How to Make Ravioli

It’s easy to learn how to make ravioli with the right step-by-step instructions and tools. Homemade ravioli is way better than store-bought ravioli — and it’s also fun because you can add whatever filling you want!

My favorite filling is my butternut squash filled ravioli. But feel free to customize your raviolis and try new filling combinations! For example you could make a sausage stuffed ravioli and serve it with a red sauce or a thyme ricotta and parmesan filled ravioli served with a bed of red tomatoes.

Why This Recipe Works

• I used my Kitchen Aid pasta attachment for this homemade ravioli recipe — which saves so much time!
• The half batch isn’t as time consuming and still makes a good amount of ravioli, so if this is your first time making ravioli, start with the half batch of ravioli dough.
• Homemade ravioli is better than store-bought because you can add whatever fillings you want! Plus you could do half of them with a cheese filling and half with a meat filling, mixing things up even more — or customizing for differing food allergies or preferences.
• This recipe is the perfect step-by-step for making homemade ravioli so you won’t feel overwhelmed with the process.

Ingredients

• Eggs — You’ll use full eggs and egg yolks
• Flour — You’ll make a flour well to make the dough. I’ll explain it all below 🙂
• Salt — For added flavor

Step-by-Step Instructions

Make the Ravioli Dough

1. Mix the flour and salt together on a clean work surface. Form into a 12 inch diameter mound.
2. Using your hands, make a well in the flour and salt mixture.

3. Pour the eggs and egg yolks into the well.
4. Using a fork, gently beat the eggs and yolks. Once they’re smooth, slowly incorporate the flour into the eggs. Do this slowly and little by little. You don’t want the “flour wall” to collapse, or accidentally grab too much flour and then suffer the consequences i.e. eggs spilling out.

5. Once you’ve incorporated the flour into the eggs, use your hands to help bring the dough together. The dough will take some time before it turns smooth.
6. Form the dough into a ball.
7. Begin kneading it for 10 minutes. Pushing the dough with the heel of your hand, and then rotating it.
8. You’ll know the dough is ready when you press into it and it springs back. The dough should have a nice smooth appearance to it.
9. Wrap the dough with plastic wrap and let it sit for 30 minutes at room temperature.
10. If you aren’t using the dough right away, place it in the refrigerator until ready to use. When ready to use, remove from the fridge and bring it to room temperature before rolling it out.

Roll the Ravioli Dough

1. Roll out the ravioli dough to about 1/16″ or so — not too thin and not too thick. Sectioned into 8 pieces if doing the full batch and 4-6 if doing the half batch.
2. Flatten each portion of the sectioned pasta dough into a rough rectangular shape. Cover both sides with a dusting of flour.
3. Attach the pasta sheet roller to your stand mixer and set it to #1. Turn the stand mixer to speed setting 1 (or 2) and run the ravioli pasta dough through the pasta sheet roller. While on #1, fold the the dough in half and run it through again. Repeat at least 4 more times: fold dough in half, run it through pasta sheet roller, fold dough in half, run it through pasta sheet roller etc.
4. Once you’ve run the dough through the #1 setting several times, flour both sides of the dough and change the pasta sheet roller to #2. Run the pasta through the #2 setting two times.
5. Change the setting to #3 and run it through 1x.
6. Change the setting to #4 and run it through 1x. If you want thick ravioli you can stop here. If you prefer a thinner pasta dough, continue to #5 setting and roll it through once.

Make and Fill the Raviolis

1. Flour the ravioli mold. If using a ravioli mold (like pictured) flour it generously! You need the ravioli frame heavily floured in order for the ravioli to easily release from the mold.
2. Use your favorite ravioli filling, I used my butternut squash ravioli recipe.
3. Place the sheet of pasta dough over the ravioli mold.
4. Create a small indent in the ravioli holes, being careful not to tear the pasta. If you use a ravioli mold like I did, you will place the white portion over the dough and gently press down, as pictured below. This will create a small divot in the dough.
5. Fill each cube with 1 tablespoon of filling.

6. Cover the filled ravioli with dough.

7. Use a rolling pin and roll overtop the dough so that it seals.

8. Turn the mold over and tap it on the counter to release the ravioli. Use a knife to separate any ravioli that are stuck together.
9. Place the filled ravioli on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and dusted with flour. Continue making ravioli until the dough and filling is all used up.

Cook the Homemade Ravioli

1. Place a large pot of water over medium heat. how long to cook fresh ravioli
2. Once boiling, add a tablespoon of salt to the water. Place 8 or so ravioli into the pot, being careful not to overcrowd. You’ll want to do this in batches.
3. Cook for 3-4 minutes. You’ll know how long to cook fresh ravioli to perfection because they’ll float to the top. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the ravioli to a lightly oiled plate OR place in a skillet with the sauce of your choosing.

Recipe Tips

In this recipe, we make the ravioli dough by hand. Sure, you could use your stand mixer and let the machine knead the dough for you. But to me (and to my husband who lived in Italy for 2 year), homemade pasta is traditionally made by hand.

Tools for Making Homemade Ravioli

• Ravioli maker (this is what I have and use) There are different methods people use for stuffing and making the ravioli. I use a ravioli maker. You can also use a hand stamp ravioli or feel free to free-hand it by cutting your own squares and then cinch the edges together using the tines of a fork.
• Ravioli press: You can do square or circular ravioli
• Ravioli roller
• Pasta sheet attachment

Making the Homemade Ravioli Dough

Make the flour well BIG because you’ll be adding 5 eggs and 3 egg yolks to that well. When I made this ravioli recipe last year, I made the mistake of having the well be too small. Let’s just say we had eggs drizzling over the flour wall.

You can beat the eggs with a fork prior to pouring them into the flour well or you can wait and lightly beat the eggs once they’re in the flour well — it doesn’t matter.

Once the eggs are incorporated into the flour and you’ve kneaded it, if the dough is too wet and it’s sticking to your work surface, add a little bit of flour to the dough. On the contrary, if the dough is too dry, add a spritz of water to the dough.

Rolling out ravioli dough: To achieve an even thickness, I use my kitchen aid pasta roller attachment and it’s amazing. If you don’t have one, it’s definitely something to consider purchasing. But once again, it’s not necessary. You can make homemade ravioli with an old fashioned rolling pin, just roll the dough until super thin.

If making the full batch of ravioli, section the dough into 8, and then roll out each section with the pasta attachment. If making the half batch of ravioli dough, section the dough into 4-6 sections.

If you use a pasta sheet roller: Dust the dough with flour before running it through the pasta sheet roller, this prevents the dough from sticking. You can definitely run the ravioli dough through the #3 setting more than once. You really have to gauge how the dough feels.

Flouring the ravioli mold: What I found to work the very best was to have a pile of flour on my counter and then dip the metal ravioli frame into the flour so that it was covered in flour.

How to fill homemade ravioli: I use a really small cookie scoop for ease in measuring the filling.

Storing

Ravioli dough will keep in the refrigerator for several days. Cooked, homemade ravioli will keep in the fridge for 3-4 days.

Freezing: Flash freeze the uncooked and filled ravioli on a wax paper lined baking sheet for about 1 hour, then transfer the frozen ravioli to a freezer-safe ziplock bag and store in freezer for up to 3 months. Boil and cook as normal straight out of the freezer.

FAQs

Italian Recipe Favorites

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This recipe was originally published on Nov. 3, 2019. It was republished on Aug. 17, 2021, to include additional information and/or photos.