Sun-Dried Tomato And Spinach Ravioli Recipe

The dough's bright green color is achieved by adding spinach to an egg pasta dough, so you'll need fresh spinach to make it. The other ingredients are 00 flour, eggs, and salt. 00 flour is the best option to use for pasta dough, but if it's not available, you can use all-purpose flour instead.

For the filling, you will need ricotta, sun-dried tomatoes, capers, and fresh basil leaves. Try to get sun-dried tomatoes that aren't packed in oil, because you don't want the filling to be too moist and cause the ravioli to break open. If you need to buy the oil-packed kind, drain and dry them well. For the same reason, blot the capers dry too. Finally, as the name suggests, the butter sage sauce's ingredients are just butter and sage.

Mix the ingredients with your hands, pinching the eggs and spinach into the flour until the mixture mostly sticks together.

Form a ball and knead for about 10 minutes, turning it a half turn each time, folding it on itself and pressing and rolling it forward with your palms. Add a very small amount of water if it's too crumbly or flour if it's too sticky.

Cover the dough ball with plastic wrap or a damp towel and place an overturned bowl on top of it to keep it moist. Let it rest for 30 minutes at room temperature.

Cut the dough ball into 4 equal pieces. Take 1 piece and rewrap the other 3 pieces to keep it moist.

Roll the piece through a pasta machine using the thickest setting. Dust the piece with a small amount of flour after rolling if it's sticky or uneven.

Select the second thickest setting and roll it again. If it's uneven you can fold it like in step 15, going back to the thicker setting first and then the thinner one. Try to make the piece the same width as the machine.

Keep repeating with thinner settings until the dough is thin but strong. It will be about ⅓ inch thick when you're done.

Using a melon baller or two spoons, drop small balls of filling in even intervals on one of the pieces of dough. Leave enough space between the filling balls to seal the ravioli.

Lay the ravioli in a single layer on a towel to dry slightly, and repeat steps 13-24 with the other 3 pieces of dough to make the remaining ravioli. Make a few more from the dough scraps.

In the meantime, make the sauce. First, melt the butter in a large frying pan or skillet on medium low.

When the water boils, gently place the ravioli in the pot. Do not stir. Reduce the heat a little so they cook on a gentle boil for a few minutes. Cook the ravioli in batches to avoid crowding the pan.

00 flour (pronounced double-zero) is the flour most widely used for making fresh pasta dough. This is an extra soft, white, refined flour, and because it's ground very finely it makes a soft, delicate dough. A smooth dough like this won't distract from the taste of the ravioli's filling. If you can't find 00 flour, you can use all-purpose flour with similar results, though your dough might be slightly coarser. 00 flour is also a good choice when your dough contains eggs. Eggs are a high-protein food, so the low protein content of 00 flour helps to achieve the desired consistency.

Another option is durum wheat semolina flour, or semola rimacinata di grano duro, which may be harder to find outside of Italy. Rimacinata means it was milled twice for a finer result. This durum wheat flour has a yellowish color, a coarser grain, and both a stronger texture and taste. It's often used with fillings that have a more robust flavor, and the ravioli will be a little chewier. For this reason, some people prefer to use a mixture of 70% 00 flour and 30% durum wheat semolina to get the best of both worlds. This is also a good choice for pasta dough that doesn't contain eggs because it has a higher protein content.

After taking the time to make homemade ravioli, no one likes to see their hard work undone if they burst open in boiling water. Luckily, there are some things you can do to help ensure your ravioli will stay together in the pot. The dough should be thin but not so thin that it will break easily. It's important to push out as much air as you can from around the balls of filling when you cover them with the second piece of dough. And make sure the filling isn't too wet, because excess moisture can "melt" the thin dough stretched on top and cause it to break more easily.

The key to keeping your ravioli intact is gentleness and careful handling when picking them up or moving them. Don't overcook the ravioli because softer ones are more likely to break. Be especially careful when taking them out of the pot and when serving them with a spoon. Never stir the boiling ravioli in the boiling water, and instead of stirring them into the butter sage sauce at the end, gently shake the pan instead to coat the pieces.