Freezer-Friendly Spinach and Ricotta Ravioli

If the thought of making your own pasta dough, rolling it out into ravioli and filling them with a homemade mixture of spinach and ricotta sounds like a nightmare then this recipe is not for you.

If, however, you’d love to spend a weekend making your own ravioli which can then be stored in the freezer for up to 6 months, then I have the perfect recipe for you.

There’s no denying that effort is required for this one. It’s not something you can do on a whim. A pasta machine and a stand mixer are also going to be pretty helpful for this.

Freezer Spinach and Ricotta Ravioli Recipe

4.7 from 3 votes

Course: Dinner RecipesCuisine: ItalianDifficulty: Medium

Servings

6

servings

Prep time

2

hours 

Cooking time

15

minutes

Total time

2

hours 

15

minutes

Filled with a classic combination, these homemade ravioli are perfect for batch preparing and then popping in the freezer

Cook Mode

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Ingredients

• 360g 360g 00 Flour

• 4 4 Eggs

• 200g 200g Spinach

• 200g 200g Ricotta

• 1tsp 1tsp Nutmeg

• ½tsp ½tsp Dried Chilli Flakes

• 50g 50g Parmesan

• 1 1 Lemon, Grated Zest

• Black Pepper

• Salt

Directions

• Put the flour, eggs and a pinch of salt into the bowl of a mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment and slowly mix until it just comes together. Add 1tsp of water and continue to knead for 6 minutes until a dough is formed.
• Cut the dough into 4 equally-sized pieces and then wrap each in cling film before resting it in the fridge for 30 minutes.
• Meanwhile, place the spinach into a colander. Bring a whole kettle to a boil, and then pour the boiling water over the spinach. This will be enough to cook the spinach. Press out as much of the liquid as possible. You may want to dry it in a clean tea towel to really remove as much excess moisture as possible.
• Finely chop the spinach up before combining it in a bowl with the ricotta, nutmeg, chilli, parmesan, lemon zest and a good pinch of black pepper. Mix well, give it a taste and adjust accordingly.
• Remove one ball of pasta dough from the fridge and then work it through your pasta machine. You'll want to get it as thin as possible. Lay the now flat sheet of pasta on your worktop and add spoonfuls of ravioli filling in 2 rows.

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• Roll another ball of pasta dough out until it is the same size as your first sheet and then carefully place this on top of the first sheet. Press down between each spoonful of ravioli filling.

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• Use a knife or ravioli cutter to cut squares of ravioli out, ensuring your filling is in the centre of each. You can then repeat steps 5 and 6 with the remaining 2 balls.

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• If you're freezing them at this point, flash-freeze them on a baking sheet before bagging them up for 6 months. If you want to cook them now, then pop them into a pan of boiling water for 3 minutes before serving with a marinara sauce or sage butter.

How to Freeze It

Freezing homemade ravioli is pretty easy. The thing to remember is that you’ll get much better results freezing ravioli before cooking them:

1. Freeze on a Baking Sheet: Line a baking sheet with greaseproof paper before spreading out your ravioli on the tray, ensuring none of them touch. Pop the tray into the freezer for 2 hours.
2. Bag Up: Remove the frozen ravioli from the tray and carefully place them into a freezer bag. Seal the bag up, pushing out as much air as possible.
3. Freeze: Finally, pop the bag of frozen ravioli back into the freezer, where they will keep for up to 6 months.

How to Use It

What’s great about having ravioli in the freezer is that there’s no need to defrost them! That’s right, you’ve basically got a meal, ready-to-go, whenever you need them.

When you’re ready to enjoy your ravioli, bring a pot of salted water to a boil and then pop your frozen ravioli into the water for 3 to 4 minutes until cooked through.

Drain them and then stir them through your favourite ravioli sauce – a sage butter would work great with these.

How to Tweak It

Spinach and ricotta might be a classic combination of flavours when it comes to ravioli (and pasta, in general) but that shouldn’t limit you from trying a few more interesting fillings: