Home Made Spinach & Ricotta Ravioli

Pasta is something that you can crave for in any lazy morning. Shop bought pastas have always been my family's favourite since years; but never had the guts to try out home made pastas. Always heard that it is really tough and time consuming to make pastas at home. But for Indians who roll out rotis and especially for us who hails from  Malabar, its not a tedious task to roll out pasta dough. I felt the same as rolling out for Irachi Ada or Irachi Pathiri. Buying Pasta Machine makes your task easier. But the confusion, whether I will use it in regular basis , led me to use rolling pin for the same.

This pasta can either be served with white sauce or thyme butter. 

Ingredients:

All purpose flour/ Pasta flour 50gm

Semolina flour 50gm

pinch of salt

Eggs 1

1 tsp extra virgin olive oil

1-2 tbsp cold water

Olive oil 1/2 tbsp

Garlic - 1 clove, chopped

Spinach- 130gms

Ricotta- 125 gms

Zest of 1/2 a lemon

Ground nutmeg- a pinch

Grated parmesan- 2 tbsp

salt and freshly ground pepper

1 and 1/2tbsp butter

Fresh thyme- 5 sprigs

freshly grated pepper

grated parmesan, to serve

Method:

Sift together the pasta flour and semolina flour, add pinch of salt.

 Make a well in the middle, add the eggs and olive oil and start mixing with a fork to incorporate the eggs and flour mixture. 

When the dough begins to come together, start kneading the dough with both hands, pouring in a little bit of water until soft and smooth. It takes about 10 minutes. The dough should be elastic and not sticky. Wrap it in plastic wrap and let rest for about 30 minutes.

Filling:

In the meantime, prepare the filling. Heat oil in a pan, add the garlic and saute for a minute. Add the spinach and cook for 2-3 minutes just until wilted. Transfer it to a colander and let cool slightly, then squeeze out any excess liquid. Roughly chop the spinach. In a medium bowl, mix the ricotta, lemon zest, nutmeg, cheese and spinach, add salt and pepper to taste.

Cut the dough in half and start rolling it with your rolling pin/pasta machine. Each time you run the dough through, fold it and run it through again on the same thickness setting. Roll it until it's paper thin. 

Place the pasta sheet on a floured surface and spoon the spinach mixture on top, making sure there is at least a 3cm space around each spoonful. Lightly wet the dough around the filling. 

Place the second sheet of pasta over the filling, press the dough down gently with your fingers to seal the dough around the filling. Cut out the individual ravioli pieces with a pasta wheel/zigzag cutter and place on a floured surface. Repeat with the remaining pasta sheets and filling.

Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil. Add a tablespoon of oil, reduce the heat and gently cook the ravioli in batches for 4-5 minutes. Remove from the water, drain and keep warm.

For the thyme butter, melt the butter in a pan, add the thyme and fry for less than one minute. Remove from the heat and add some freshly grated pepper.

Serve the ravioli on a warmed plate, pour over some thyme butter and sprinkle with the parmesan.

Ravioli in white sauce:

Add 1 tbsp of butter in a hot pan. Saute a tbsp of white flour in it for a few seconds until it slightly turn into brown or till the raw smell disappears. Pour in 1 glass of milk . Mix thoroughly so that no lumps remains. Add half a tsp of dry basil and a pinch of oregano. Once it is thickened, switch off the flame and mix in the raviolis. Serve hot.