RAVIOLI SPINACH AND RICOTTA IN BUTTER SAGE SAUCE

Step by Step Guide to Homemade Ravioli 

Such a gorgeous and beautiful dish, super soft pillow ravioli pasta stuffed with rich light creamy ricotta, buttered spinach, Parmesan, sea salt, pepper and nutmeg, cooked in a gentle simmering sea salted pan of water, then tossed a simple elegant sage and butter sauce this is a decadent sumptuous meal that I make for my mum on Mother’s Day as it’s her favourite and my mum remembers being wowed with this dish served flambois table side in the 1970’s.

Ingredients 

(Serves 6-8)

The Pasta

400g 00 flour

1 tsp Himalayan sea salt 

4 beaten eggs

30ml olive oil

50ml water

Ricotta and Spinach 

400g ricotta

200g fresh spinach

1 tbsp butter

1 tsp Himalayan sea salt 

1 tsp ground black pepper 

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg 

100g grated Parmesan

1 lemon zested

Sage Butter Sauce

200g Organic butter

12 fresh sage leafs chopped

Making the Pasta

Place the flour on your work top in a large mound, or in a bowl and season with the salt, make a well in the centre, beat the eggs and olive oil together and pour in to the well.  Starting from the outside flick the flour in to the egg, incorporating together until you have a ball of dough, sometimes you may need to add around 50ml of water to bring the dough ball together.  Knead the pasta dough for 5-7 minutes then wrap well but loose in cling film and leave to rest for a minimum of 20 minutes and up to a couple of hours.  If you don’t cover the dough the skin of the pasta dough will start to dry and will be unusable.

Rolling the Pasta Sheets

I have always used a rolling pin and my muscles or a manual pasta roller for years but this Christmas I got a electric pasta rolling kit attachment for my kitchen aid, wahoo I love it !  Brilliant, I have never made pasta so fast, so thin and so well !  

Cut your rested dough in to 4, take one piece, cover the rest with cling film, make the dough ball the same width as the pasta roller machine, dust with semolina, place on the widest setting and roll the dough through the pasta rollers, dust with plenty of semolina and set the rollers one number down and repeat, keep repeating until you have rolled the pasta on the thinnest setting. Dust the pasta sheet with semolina and lay out flat.

Ricotta Filling

400g ricotta cheese

200g spinach

1 tbsp butter

1/2 tsp Himalayan sea salt 

1/2 tsp white pepper

1/4 tsp nutmeg grated

150g grated Parmesan 

1 lemon zested

Melt the butter in a large pan and add the spinach, cook until wilted, drain on to a muslin or clean tea towel and squeeze out all the juice, finely chop and add to the rest of the ingredients and mix well.  Place balled teaspoonfuls of the ricotta mix approximately 2” apart on the front half of the pasta sheet, brush with egg wash or water.

Fold the back half of the pasta sheet over the ricotta filling, cupping your hands hug the pasta around the ricotta filling squeezing out any air and sealing the ravioli’s.  

Next using a knife or ravioli cutter cut the ravioli’s in to squares, place on a tray dusted with semolina in a single layer, these will store for a couple of days ahead of time covered well with cling film.



Cooking Ravioli’s 

Bring a large pan of water to a gentle simmer, season with Himalayan sea salt, in a separate large pan melt the butter and add the sage, keep this on a low heat.  Add the ravioli’s  a few at a time to the simmering water not over crowding the pot, cook for 2 to 3 minutes, drain well and add to the sage butter to keep warm while you finish cooking the rest of the ravioli’s.  

Serve straight from the sage butter sauce pan with a dusting of freshly grated Parmesan on hot plates and enjoy.