How to make homemade ravioli without a pasta maker

Have you ever tried making your own pasta? I was challenged to make my own ravioli, from scratch, and I have to be honest and say this made me very nervous. I can whip up a cake or follow a recipe with pretty good results but the idea of making my own ravioli from flour and eggs was slightly scary.

Fortunately I was provided with the 00 grade pasta flour, a Lakeland ravioli stamper and the ASK Italian recipe book. Yesterday afternoon I gathered all the ingredients and set to work.

I made the ravioli in a couple of stages. First of all I made the pasta dough.

The recipe for ravioli called for pasta flour, semolina flour and eggs. I couldn’t get hold of semolina flour anywhere so eventually gave up looking for it and made the pasta dough without it. The recipe also only gave instructions for using a food processor and manual pasta machine neither of which I had, so I was beginning to wonder what I had got myself in to!

Anyway, I just went for it and made the pasta dough and left it wrapped in clingfilm to chill. Whilst it was chilling I made the filling which was spinach and ricotta.

A little later I assembled the meal. First I finished the ravioli; rolling out the dough, filling the little parcels and cutting them out with my  ravioli stamper. I left them to dry for 30 minutes, turning them regularly. So far, so good.

Then I made the sauce with peas, spinach leaves, white wine and creme fraiche. Whilst this was simmering away I dropped the ravioli in a pan of boiling water or a couple of minutes. I was very relieved to watch them cook and stay in one piece!

The final step was to remove the ravioli and stir them into the sauce for a couple of minutes before serving.

I couldn’t quite believe we sat down to enjoy another delicious Italian meal. The Ravioli di Spinaci e Ricotta was delicious and I was pleased that I had made it all from scratch. It did require some effort but you can make ravioli without a pasta maker!

Disclosure – I’ve been working with ASK Italian over the last few weeks on their campaign to #respectthepasta  and the pasta, ravioli stamper and cook book were provided as part of this.