DIY Cheese Ravioli

Heart Shaped Cheese and Spinach Ravioli
Baked in Meat Sauce

In celebration of my birthday later this week, I am going to be sharing some recipes for some of my all time favorite foods. Ravioli is definitely one of my favorite foods.

My husband just recently helped me roll out a big batch of homemade pasta, and one of the things we made was ravioli. Homemade ravioli with all of the ingredients made from scratch tastes so delicious and fresh.

Homemade Cheese Ravioli Recipe

To start, make a big batch of homemade pasta, and let it rest. Then you can either make up some homemade ricotta cheese or buy some from the store.

Season the ricotta to taste. If using homemade, you'll probably at least want to add salt, but some oregano, basil, and garlic powder is also good. If you like spinach you can add up to an equal volume of chopped fresh or frozen spinach to the cheese. You can even mix in some Parmesan cheese to add more flavor.

Now roll out you pasta dough really thin and cut into 2x4 in rectangles with a pizza cutter or any other fun shape you want with a cookie cutter. Some shapes are easier to work with than others. One year for Valentine's Day I made really large heart shaped ravioli which turned out quite well.

Scoop a small amount of filling onto each of the pieces of dough. For a 2x4 inch rectangle, that you intend to fold over, about a tablespoon is enough. Wet one side of the dough with water and fold over or place another piece of  dough on top. Press firmly to close. You can even fold the edges back on themselves slightly to ensure a really tight seal

Once all of the ravioli are formed, you can either cook them right away or like jiao zi (Chinese dumplings), you can freeze them on a cookie sheet and cook them at a later date. To cook, you can either bake ravioli covered in sauce at 350 F until it is all hot and bubbly (10-20 minutes) for fresh ravioli. Or you can boil water add the ravioli, and return to a boil for 5-8 minutes. Either method will take a few minutes longer if you begin with frozen ravioli.

DIY Pasta

Drying Pasta on a hanger

Fresh homemade pasta tastes so much, well, fresher than dry store bought pasta. I often make it for special occasions or when we can't cheaply buy wheat pasta.

Basic Pasta Recipe

(about 2–3 adult servings of pasta, recipe can easily be multiplied by however many servings you need)

1 egg
1 cup flour (white, whole wheat, or a mixture)
2 or more Tbsp water

Measure flour into a bowl or on a clean counter, make a well in the center, add eggs, and mix until well incorporated. Add water a couple of tablespoons at a time and knead well until dough reaches a nice elastic consistency. You can add extra herbs or a little olive oil for a different flavor at this time. Let the dough rest at least a half an hour, and then roll and cut into desired shape.

Flat rectangles for lasagna are the easiest, and you don't even have to dry or boil them. Just layer, bake, or freeze for later. You can also cut smaller rectangles, fill, and roll into manicotti. Or you can cut squares or hearts for ravioli, fill, and use a little egg white or water to seal the edges. Or you can simply cut long strips for fettuccine, dry for at least 15 minutes so that the noodles don't stick together, and boil like regular pasta.

After cutting, you can either bake a pasta dish right away or freeze it for later. Pasta can also be dried and stored in an airtight container for later use. Homemade pasta does not keep well in the fridge (not even overnight), but does freeze beautifully, so you can make multiple batches at a time.