Homemade Spinach Ricotta Ravioli with creamy tomato sauce is a comforting vegetarian pasta dish that’s easy enough to make as a wholesome family meal or to impress your dinner guests!
Learn how to make your ravioli from scratch – it’s easier than you may think!
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🗝️ Recipe’s key points
- Homemade ravioli is easier than you think! I walk you through every step to ensure complete success.
- Make spinach ricotta ravioli as an everyday dish or to impress your dinner guests.
- Easily adapt the filling and sauce for a completely different ravioli dish. Read further for even more recipe variations!
Spinach Ricotta Ravioli is a comforting pasta dish, loaded with soft and cheesy spinach filling and coated in a rich and creamy tomato sauce – perfect with a light side salad and crusty bread to soak up every last bit of sauce!
🛒 Ingredients
This is an overview of the ingredients. You’ll find the full measurements and instructions in the recipe card (printable) at the bottom of the page.
For spinach ricotta filling
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- baby spinach leaves
- ricotta cheese
- egg
- nutmeg
- parmesan cheese
- salt
For the ravioli
- all-purpose flour
- olive oil
- eggs — 3 jumbo eggs or 4 large eggs
- kosher salt
For the creamy tomato sauce
- extra-virgin olive oil
- Roma tomatoes
- fresh garlic
- fresh thyme
- white wine
- heavy cream
- grape tomatoes
- kosher salt
🗒 Instructions
This is an overview of the instructions. Full instructions are in the recipe card at the bottom of the page.
Steps for the ricotta spinach filling
- Remove excess water from the spinach after it has been blanched and then cooled from cool running water.
- Finely chop the spinach on a cutting board.
- Combine the spinach with the strained ricotta cheese, egg, Parmesan cheese, and nutmeg.
- Season the spinach ricotta filling and cover to refrigerate until ready to use.
Homemade pasta dough
- Pulse the flour and salt in a food processor.
- Stir the eggs and olive oil in a small bowl.
- Add the egg and oil mixture through the feed tube of the processor all at once while it runs.
- When a ball forms, pulse the mixture several times. The dough should be slightly sticky and spring back when pressed.
- Form the dough into a ball.
- Cover the dough ball with a cloth or bowl for 30 minutes at room temperature.
- Cut the dough into four equal sections.
- Feed each dough piece into the pasta machine to make long sheets for the ravioli, or use a rolling pin.
- Lay a sheet of dough over the egg carton attachment and gently press in the holes. Don’t overfill them!
- Fill the holes with the spinach ricotta filling.
- Lay another sheet of dough over and seal the dough using a rolling pin across the mold. Apply an egg wash around the dough to help prevent the dough from coming apart during cooking.
- Use the ravioli pins or your fingers to seal and cut the ravioli. Overturn the tray for the ravioli to come out. When ready, cook the ravioli as directed in the full recipe directions of the recipe card.
Tomato sauce
- Add chopped tomatoes and garlic to a heated pan with olive oil over medium heat and cook for 10 minutes with the pan covered.
- Add white wine and chopped thyme and bring to a boil uncovered for 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and cool for a bit.
- Transfer the softened tomato mixture to a blender and puree it.
- Add the puree to the same pan and mix in heavy cream over medium heat.
- Add the halved grape tomatoes to the tomato cream mixture and season. Cook for another 5 minutes.
- Add the cooked ravioli to the pan with sauce in the last minutes of cooking. Allow the sauce and ravioli to reach the same temperature before serving. Garnish with thyme.
🥫 Storage
Store leftover spinach ricotta ravioli with tomato sauce in an airtight container in the fridge for 1-2 days. The ravioli will start to turn soggy after 2 days.
Store leftover spinach ricotta ravioli with sauce in the freezer for 1-2 months. There is a chance that the sauce may separate slightly.
📚 Variations
- Use cherry tomatoes instead of grape tomatoes. Cherry tomatoes are slightly sweeter.
- Change the ravioli filling to suit your taste preferences. Saucy ground meat filling, cheese, and mushroom filling, or butternut filling are delicious alternatives.
- I’ve made my homemade ravioli dough with the help of a food processor, but you can make the dough by kneading with your hands. Follow my recipe card instructions for this alternate method.
- Add a kick of heat to the creamy tomato pasta sauce with cayenne pepper or red chili flakes.
👩🏻🍳 Tips
- Allow the softened tomatoes and white wine mixture to reduce to half for a thick sauce. Heavy cream is commonly used to thicken ravioli sauce.
- The ravioli can be assembled ahead of time and stored in the freezer for convenience.
- This recipe makes about 12 ravioli but you could double it or halve it and store the leftover pasta dough in the freezer.
- Allow the cooked ravioli and the creamy sauce to cook together for the last minute of cooking time to enable both to achieve the same temperature. This will create the best results.
🤔 FAQs
Seal the edges of the ravioli to prevent the ravioli from bursting open while cooking. The pasta dough must be rolled into thin sheets, but not too thin so that the dough splits while cooking. Lightly brush an egg wash around the assembled ravioli before cutting them to help seal the edges.
Make sure that excess moisture from the blanched spinach and ricotta cheese is removed before combining the filling ingredients. Chilling the ravioli filling in the fridge also helps to thicken the mixture. You can also add breadcrumbs to thicken ravioli filling.
Brush the edges of the pasta dough sheet with egg wash before covering with a top layer of pasta dough. This will help to seal the edges when pressed with your fingers or ravioli pins.
Absolutely! Once the ravioli have been assembled, turn them out of the mold and onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet to flash freeze for about an hour or until hardened. Once firm, transfer the ravioli to an airtight container or freezer bag for later use.
Homemade ravioli should be cooked in a large pot of boiling water and salt for about 5 minutes. Once cooked, drain the ravioli and add to your pan of homemade tomato sauce.
