Servings: 3
Calories: 807kcal
Equipment
- Pasta roller and cutter (if not using a rolling pin and knife)
- Kitchenaid pasta roller and cutter attachment (optional, instead of manual cutter or rolling pin)
- Ravioli tray (or stamps)
- Rolling pin
Ingredients
Dough
- 200 g 00 flour plus up to 80g for moisture left in the spinach
- 100 g semolina flour
- 80 g spinach blanched, pureed, and drained/blotted (substitute with defrosted frozen spinach)
- 2 eggs
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- 1/2 tsp salt
Filling
- 400 g fresh ricotta
- 50 g spinach blanched, drained/blotted, and chopped (substitute with defrosted frozen spinach)
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup grated parmesan
- salt and pepper to season
Instructions
- Mix the flours together with the salt, and make a well out of them on a large flat surface, or in a bowl.
- To the well, add the 80g of pureed spinach, the oil, and the 2 eggs plus 1 egg yolk. For the single yolk, I recommend cracking the egg in half and then passing the yolk back and forth between the halves, allowing the white to fall loose.
- Starting in the centre, use a fork or your hand to gradually incorporate the dry ingredients into the wet. If you've already formed a ball of dough, but it remains sticky, keep adding flour at no more than a tablespoon at a time.
- Once the dough can be handled without sticking to your fingers or the work surface, begin kneading. You may have to keep adding some flour if it you notice it getting sticky during kneading - this is very much a step best judged by feel.
- To knead, I recommend putting your weight down and forwards into the dough using the heel of your hand. You are trying to roll it forwards and fold it over at the same time, so the motion is down, forwards, and then up at the end of the push. Fold the flattened dough back towards you and over itself as you repeat. You want 10 minutes of hard kneading to really develop the gluten.
- After 10 minutes, as long as you eliminated any sticking early in the knead, you should be left with a smooth, shiny ball of dough that requires no additional flouring.
- Seal it in a freezer bag, or any sealable plastic, and leave it to rest at room temperature for 30 minutes. Try to keep it out of direct sunlight or heat, as that will cause the dough to sweat.
- While the dough rests, make the filling by mixing all filling ingredients together in a bowl. Knead it lightly together; it should hold together without being too wet. If you want to make life easy for yourself, prefill a piping bag fitted with a medium round tip. Otherwise, filling with a teaspoon and your hands will work fine, but may take a little longer.
- Cut the dough into four pieces, and return to the bag all but the single piece you'll begin working on. Using a pasta roller, or rolling pin, roll out and refold the dough 4-5 times into long strips. Think of this step as an extension of the kneading process. If on a machine, just keep putting it through the 0 setting, refolding as you go. Flour lightly if you notice it sticking, and don't worry if you get some tears - just keep refolding to cover the tears, and rerolling with a light dusting of flour. You'll notice that the dough becomes easier to handle with every pass.
- Begin stepping up the settings on the machine, or if using a rolling pin, begin rolling thinner and thinner. I roll up to a machine setting of 6, but that's a personal preference, and it may be appropriate to go thinner. If you're rolling by hand, remember to aim for long rectangular strips with a similar width to what a pasta machine would make (about 30cm by 14cm); this will ensure you can cover a ravioli grid or tray if using one, or have enough room to stamp by hand. For a grid, you could also roll out 30x30cm squares.
- Flour one side of your sheets well - that will be the underside. If using a grid or tray, lay the sheet/s across it, with a slightly water dampened overlap to join any sheets together.
- On a grid or tray, give the sheets a very light press to show an outline of the mould underneath. If using a stamp, either make very light indentations in the dough, or gauge the required spacing. Fill each raviolo with a small amount of the filling. Spritz the exposed dough with water, then overlay an appropriate number of sheets to cover the tray, depending on the mould you are using. If hand cutting, you may find it more efficient to place your filling off-centre and fold the sheet in half over it.
- Flour the top of your pasta, and then begin cutting. If using a stamp, simply press down firmly over each filled mound; if using a grid or tray, roll firmly until the cutting/sealing edge is showing through. I use a wine bottle because I find that it cuts well, and I don't end up scratching up my rolling pin. Marble pins also work well, and if you have a dedicated pasta pin there's nothing wrong with that.
- Peel away any excess, and knock the ravioli free of the moulds. Separate if stamped. Transfer all ravioli to baking paper lined trays and refrigerate uncovered for up to a day. Making them the day before will give the pasta a satisfying bite.
- To cook, drop into a large pot of boiling water. The more water to pasta, the less chance you'll lose the boil when you drop the pasta in. Once they're all floating at the surface, try one and ensure that there's no white showing in the bite. Be sure not to overcook after all that hard work!
- Looking for a sauce to pair this pasta with? We like to throw together a quick and simple tomato and basil sugo to pair with this relatively complex pasta - check it out!
Nutrition
Calories: 807kcal | Carbohydrates: 104.8g | Protein: 40g | Fat: 24.7g | Saturated Fat: 10.8g | Cholesterol: 282mg | Sodium: 748mg | Potassium: 636mg | Fiber: 4.8g | Sugar: 1.2g | Calcium: 545mg | Iron: 7mg
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