Making Ravioli is actually very easy.
There are parts of this recipe which are just easier for an adult to do but the mixing, cutting and filling are good fun for kids.
Did you know, 2,000 US soldiers were fed Ravioli by the Whitehouse when they returned from WWI?
Ravioli was seen as a home cooked meal, the sort of which the soldiers would have missed whilst away fighting in foreign lands.
It is now a traditional food of Veterans Day.
Serves 4-6
You will need:
- Flour (400g/14oz/3 cups)
- Salt (½ teaspoon)
- 2 eggs
- Olive oil (50ml/¼ cup)
- Water (120ml/1/2 cup)
Plus your choice of filling. We used…
- 4 sausages
- Grated Cheese (2oz/50g/½ cup)
- Tomato pasta sauce
How to make Ravioli…
- Measure out all your ingredients.
- Mix up your filling and make sure it’s in a cooked state. Whatever filling you use it should not have excess liquid, drain it on a kitchen towel if needed.
- Whisk the two eggs in a big mixing bowl.
- Stir in the water, salt and oil.
- Add a third of the flour and mix through until the lumps have dispersed.
- Add another third and mix through and then the final third. Make sure the dough is knead-able without sticking to your fingers at this point. Add more flour if needed.
- Tear off a 5th of the dough and roll it out with a rolling pin on a floured work surface. Roll it as thin as you can and keep moving it around to make sure it isn’t sticking to the work surface. The dough will bounce back and you will need to roll a lot more than with pastry until it stays rolled and thin– it is annoying and better done by an adult.
- Use a cookie cutter to cut circles of dough and set aside.
- Spoon a teaspoon of filling onto half of the pasta discs.
- Place a second disc on top and press down all around the edges using a fork.
- Repeat until all the dough and mixture is used.
- Boil the ravioli in batches for 2-3 minutes each in salted water and serve. Alternatively put the cooked pasta in a hot oven with a tomato pasta sauce and cheese for 15 minutes for a pasta bake.
Tips…
- We used sausage and cheese for our filling. Remove the sausages from their skins and mash into tiny pieces in a frying pan with a fork until cooked. Drain off any excess fat with kitchen paper and stir in some grated cheese before leaving to cool and filling the ravioli.
- Whichever filling you use, make sure it’s dry- (no excess liquid).
- Use a fork to mix the dough until it gets too thick – then swap to using your hands.
- Dividing the dough makes handling much easier.
- If you have a pasta rolling machine, use it!
- Remove the pasta from the water with a slotted spoon.