We love to make fresh pasta. It tastes really good and the kiddos enjoy making it. To get some veggies into the kiddos, we decided to make a spinach pasta and stuff the ravioli with ricotta and spinach. If you don’t have a pasta machine or the attachment for your mixer, it’s worth investing in. This ravioli recipe is our family’s creation and the sauce is based on Lidia Bastianich’s marinara sauce recipe. It’s excellent!
Marinara Sauce:
- 2 28 ounce cans of San Marzano tomatoes (such as Cento)
- 8 garlic cloves smashed with the back of your knife
- a few TBSP olive oil
- 8 large basil leaves, chopped
- Sugar and salt optional
Assembly:
Heat olive oil in pan. Add smashed garlic. Saute garlic for 1 minute, then add the tomatoes with their juices. Use a potato masher or large spoon to smash the tomatoes. Simmer, periodically smash the tomato mixture, until sauce thickens. Once sauce thickens, taste and see if you need to add any seasoning. Depending on your tomatoes, you may want to add sugar or salt. Add basil prior to serving.
Spinach Pasta Dough:
- 4 cups semolina flour
- 1 9 ounce bag of fresh spinach leaves, blanched
- 2 TBSP olive oil
- 2 tsp salt
Make the dough:
Combine all ingredients in food processor, and process until dough is well incorporated and forms a ball in the food processor bowl. Note: this recipe is sized for a 14 cup Cuisinart processor. If you have a smaller processor, process in 2 1/2 recipe batches.
Knead the dough:
Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and knead it for 3 minutes or until smooth and elastic. The dough should come cleanly away from the surface. If it is too wet, incorporate flour 1 TBSP at a time until the dough is no longer sticky. If the dough is dry and crumbly incorporate water until it is pliable.
Create sheets of pasta:
Follow the instructions on your pasta maker regarding the size of the dough that can go through the roller. Roll pasta out to medium thickness sheets (3 on the KitchenAid roller.)
Ravioli Filling Mixture:
- 1 15 ounce container of Ricotta Cheese
- 1 package of frozen spinach, cooked in microwave for 3 minutes
- 1 egg
- 1/2 tsp salt
Assembly:
Open spinach package and place on microwave save plate or bowl, and cook on high for 3 minutes.
Drain spinach completely. Use a towel or paper towel to get the spinach as dry as possible.
Combine cheese, spinach, egg and salt, and set aside.
Making ravioli:
Note: There are many ways to do this, and we will take pictures next time to make the process easier.
Using a dough scraper or knife, shape a sheet of pasta into a rectangle and cut the piece to a manageable width for your workspace.
On the left side of the half of the sheet closest to you, place a heaping teaspoon of filling so that the edges of the filling are 1/2 inch from both the bottom and side edges. Moving right, place a heaping teaspoon every 1.5 inches, with the edge of the filling 1/2 inch from the bottom edge.
Brush an eggwash along the side and bottom edges of the pasta sheet. Brush the eggwash halfway between the filling as well.
Fold the top half of the sheet over the bottom half. Press down around filling to force out air and seal dough. Using a ravioli wheel, cut along side and bottom edges of sheet and in between the filling in order to create individual ravioli.
Cooking:
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Salt the boiling water liberally. After the water returns to a boil, cook ravioli for 2 and 1/2 minutes (if freshly made) or for 3 minutes (if refrigerated.)
Drain. Plate with sauce. Serve.
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