🍽 What to serve with Ricotta Spinach Ravioli
This spinach ricotta ravioli with tomato sauce is a complete meal, but you could add a light and refreshing side salad or a side serving of roasted vegetables. Don’t forget some crusty bread to soak up excess creamy sauce!
🔪 All Our Way recommends the following
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You’ll need the following items to make this recipe successfully.
📞 Chiacchierata (chat)
I hope you’re ready to indulge in the finest of flavors. You might be wondering why I’m so passionate about this classic Italian dish. Well, cari amici, it’s because it holds the power to nourish our bodies and uplift our spirits.
There’s something profoundly therapeutic about handling the dough, blending together the cheesy filling, and transforming simple ingredients into a masterpiece. But most importantly, it’s the act of creating something with our own hands that reminds us of our potential.
Tutti a tavolo, è pronto!
If you love this recipe please give it 5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.
What’s new? Check out my All Our Way Store on Amazon. We’ll be adding more items we love and use or wish we had to make
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📖 Recipe
Homemade Spinach Ricotta Ravioli in a Creamy Tomato Sauce
Homemade ravioli with spinach and ricotta cheese filling, smothered in a creamy tomato sauce. Learn how to make ravioli dough from scratch, how to shape ravioli, what filling to use and what sauce to make.
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Servings: 4 servinggs
Calories: 867kcal
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Ingredients
Spinach and Ricotta Filling:
- 1 cup ricotta cheese strained of excess liquid **See notes
- 10 oz spinach cleaned and trimmed
- 1 egg
- 1 cup Parmesan cheese grated
- ½ teaspoon nutmeg freshly grated
- kosher salt and black pepper to taste
For the homemade pasta dough:
- 14 oz. all-purpose flour 3 ⅛ cups
- 4 eggs large, if using extra large eggs, use 3.
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 teaspoon Kosher salt
Tomato cream sauce:
- 1 Tablespoon olive oil
- 2 tomatoes
- 2 garlic cloves
- 5 sprigs fresh thyme
- ¼ cup dry white wine like a Sauvignon Blanc
- ½ cup heavy cream
- 2 cups grape tomatoes yellow and red
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Instructions
How to make the spinach ricotta ravioli filling:
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Strain the ricotta cheese. In a large pot of boiling salted water blanch the spinach by plunging it in the water then remove in 30 seconds. Drain over a colander and immediately and cool by running cold water over the spinach.
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Remove the excess water out of the spinach by pressing firmly on it. On a cutting board finely chop the spinach.
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In a medium bowl combine the chopped spinach with the ricotta cheese, egg, Parmesan cheese, and nutmeg. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.
The Food Processor Method:
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In a food processor using the metal blade pulse the flour and salt.
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Lightly stir the eggs and olive oil in a measuring cup or bowl.
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With the processor running, add the egg/oil mixture all at once through the feed tube until a ball is formed then pulse several times. The dough should be slightly sticky to the touch and should spring back when you press it.
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Form the dough into a smooth ball and place on a dough board or tabletop and cover with a bowl for 30 minutes.
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After 30 minutes you can make the dough into your long sheets for the ravioli. If using your mixer attachment follow the manufacturer’s instructions.
Manual pasta dough method:
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Sift flour and salt into a mixing bowl.
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Gradually add eggs and oil to flour, mixing with a spoon. As the mixture becomes lumpy, begin to press together and knead with your hands.If mixture seems too dry and grainy, add one tablespoon of water at a time until the mixture holds together into a ball.
-
Remove the dough from the mixing bowl and begin to knead dough for 2 minutes on a lightly floured dough board or table top.
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Cover the dough with a bowl and let the dough rest for 30 minutes. allowing the dough to rest will improve the texture of the dough.
How to assemble using ravioli mold:
How to make the tomato cream sauce:
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Heat olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Chop 2 tomatoes and garlic and add to the pan. Cook covered for about 10 minutes until tomatoes soften.
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Add white wine and chopped thyme. Bring to boil and cook uncovered for 5 more minutes until half of liquid evaporates. Remove from heat, let it cool for a bit.
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Then transfer to blender and puree the tomato mixture. Transfer the puree back to the pan, reheat to medium heat and add heavy cream. Stir until well incorporated.
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Cut each grape tomato in half and add all of them to the pan with the tomato cream sauce. Salt to taste and and more chopped thyme if needed. Cook for 5 more minutes.
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To serve, add cooked ravioli to the sauce at the last minute. Allow both ravioli and the sauce achieve same temperature. When serving on plates, garnish with thyme. ** See note for serving size.
Notes
**Make sure to have flour on hand and dust the working surface or rolling pin when necessary because the dough will be sticky. It’s important that the ravioli dough be rolled very thinly (paper-thin), otherwise ravioli will be too solid when cooked, because dough expands during cooking. Also it will be really hard to use the ravioli mold if the dough is not thin enough.
** Egg wash for sealing the pasta dough together — in a small bowl beat 1 egg with 1 tablespoon of water. Apply the wash on the pasta dough with a pasty brush. Place the top sheet of dough over the bottom and then using the small rolling pin seal the two together.
** Generally speaking, 5 to 6 ravioli are considered a serving, although a gourmand may eat up to 8 per serving.
** You will have extra ravioli and perhaps filling left over.
Nutrition
Serving: 5g | Calories: 867kcal | Carbohydrates: 89g | Protein: 37g | Fat: 39g | Saturated Fat: 19g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 14g | Trans Fat: 0.02g | Cholesterol: 287mg | Sodium: 1331mg | Potassium: 1042mg | Fiber: 6g | Sugar: 6g | Vitamin A: 9044IU | Vitamin C: 41mg | Calcium: 584mg | Iron: 9mg
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