (paper-thin), otherwise ravioli will be too solid when cooked, because dough expands during cooking. Also it will be really hard to use the ravioli mold if the dough is not thin enough.
- Once you rolled sheets of dough, shape individual raviolis. To shape ravioli, I use a very handy device, Ravioli mould/tray, which works great! I purchased it at William-Sonoma, you can see the picture of it below:
How to shape ravioli using the mold
- Dust the working mold tray with flour
- Lay a thin layer of ravioli dough on the tray
- Press the ravioli dough in the holes of the mold
- Fill the holes of ravioli dough with the spinach ricotta cheese filling, without overfilling
- Cover with another layer of ravioli dough, which should lay flat all the way across the mould
- Using the rolling pins or your fingers, press the upper layer of ravioli dough against the lower layer, close and cut the ravioli
- Overturn the mold tray to let the ravioli fall out
Below photos illustrate these steps:
You can take the scraps of the dough and add them to your covered dough for future rolling.
When you are done shaping ravioli, bring a big pot of water to boil, add ravioli and cook for 5 minutes, then drain. Or, alternatively, freeze ravioli until you're ready to cook them.
How to make tomato cream sauce
- Heat olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Chop tomatoes and garlic and add to the pan. Cook covered for about 10 minutes until tomatoes soften.
- Add white wine and chopped thyme. Bring to boil and cook uncovered for 5 more minutes until half of liquid evaporates. Remove from heat, let it cool for a bit.
Then transfer to blender and puree the tomato mixture. Transfer the puree back to the pan, reheat to medium heat and add heavy cream. Stir until well incorporated.
Cut each grape tomato in half and add all of them to the pan with the tomato cream sauce. Salt to taste and and more chopped thyme if needed. Cook for 5 more minutes.
To serve, add cooked ravioli to the sauce at the last minute. Allow both ravioli and the sauce achieve same temperature. When serving on plates, garnish with thyme.
More ravioli recipes
[catlist name=Ravioli numberposts=-1 excludeposts=this]
Spinach Ravioli with Ricotta Cheese Filling, in Tomato Cream Sauce
Ingredients
How to make ravioli dough from scratch:
- 1 ¼ cups flour
- 1 egg
- ¼ cup hot water
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Spinach and ricotta cheese ravioli filling:
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 10 oz spinach
- ½ cup Parmesan cheese shredded
- ¾ cup ricotta cheese
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Tomato cream sauce:
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 tomatoes
- 2 garlic cloves
- 5 sprigs fresh thyme
- ¼ cup white wine
- ½ cup heavy cream
- 2 cups grape tomatoes yellow and red
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Instructions
Make ravioli dough from scratch:
- Mix flour with salt.
- Stir water with egg until well mixed.
- In a bowl, combine flour and egg-water mixture together and mix until well incorporated. Knead the dough until well-textured and firm. The dough should not be too wet or too sticky. It should only stick to itself, but not to your hands. However, it should not be too dry, either. Make the dough into a ball, cover with plastic wrap. Let the dough stand for 1 hour at room temperature before using. This allows gluten to work.
How to make ravioli cheese filling:
- Heat olive oil on medium heat, add spinach and cook covered, stirring occasionally, until spinach wilted, about 15 minutes.
- Cook for 5 or 10 more minutes uncovered until all liquid evaporates.
- Chop cooked spinach finely and move to a bowl. Add Parmesan cheese and ricotta cheese, salt to taste and mix well. Add more salt if necessary.
How to assemble ravioli using ravioli mold:
- After the ravioli dough has been resting at room temperature for 1 hour, divide the ravioli dough (instructions on how to make ravioli dough from scratch are above) into 2 equal halves and roll each half into a very thin sheet with a rolling pin. Make sure to have flour on hand and dust the working surface or rolling pan when necessary, because the dough will be sticky. It’s important that the ravioli dough be rolled very thinly (paper-thin), otherwise ravioli will be too solid when cooked, because dough expands during cooking. Also it will be really hard to use the ravioli mold if the dough is not thin enough.
- Once you rolled sheets of dough, shape individual raviolis. To shape ravioli, I use a very handy device, ravioli mould/tray, which works great! Step-by-step photos are above the recipe box.
- Here is how to use Ravioli mould:1) dust the working tray with flour2) lay a thin layer of pastry on the tray3) press in the holes4) fill the holes with the filling, without overfilling5) cover with another layer of ravioli dough, which should lay flat all the way across the mould6) using the rolling pins or your fingers, press, close and cut the ravioli7) overturn the tray to let the ravioli come out
- When you are done shaping ravioli, bring a big pot of water to boil, add ravioli and cook for 5 minutes, then drain. Or, alternatively, freeze ravioli until you’re ready to cook them.
How to make tomato cream sauce:
- Heat olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Chop 2 tomatoes and garlic and add to the pan. Cook covered for about 10 minutes until tomatoes soften.
- Add white wine and chopped thyme. Bring to boil and cook uncovered for 5 more minutes until half of liquid evaporates. Remove from heat, let it cool for a bit.
