I was pretty excited to try the new Cook’s Illustrated Hand Rolled Ravioli because I don’t use a pasta machine. I’ve made delicious ravioli before the more traditional way with a 50/50 semolina and flour recipe but my hand rolled ravioli always came out too thick. The Cook’s Illustrated Recipe is so good that it’s too easy to roll the dough TOO THIN….I had to patch some of my ravioli. But it’s a great recipe to I will do again for all kinds of things. I cut the Cook’s Illustrated recipe in half and made 30 small sized ravioli. I also changed up the filling because I had a lot of spinach at home and just added parmesan and a little provolone to my seasoned spinach. These Cook’s Illustrated Hand Rolled Ravioli are DA BOMB!

Ingredients for around 4 servings

2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

8 oz spinach

1 oz onion – sliced paper thin

1 garlic – ground to paste or microplane

fresh ground sea salt to taste

fresh ground black pepper to taste

pinch crushed red pepper

2 egg (for dough)

3 yolks (for dough) (use an egg white to seal ravioli)

1.5 oz parmesan cheese – shredded (plus more for serving)

2oz mild provolone slices (2 slices)

1 cup ap flour (for dough) (King Arthur Brand Flour is recommended…..I used generic flour and I found that this wasn’t enough flour…..I needed around maybe a third a cup more…plus a small amount for rolling)

1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil (for dough)

2 pinches sea salt (for dough) (salt is not in the Cook’s Illustrated recipe)

Directions

Put a big fry pan on medium high heat with 2 Tablespoons olive oil. add the onions, garlic, red pepper and the spinach and pack it down. Cover pan and let it go about a minute. Uncover and stir till all wilted. Add salt and pepper to taste and transfer to a colander to drain. Set to the side.

Make the dough. In a food processor add the eggs, flour (start with the recommendation of one cup), 1 Tablespoon oil, salt (if desired not a part of original recipe). Process about 45 seconds. You might need to make adjustments. If to thick to knead add 1/2 teaspoon of water. If dough is too sticky to knead (mine was) slowly add flour till it’s not sticky. *****SIDE NOTE*****my processor broke during this and I was able to mix the dough with a fork.

Roll the dough out cut either into squares or if you have a pasta cutter use it.

I rolled the dough out about 23 inches by about 15 inches. I had a pasta cutter so I used it and made 1/2 moons.

Each round of pasta got brushed with egg white so it will stick well.

To the spinach mixture mix in the parmesan cheese and insert a small piece of provolone and about 1/2 teaspoon of the drained spinach mixture. Fold and keep going till done. Save pasta scraps and cook them up at the end.

Gently boil the ravioli till they float in salted water.

Serve with tomato sauce (recipe for basic tomato sauce is on this site). Or brown butter with pine nuts or a creamy parmesan sauce.

A Special THANKS to Cook’s Illustrated for coming up with a really great recipe!