Spinach, Ricotta and Pesto Ravioli in a Rosemary Butter

April 26, 2017April 27, 2017

Ravenous for ravioli? Well today is your lucky day…

I spent the first decade of my life believing that these little pockets of flavour were called “family pasta” and the first two decades of my life eating them from a packet. The former was due to the fact that eating ravioli was more or less the only time my entire family ate pasta together, as generally my parents ate an excitingly large range of dinners whereas Poppy and I lived off the classic pre-teen pasta diet. The latter was down to the sheer volume of time it takes to make ravioli from scratch – who on earth has time for that…?

I do apparently! I have recently discovered that as long as you are equipped with a pasta maker and patience it is actually relatively quick to make ravioli from scratch and the resulting pasta by far surpasses the shop brought varieties. I even created a ravioli recipe myself which I am sharing with you today! If you do not have a pasta maker you can use a rolling pin to roll the pasta by hand but it does take a while longer (not to deter you).

P.S. Sorry that I have not posted for a while – due to a lack of technology plus illness I have myself a couple of weeks break from blogging but I am so excited to be back here again!

Makes 14 ravioli // serves 4

Prep time: 1 hour thirty minutes

Cooking time: 10 minutes

Ingredients

300 g tipo 00 flour
4 eggs
salt and pepper
30 g basil
1 tbsp pinenuts
1 tbsp parmesan
1 garlic clove, peeled
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp olive oil
200 g spinach
2 tbsp ricotta
4 sprigs rosemary
100 g salted butter

Method

Pour the flour into a bowl or onto a cleaned surface. Sprinkle a pinch of salt into the flour and then create a well in the middle of it. Pour the four eggs into the middle of the well and use a fork to gradually combine the eggs and flour. See picture above. When a rough dough has come together sprinkle a little extra flour onto the surface and knead the dough for 15 minutes until a smooth dough has formed. Wrap the dough in a lightly moistened tea towel and place in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile make the filling. Place the basil, parmesan, pine nuts, garlic and lemon juice in a food processor and blitz for a minute before adding 1 tbsp of the olive oil and season with salt and pepper to taste. Blend for another minute and then set to one side.
In a large frying pan heat the remaining olive oil on a medium heat and wilt the spinach. Place the wilted spinach into a colander and drain any liquid from it. Place it into a bowl, season it generously and then stir in the ricotta until evenly combined. Season and set to one side.
Now it is time to turn the dough into pasta. Take the dough out of the fridge and cut it into four. One at a time pass the dough through the pasta maker until it is 1mm thin. Follow the instructions that come with your pasta maker on how to do this as it can vary but there will be dial that will tell you the thickness of your pasta as you roll it out.
You should now have four long and thin sheets of pasta dough. Use a 9 cm cookie cutter to cut out 32 pasta circles. Using a teaspoon dollop small amounts of the spinach and ricotta onto half (16) of the circles and top this with a small amount of the pesto. Use your finger or a pastry brush to pat water lightly around the edges and then place a circle on top of the filling. To seal the ravioli use the side of your finger to remove any air bubbles and press the flat side of the fork around the rim of the ravioli. See the photos above as reference points. When you are not rolling out or cutting out the pasta keep it under a damp tea towel to prevent the dough from drying out.
When all of the ravioli has been made place it gently in a pan of salted and simmering water and cook for five minutes. Meanwhile heat up the rosemary in a large frying pan with the butter until all the butter has melted. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the ravioli into the frying pan and coat it in the butter.
Serve four pieces of ravioli per plate and top with any excess pesto, pine nuts and Parmesan.

Thank you so much for reading this post, I hope that you enjoyed it! Please let me know what you think in the comments as I love hearing from you and do not forget to follow me on instagram, facebook and on this blog to see more recipes and foodie musings from me. The link to do both can be found below if on a tablet/ phone or in the side bar if on a computer >>>. I have also recently joined pinterest so follow me on there for even more foodie inspiration – my username is Wish to Dish.