Homemade White Bean and Prosciutto Ravioli

With Simple Tomato Sauce

I decided to make the ravioli heart shaped in honor of Valentine’s Day but you can make them square or round. I use an egg pasta dough for ravioli because I like the silkiness that the eggs give the pasta dough. This is a fresh pasta so it is best made and eaten the same day. You can freeze the ravioli for up to a month.

I use the Antree stand mixer attachment available on Amazon to roll the pasta into long thin sheets. Remember, you are placing two layers of pasta on top of one another so you do not want the pasta sheets to be too thick or else the ravioli will be too doughy.

Humidity plays a big roll when you are making pasta dough. If it is very dry like it is in the winter you will need to add a bit more moisture to your dough to achieve the right texture and consistency. The dough needs to come together in a ball before you begin kneading it. Kneading will take about 10 minutes. You will know that you have kneaded enough when you are able to stretch a piece without it tearing. The dough should look silky and not stick to your hands. If the dough feels too wet add a little flour and keep kneading. It is much more difficult to add moisture to dry dough so make sure the dough is moist enough and comes together in a shaggy ball before you start kneading. If it feels too crumbly and dry you should add another egg and a tablespoon of water.

This Is Important:

You MUST let the dough rest for a half hour before you start rolling it. After you have kneaded the dough and it looks silky and is not sticky and you can take a little piece off and stretch it without breaking you are now ready to let the dough rest. Wrap the Pasta dough in plastic wrap and let it sit on the counter for a half hour. If you are planning on making ravioli than use this time to make the filling.

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What Type Of Flour Should I Use?

I like to use all purpose flour with a little semolina flour mixed in. Typically I use 3 parts all purpose and 1 part semolina. You can also use “00” flour but I prefer to use “00” for pizza dough, not pasta dough. It’s really up to you. All purpose flour makes the pasta silkier, the semolina adds a little roughness to it. The semolina flour helps the sauce stick to the pasta.

What Can I Fill The Ravioli With?

In this recipe I fill the ravioli with a puree of garlic, prosciutto and white beans. You can fill the ravioli with ricotta or ricotta and spinach. You can also puree green peas to fill the pasta. The possibilities are endless so be creative. You just need to make sure that the filling is a puree and not clumpy. When you make the ravioli you need to make sure that there is no air trapped in the ravioli so make sure the ravioli fits snug around the filling.