Ravioli Cooking Recipe
Ravioli are stuffed pasta that are cooked throughout Italy. Each region, each village, each family has its own recipe for dough, stuffing, and sauce. Ravioli are usually square but can be round, triangular, half-moon, or another shape. They will each have a different name depending on their shape and the stuffing.
Serves 6
- Preparation time: 1 hour
- Cooking time: 4-5 minutes
Ingredients
- 10 oz. (300 g) pasta dough (basic recipe)
Stuffing
- 1 cup (7 oz./200 g) cooked spinach, well drained and chopped
- 1 cup (7 oz./200 g) ricotta
- 1 egg
- 1/3 cup (2 oz./SO g) grated Parmesan cheese
- Nutmeg,
- grated Salt,
- pepper
Cooking Method
Make the ravioli stuffing.
- In a bowl, quickly incorporate the spinach with the rest of the ingredients until you have an evenly mixed stuffing.
Prepare the pasta.
- Take a sheet of dough (1), cut it into four rectangular strips approximately 6 x 20 in. (15 x 50 cm).
- Place the stuffing on one half of the dough in equally spaced and sized mounds with a spoon or a pastry bag, keeping a straight line (2).
- Fold the other half of the dough over the stuffing.
- Gently press all around each mound of stuffing to eliminate any air bubbles and make a perfect seal between the two sheets of pasta (3).
- Using a dough cutter, first cut lengthwise, ensuring that there is a double layer of pasta the whole length (4).
- Then cut in between the ravioli to seal and separate them (5).
- Place them individually on a lightly floured dish towel.
- Cook the ravioli for 4 to 5 minutes in a large quantity of boiling, water (6) and remove them with a slotted spoon.
Chef’s notes
To shape fresh pasta, you can buy “pasta cutters” (non-sharp, serrated cookie cutters), and also many other cutters of different shapes and sizes, as well as preformed ravioli molds.
However the dough cutter (see p. 168) allows you to vary the shape with a single instrument and gives the ravioli a more “home-made” character. It is also the perfect tool for sealing the ravioli. You can use a glass to cut out round ravioli, and the other cutters to make different shapes. Use these cutters upside down (the blunt side) to press the dough down firmly and seal the edges well. Place something over the sharp side to protect your hand.
If there are no air bubbles inside the ravioli and the edges are clean and well sealed, there will be no risk of them opening and the stuffing escaping while cooking.
Always prepare a firm stuffing; you should be able to form it into balls that hold their own shape.
Tortellini Cooking Recipe
The recipe for tortellini was registered by Dotta Confraternita del Tortellino (The Tortellini Brotherhood), and by the Italian Academy of Cooking, at Bologna’s Chamber of Commerce, in 1974. The recipe is given here as faithfully as possible. Tortellini differ slightly from cappelletti and anolini in their shape and their stuffing.
Serves 6-8
- Preparation time: 1 hour 30 minutes
- Cooking time: 4-5 minutes
Ingredients
- 10 oz. (300 g) pasta dough (basic recipe)
Stuffing
- 3 oz. (100 g) pork loin
- 3 oz. (100 g) mortadella (from Bologna, if possible)
- 3 oz. (100 g) raw ham, finely sliced
- 2 teaspoons (10 g) butter
- 1 clove garlic unpeeled, left whole
- 1 sprig of rosemary
- 1 egg
- 1 cup (5 oz./150 g) grated Parmesan (stravecchio if possible-aged for 30 months)
- ½ teaspoon grated nutmeg
- Salt,
- white pepper
- Beef stock or capon stock
Cooking Method
- Cut the pork loin into cubes. Brown for a few minutes (1) in the butter with the garlic and rosemary (2). Let cool.
- Finely chop the pork, the mortadella, and the ham in a food processor (3).
- Add the egg, Parmesan, and nutmeg to the mixture, then season with salt and pepper (4).
- Roll out sheets of the dough, cut out disks of 1 V2 in. (4 cm) in diameter or squares of 1 % to 2 in. (4.5 to 5 cm) (5).
- Place a small mound of stuffing in the middle of each disk or square (6).
- Fold the tortellini firmly in two (7), then fold them in two again by wrapping them around your finger (8).
- Press the two ends together and pinch firmly to seal (9). Place the tortellini on a dry, floured dish towel (10). Cook them al dente (4 to 5 minutes) in the stock (11) and serve.
Chef’s note
- Tortellini are also often cooked in boiling salted water and served with a cream sauce.
- Serves 4: stir 1 ½ tablespoons (10 g flour) into ¾ tablespoon (10 g) melted butter, add 1 cup (250 ml) of whipping cream, with salt and pepper to taste. Mix together and simmer for a few minutes.
Did you know?
- Tortellini are traditionally served in a beef or capon broth, especially on Christmas Day.
Variations
You can make a lighter dish by replacing the pork in the stuffing with chicken or veal; the taste will be quite different. The cappelletti of Emilia Romagna are made with a “lean” stuffing exclusively made up of cheeses: 10 ½ oz. (300 g) ricotta, 10 ½ oz. (300 g) crescenza or Fossa cheese, 7 oz. (200 g) Parmesan, 2 egg yolks, nutmeg, a little lemon zest, and salt. Serve in a meat stock or with melted butter.