- Then transfer to blender and puree the tomato mixture. Transfer the puree back to the pan, reheat to medium heat and add heavy cream. Stir until well incorporated.
- Cut each grape tomato in half and add all of them to the pan with the tomato cream sauce. Salt to taste and and more chopped thyme if needed. Cook for 5 more minutes.
- To serve, add cooked ravioli to the sauce at the last minute. Allow both ravioli and the sauce achieve same temperature. When serving on plates, garnish with thyme.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition Disclaimer:
The nutritional information on this website is only an estimate and is provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed. It should not be used as a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
I used a pack of frozen chopped spinach, thawed and cooked, then mixed with the ricotta as instructed here. Tasted lovely, but we're going to try it with fresh spinach once I can lay my hands on some. My guys won't eat tomatoes. Do you have any other ideas for sauces for them?
Thanks!
This isn’t really a sauce, but one of my favorite things to eat with ravioli is some olive oil and basil pesto. If you want to take it a step further, you can mix the basil with some cream and onions in a pan and use it as sauce! Good luck!
Try a bechamel sauce with plenty of nutmeg freshly grated in it then top with lots of freshly grated Parmesan or grana pedano cheese.
I am intending to try the recipe tomorrow however I will be making the dough from gluten free flour so am not sure of it not breaking up - watch this space
I've never made gluten-free ravioli, even though I tried store-bought gluten-free ravioli and they were delicious!
Hi JULIA,
Can I use philly cream cheese blocks or whipped cream in place of ricotta, or a mix of both?
Also, can I use frozen spinach and squeeze all liquids? If so how many ounces of frozen spinach?
Oh I meant whipped cream cheese, not whipped cream sorry
Cream cheese is a lot heavier than ricotta, so it's best to use the ricotta cheese here. It's also best to use fresh spinach and cook it ensuring that all liquid evaporates.
Super yummy!!! Just made it and my family loved it 🙂
So happy to hear that! 🙂
Excellent recipe! The dough was soft and it's so easy to make. My family loved it! Thanks.
You are very welcome! I am glad you tried this recipe and liked it!
I haven't even made the recipe yet and and have a feeling it'll taste amazing. The instructions were easy and thorough. THANKS!
You are very welcome! Enjoy!
I like the recipe - not sure if you are using fresh or canned spinach (I may have missed that.) I always use a 50-50 mixture of semolina flour to unbleached white flour when I make my dough. Been doing it for 40 years! Like the sauce recipe a lot!
I am so glad you like this recipe! Thank you so much for stopping by and leaving such a kind comment. I used fresh spinach.
So you shred the spinach?
I start with the fresh spinach, I cook it, and then I chop cooked spinach - it's all listed in the instructions.
Semolina flour?
Can't get enough of this recipe
I am so happy to hear that!
Is it possible to make the dough ahead of time and keep it in the fridge for few hours?
Allow the dough sit for 1 hour first, per recipe instructions. Then, you can wrap it airtight in plastic wrap and refrigerate it. Bring the dough to room temperature before making ravioli.
But, the best way would be to make ravioli first, and then refrigerate ravioli before you're ready to cook it.
This is a great recipe thanks for sharing! It was easy to follow. If you have a pasta machine, the original recipe actually makes 24 ravioli if you can roll it to setting 5. I found there was more than enough filling in the recipe for 96+ ravioli. I used frozen spinach (300g) for the filling.
So glad you enjoyed this recipe! Thank you for stopping by and sharing your comment!
I am a bit confused. In the recipe you said to boil the ravioli, or alternately to freeze them. In your comments you said to make the entire dish and then freeze it. I'm not sure those slightly cooked cherry tomatoes art going to benefit from freezing, and I'm pretty sure it's not going to do the cream any good, either.
You can do either of these 2 things:
1) You can freeze ravioli without any sauce. Freeze the ravioli before boiling them or freeze them after they are boiled, it's up to you.
2) You can also freeze the whole dish after making it. Boil the ravioli, make the sauce, and freeze everything. The cream sauce is made with heavy cream (no cheese), so it will freeze well. Tomatoes should be fine too, as they are part of the sauce.
Thank you!
Hi Julie,
I am excited to give this recipe a try. If I want to freeze the ravioli, do I cook it first then freeze, or leave them raw?
Thank you
If you want to freeze the ravioli as part of this recipe, I recommend you to cook ravioli first, make this recipe, and then freeze it.
Hi Julia,
Can these be made ,cooked, then sauce prepared on them (not baked) all in an aluminum tray then put in freezer for a few weeks?
You can absolutely freeze these ravioli together with the sauce. I prefer not to use aluminum containers for freezing, so I would freeze it in a different type of container.
I've just used your sauce recipe with some store bought ravioli and it was delicious. Now I'm inspired to try make my own. Just need to get a tray like yours 🙂 Thanks for the recipe
So glad you enjoyed this recipe! I've made ravioli from scratch, too. Here are a couple of recipes for you to look at:
ravioli with spinach and ricotta cheese filling
homemade ravioli with goat cheese and spinach