Spinach Ravioli with Ricotta Parmesan Filling

Boom. That's what we are making. It's quite fantastic if I do say so myself. Things you will need:

Sauce: (makes A LOT, so halve the recipe if you only want it for this or other pasta dishes)

2-15 oz cans petite diced tomatoes
1 16 oz can tomato sauce
1-6 oz  can of tomato paste
1-28 oz can crushed tomatoes
1 medium yellow onion
3-4 garlic cloves, minced
1 medium carrot, minced
1 stalk of celery, minced
Spices (generally use tsp of each oregano and basil); salt and pepper as desired

Optional:
1/2 lb ground turkey (or beef)
1/2 lb hot Italian sausage
Artichoke hearts (canned)
Crushed (hot) red peppers
Etc.

For this I used Italian sausage and artichoke hearts. I often make a sauce with turkey, sausage and crushed peppers - it's my favorite.

Pasta: (makes about 1 lb pasta dough)
~2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 eggs
8 oz fresh spinach (alternatively 6 oz frozen spinach)

Cheese Filling:
16 oz ricotta
~1/3 cup finely grated Parmesan (or Parmesan/Romano mix)
1 egg
1-2 tsp parsley

Before we begin, I would recommend you have helpers. The only other times I have ever made pasta before, I have had at least one other person. Let me tell you, it makes a world of difference. I tackled this monster on my own, completely doable, but just be wary that you will be cooking for a solid 3 hours. If you are alone, I'd recommend making the sauce the day before.

Start with the sauce, once everything is chopped and ready to go, saute the celery, carrot and onion in some olive oil over medium heat for 2-3 minutes. Add the garlic and continue to saute for another minute. Then add whatever other vegetable ingredients you would like to add to your sauce (i.e. artichokes in this case). I threw the artichoke hearts in the food processor to chop them up a bit more before adding to the pot. Continue to cook for a few minutes with the spices you would like to use.

Then add all the tomato ingredients and meat and allow to simmer for at least 45 minutes. I had this simmering the remainder of the time it took me to make the pasta and cook it (solid 2 hours or so).

Pasta time! Blanch your spinach for a couple minutes in boiling water. Once cooked, rinse immediately with cold water. Squeeze all of the water out of the spinach - or as much as  you can - and place in food processor. Chop spinach in processor by pulsing a couple times, then add the two eggs and pulse a couple more until well incorporated (don't over-do the pulsing).

While the spinach is cooking you can quickly throw together the ingredients for the cheese filling. Mix ricotta, Parmesan, egg and parsley together in a bowl. That's all.

Place 2 cups of the flour into a large bowl and create a well in the middle. Carefully pour the spinach/egg mixture into the well. With a fork, slowly start to work the flour into the spinach/egg mixture from the sides. Once a dough begins to form, you can dump it out onto a floured surface and begin to knead in more flour. Depending on how wet your spinach was, you may need to add quite a bit more flour - but do it slowly! The dough should be slightly sticky, but not so much that it is sticking to the surface you are kneading on (like leaving behind pieces of itself). [This is really something that you'll just have to get a feel for, but you will find out once you start rolling the dough through the pasta maker if it is too wet or dry.] Once the dough is at the right consistency, continue to knead for another 5 minutes or so. You'll get in that workout you skipped. Once done, place in a bowl covered with a damp paper towel and leave to the side for 15 minutes.

While your spinach pasta ball is resting. Set up all your pasta-making equipment. You will need the pasta roller, a ravioli cutter, a couple cutting boards or flat surfaces dusted with flour, a couple baking sheets also dusted with flour, and a small dish of water with a brush.

When you have gotten all set up, cut the pasta dough ball into smaller pieces that will be more manageable to deal with in the machine (roughly 8 smaller dough balls). You will probably need to add a little flour to each piece of dough and knead it a little bit before beginning the rolling process. Flatten the ball and place between the rollers. Start at the widest setting and work your way thinner (my dials go from 7 being the widest to 1 being the thinnest). And crank away! If your dough is too wet, it will stick to the rollers, if it is too dry, it will start to break apart when rolling. If the former, add more flour little by little. If the latter, add WATER (not oil), again...little by little. And try again. Once you get it to look like below, start moving the rollers closer together on each pass through. I went to a thinness of 3. It will probably be different on different machines (I have no idea about the Kitchen Aid attachments, I haven't graduated to that level yet...). Since this dough is a little more finicky than regular pasta dough, I kept it one dial thicker than I would with regular pasta ravioli so it would not rip as easily.

 Once rolled out, place on a floured surface and continue to roll the other doughs!

Time for cheeeeeese. Place small dollops of the cheese mixture along the pasta. Usually in one or two rows, depending on how wide your rolled out dough comes out to be. There are two ways to overlay the top layer of pasta dough. You can either (1) use two separate rolled out doughs, or (2) use the fold-over method...my preferred method. If you use two separate pieces, you need to make sure that they are of similar width and length. The fold-over method is easier to me. Only dollop the first half of the dough, you will use the remainder to fold-over the tops of those dollops. Whichever way you do choose to do it is fine.

Once you have your cheese placed, brush a little bit of water between the dollops (I really like this word), on all sides, the middle, anywhere you see pasta dough. Then fold-over (or place your second dough on top) the dough and gently press the pieces together, pushing out any air.

Follow along your seals with the ravioli cutter to separate your raviolis. I recommend pressing down all sides of each individual ravioli before you place it aside to be cooked, just to make sure they are all sealed shut. Otherwise you will end up with spinach pasta and cheese water.

Yay raviolis! Since this makes 1 lb of pasta, you get quite a few of these little guys. But luckily they can be frozen! Or at least I think they can, I have some frozen that I intend on throwing in a pot of boiling water the next time I want ravioli. In theory, it should work fine. I'll let you know how it turns out.

If you do choose to freeze them, I would recommend putting them on a baking sheet separated (like above) straight into the freezer for 30 minutes or so. Once they are mostly solid, then put them in a container or a ziplock bag. That way, they wont all stick together as they are beginning to freeze.

And that's all! Throw them in a pot of boiling water and cook until done! Keep in mind it is fresh pasta and will not need to be cooked very long, generally 4-5 minutes.

Enjoy.

Koober Jr.