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I have to admit, I’m a little bit proud of this week’s recipe review. Not because of my writing or my cooking skills, but because I’ve always wanted to make homemade pasta and I finally went for it! I used 3 separate recipes: 1 for the dough, 1 for the filling, and 1 for the sauce. You can find the specific recipes in the sections below. This recipe was admittedly a bit of a process and I worked on it slowly over a few hours (or maybe days) as I worked out the kinks in making pasta dough for the first time. BUT… If I can do this, you can too. Ultimately, this pasta was a hit with both my husband and my best friend (who happens to be Italian) so I think it was a success despite the troubles. I’m excited about how they turned out and I’m excited to experiment with more homemade pasta in the future!

“If I can do this, you can too” 

The Tools

In order to make ravioli the way I did, you will have to have a few tools. You can technically make the dough and cut the pieces by hand, but the process is much easier when using the tools below. I also used a blender for the sauce, but a food processor would do as well.

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The Ravioli Dough

Recipe

Pasta dough can take a lot of trial and error, especially the first few tries. I’ve read many forums about getting the dough just right, and the key is making gradual changes. If the dough is too dry and crumbly, you should add water in by the 1/4 or 1/2 teaspoon (not the 1/3 cup like I tried). If the dough is too wet, more flour is needed. It took me a few tries to get it to the perfect texture, so make sure to find a solid recipe with strong reviews. You’ll get the feeling of how the dough should behave as you test it through the pasta roller, so just make changes as needed.

After making the dough come out in thick enough sheets from the roller, I used the ravioli shaping tool to form each individual piece and filled them with the spinach and ricotta mix.

The Filling

Recipe

This filling recipe was exactly what I was looking for and I couldn’t have been happier. The recipe only calls for spinach, ricotta cheese, parmesan cheese, 1 egg, nutmeg, and salt. You simply mix it all together after steaming and chopping the spinach.

The mix made more than I needed for the amount of dough I had, so I will be freezing the rest for our next batch.

The Sauce

Recipe

This roasted red pepper sauce was pretty fun to make! I broiled the bell peppers after halving them and brushing them with oil. After the skin had turned black, I let them sit in a closed paper bag for 10 minutes to let them shrivel up. This helped me remove the skin easily. I then chopped the pepper and sauteed with onion, basil, and garlic for another 10 minutes. That mixture was then blended until smooth and heated again on the stove while slowly adding in the half and half and parmesan cheese. That’s it! It was just what this recipe needed for some extra flavor.

The Finished Product

A+. Heart eyes all around. Delicious homemade ravioli, even on the first try.