Making Homemade Ravioli: A Taste of Italy

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Making homemade ravioli is one of my favorite fall traditions. This tradition has been in my family for many years. I remember as a child, everyone in the family gathered at my Grandmother’s house to help with the making of the coveted Christmas Ravioli. My grandmother, mom, aunts, and even the grandkids got to get our hands covered in flour and dough while making homemade ravioli. The best part about this labor-intensive task was the time we spent with each other, laughing, talking, and sharing stories of the past. I learned a lot about cooking from my grandmother and there isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t miss her! But I treasure the memories we made as we gathered around her kitchen table and made homemade ravioli as a family.

I have been asked several times why my ravioli is not square. I just simply replied, “That’s how my grandma made it, so that’s how I make it”. It wasn’t until recently that I realized what we made as a family with my grandmother was called Mezzelune pasta. Mezzelune pasta is a half-moon-shaped style of ravioli filled with cheese or meat filling. You take your pasta sheet and cut circle shapes, fill the center of each shape with your desired filling, and then fold over the pasta making a half moon. Seal the edges and finish off by crimping sealed edges with a fork. My grandmother’s family was from Northern Italy, which is known for Mezzelune pasta. This is the “ravioli” that I grew up making and eating with my Italian family.

Each year my kids and then grandkids would help me make the ravioli for Christmas dinner. Here’s a picture from many years ago with Kristy and Ally helping me make the ravioli. My son Joel was also a big help to me when making ravioli…but he hates his picture taken and usually stayed in the background.

So, this year I continued the tradition with my grandkids who live here in Colorado. I had a wonderful time teaching them how to make the dough, fill the dough, and crimp the dough. It was also quite hilarious some of the shapes that my grandson was making as he tried to fold the dough over the meat into a half-moon. I called his ravioli “little aliens”, but that’s OK, because about 10 ravioli in, he was folding and crimping like a pro. It was a fun day and a memory that I hope they keep for years to come.

Of course, the way I make homemade ravioli is a lot different than how my grandmother made it years ago. That is because today we have all kinds of fancy machines and tools to help with the process of making the dough and pressing it into flat sheets. When I helped my grandma, there were no fancy Kitchen Aids to knead and roll the dough, she would mix it and knead it by hand and then roll out the sheets with a rolling pin. Eventually, she did get the machine that rolled the dough by one of us manually turning the handle…and boy did she think that was quite the invention. But we all knew that the time and labor put into making the ravioli was the magic ingredient…Love!

I hope you try out the recipe and create a unique filling for your homemade ravioli to give it your personal touch. Whether served with a simple Italian pasta sauce, Alfredo, or a butter garlic sauce, these ravioli are sure to impress your family and friends. Buon appetito!

Ravioli

Graceful Duo (inspired by our Grandma Rita)

Homemade ground beef ravioli is a delightful Italian pasta dish that combines delicate pasta pockets filled with a delicious seasoned ground beef mixture

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Prep Time 1 hour hr

Cook Time 5 minutes mins

Resting/Chilling 1 hour hr

Total Time 2 hours hrs 5 minutes mins

Course Main Course

Cuisine Italian

Servings 10 servings

Calories 510 kcal

Ingredients

  

Pasta Dough

• 4 cups Flour
• 6 eggs
• 1 tbsp salt
• ¼ cup olive oil
• 4 tbsp water

Ravioli Meat Filling

• 2 lbs ground beef
• 12 oz chopped spinach thawed
• 3 eggs
• ¼ head cabbage cooked
• 3 cloves garlic minced
• ½ cup onion finely chopped
• 3 tbsp Italian seasoning
• ½ cup Italian seasoned breadcrumbs
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper

Instructions

 

Pasta Dough

• Combine Flour, eggs, olive oil, salt, and water in the Kitchen Aid mixer bowl.
• Using the dough hook, start the mixer on low speed to combine all the ingredients.
• Once combined move to the next mixer speed and knead the bread for about 5 mins.
• When the dough is kneaded into a ball and no longer sticking to the sides of the bowl, remove from the bowl onto a floured surface and knead with your hands to form a smooth ball.
• Place the smooth ball back in the bowl and cover. Let sit for approx. 30 minutes. While the dough is sitting prepare the meat mixture below.

Meat Filling

• Cook 1/4 head of cabbage in a pan of water until cooked and soft. When cooked remove from water and chop in a food processor. You do not want any big pieces.
• Add olive oil to a skillet and cook garlic and onion until translucent.
• Add ground meat to a skillet with Italian seasoning, salt and pepper. Brown ground beef until done Drain and place in a bowl.
• Combine the drained ground beef, cabbage, spinach, bread crumbs, and eggs and mix until well mixed – will be like a meatball mixture.
• Place mixture in refrigerator to chill prior to preparing the ravioli.

Preparing Ravioli

• Cut dough into small portions. Roll one of the small portions of the dough at a time using a KitchenAid pasta roller. Start with the "1" setting and go to the "7" setting. If rolling by hand, roll the dough out to be about 1/8" thick.
• Lay dough flat and cut circles using a 3" biscuit cutter or a cookie cutter.
• Fill each dough circle with 1/2 Tbsp of meat mixture.
• Fold the dough in half forming a half-moon shape. You may need to moisten the one edge with a little water on your finger to get the dough to seal.
• Using a fork, crimp the open edges of the ravioli to get a good seal.
• You can cook immediately in a pan of boiling water. Once the water boils, lower the temp and add the ravioli. Cook for approx. 5 mins. Remove Ravioli from the water with a slotted spoon. Cover with your desired sauce.
• You may also freeze the ravioli. Place a layer of ravioli in a floured container, using parchment paper between each layer. You can dust each ravioli with flour to keep them from sticking. Place the lid on the container and store it flat in the freezer. Freezes well for about 6 months.

Notes

*Note:  This recipe will make approximately 80 Ravioli.

Keyword Ravioli

Check out our Benable for some links of the tools we used to make our ravioli.