Ravioli Recipes: How to make various fillings and more advanced pasta recipes

I decided to write this post as a follow up to Homemade Pastas which focused mainly on pasta making techniques. In that post I used a basic cheese filling for all of the pastas. I decided to write these additional ravioli recipes for those that want a bit more variety. I also included several add ins to the basic dough recipe for making Fettuccine or spaghetti. Feel free to try these mix ins for the flat noodles for ravioli or lasagna as well. In addition, I have recommended what kinds of sauces go best with these pasta variations, as not everything needs to have basic tomato sauce. However, if you are ready to try some pasta variations, you already know that.

Advanced Pasta Doughs

If you have mastered the art of making regular pasta dough, then you may want to try some of these more advanced recipes. Please adapt these recipes as you see fit to let your creativity shine.

One of our favorite travel shows is Rick Stein’s Long Weekends. On the show he travels to different countries and learns about the cultures through food. Then he returns to Cornwall where he tries to recreate a recipe from his travels. Sometimes things don’t go as planned, but that is how new recipes are created. That is what cooking is all about. Have fun with it.

Herb Pasta

Add a few of your favorite herbs to your pasta dough for added flavor. We added a teaspoon of crushed oregano and 1/2 tsp. garlic powder when initially mixing the dough. This flavored pasta pairs well with a more mild sauce such as Alfredo.

Another option is to add 2-3 tsp. of freshly grated lemon peel. Of course, lemon pasta goes well with seafood, but you can serve it with a primavera sauce too. I would imagine this would go well with veal scallopini or piccata as well.

Vegetable Pasta Recipes

Cook and puree carrots, beets, or spinach to add 1/4 cup to your pasta dough at the same time as the eggs. Make sure to squeeze excess liquid from the vegetables before adding to the dough. However, you may need to add additional flour to get the dough to be the right consistency. It is very important to make sure the dough is not sticky, or it will not go through the pasta maker smoothly. Trust me, this has happened to me several times while testing testing recipes to get the right combination of ingredients. Even then, sometimes the eggs are larger than others causing the pasta to be more moist than normal.

These sponsored links have necessary items I have used to make these recipes.

Ravioli Recipes

These are some additional fillings you can make for your ravioli. Feel free to experiment.

Basil Ravioli Recipes

For this recipe we used:

• 1 cup ricotta cheese
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• grated rind of one lemon
• 3 tbsp fresh chopped basil
• salt and pepper to taste

After mixing all of the ingredients together fill your raviolis. If you are using store bought wonton wrappers instead of our homemade pasta recipe, brush some egg on edges to help seal the raviolis. Serve these raviolis with either an Alfredo sauce or a Primavera sauce so you the basil flavor is not overpowered. Even a light garlic butter sauce would be appropriate.

Spinach Ricotta Ravioli Recipes

For this recipe you will need:

• 10 oz. fresh spinach, cooked and well drained
• 1 cup ricotta cheese
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
• 1 tsp. garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp. dried crushed oregano
• salt and pepper to taste

Once your spinach is cooked and drained, I advise you to also squeeze additional liquid from it by using a cheese cloth or sturdy paper towels. If your filling is too moist, the raviolis will not dry properly. When your spinach has had all the moisture removed, mix it with the remaining ingredients. If your filling is still too moist, use an additional paper towel to soak up extra liquid. Then fill your raviolis, and dry before cooking. This can be served with a Primavera sauce or a cream sauce with seafood for extra flavor.

Pumpkin Ravioli Recipes

For this recipe you will need:

• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 6 Amaretti cookies crushed into crumbs
• 2 tbsp egg whites
• 3/4 cup Parmesan cheese
• salt and pepper to taste
• homemade pasta sheets

Mix all ingredients except pasta sheets. After that, fill the same way you would in other ravioli recipes, cut, and dry on parchment paper. These tend to dry more quickly than raviolis stuffed with cheese and don’t need to be flipped as often. Either freeze them once they are dried or cook them in salted boiling water for approximately 7 minutes. Then drain. To make a light sauce for pumpkin ravioli, melt 1/2 cup of butter in a pan and mix in 1/2 tsp. garlic powder or fresh garlic. When ready, toss butter with ravioli and sprinkle with additional cheese. This sauce for pumpkin ravioli allows the flavors of the filling to shine through.

Ravioli with meat filling

For this ravioli recipe you will need:

• 1 finely chopped onion
• 1 1/2 cups ground beef
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1 egg
• salt and pepper to taste

Cook the onion in a tablespoon of olive oil until soft. Add ground beef and cook until browned. Once beef is cooked, drain well. Then transfer beef into a bowl, and mix in seasonings and egg. When filling is prepared, make your dough, and fill raviolis as in previous recipes.

Sausage ravioli

This was a quick tasty filling. I had leftover cooked Italian sausage from a big Sunday dinner. I cut up 4 mild sausages and 1 hot. Then I ground them up in my food processor. After that I mixed them with 2 tablespoons of tomato paste. (If you don’t have tomato paste, ketchup is a quick substitute.) The sausages were already full of seasoning and the remaining fat in them gave the filling a good consistency so I didn’t add egg.

I would love to hear from you. Please comment with any variations you have improved upon or created yourself.