Explore the Pasta-Bilities

Makeover your usual pasta night by swapping out plain noodles for filled ravioli. Whether you start with homemade pasta dough (we’ve got a great recipe below) or packaged fresh pasta from the store, these yummy recipes will satisfy all your pasta cravings. Discover all sorts of scrumptious ways to make and eat ravioli pasta, including tasty fillings, wonderful sauces, appetizer ideas, and the best-ever fresh ravioli lasagna recipe.

A few tips if you do choose to make your own ravioli dough from scratch are listed below in our Tips section.

Finally, have you always wondered what's the difference between ravioli and raviolo? The answer is pretty simple—a raviolo is just a single ravioli.

• Three-Cheese Ravioli

  

  Making ravioli at home is a fun family activity and an absolute treat at the table. This classic recipe for three-cheese ravioli is just like the one served at trattorias on cobble-stone streets in Europe, with plump pasta pockets encasing a creamy filling that combines ricotta, mozzarella, and Parmesan cheeses. Serve it with a tossed salad with Italian dressing, and some crusty bread or garlic bread, for the perfect Italian-style meal.

• Butternut Squash Ravioli With White Wine Sauce

  

  Wow, your guests at special occasion dinners, when you serve this elegant, show-stopping, first course. You could make fresh pasta for this recipe, or use wonton wrappers as an easy shortcut. Make it ahead by preparing the butternut squash-filled pasta for the freezer, for topping at serving time with the just-made white wine-cream sauce, and a scattering of toasted hazelnuts.

• Fresh Spinach Ravioli Lasagna

  

  Store-bought fresh ravioli transforms everyday spinach lasagna into something much more special. You need only 30 minutes to bake up this indulgent pasta casserole that tastes as if you spent all day long making it, with mouth-watering layers of artichoke hearts, stuffed ravioli pasta, chopped spinach, ricotta, and Parmesan cheeses.

• Gluten-Free Cheese Ravioli with Kale Pesto

  

  On busy weeknights when you crave a satisfying pasta dish but lack the time or energy for long cooking, this sneakily easy, gluten-free ravioli dish is a real dinner winner. All you need to do is heat up some store-bought ravioli, and toss them briefly in a pan with leftover or rotisserie chicken, tomatoes, shallot, and prepared pesto sauce for a hearty meal that checks all the flavor boxes.

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• Sweet Potato Ravioli With Brown Butter Pecan Sauce

  

  A hint of thyme flavors the luscious sweet potato, egg yolk, and ricotta filling in these homemade ravioli, and the brown butter and pecan sauce makes them extra-special. Be sure to stay close to the stove when preparing the sauce, as the brown butter will cook quickly. You can make a few dozen small ravioli with this recipe, or form fewer, larger ones, for a sophisticated supper.

• Fried Ravioli

  

  Start with store-bought four-cheese ravioli to make these scrumptious, deep-fried, breaded pasta appetizers. The golden-brown pasta bites are sprinkled with Parmesan cheese and fresh basil strips for serving alongside a dipping sauce of fresh or prepared marinara sauce. Serve them for a delicious New Year’s Eve bite or a starter at multi-course Italian dinners.

• Fresh Spinach Ravioli Dough

  

  Pureed spinach brings its brilliant green color and mild taste to this homemade pasta dough that can be used to create so many variations of ravioli. For a double dose of vitamins and minerals, try stuffing it with the ricotta and spinach filling below, and topping it with marinara, Gorgonzola, or Parmesan cheese sauce.

• Ricotta and Spinach Filling for Fresh Pasta

  

  Few flavor combinations for pasta are as classically delicious as spinach and ricotta cheese. Use this filling for fresh ravioli, tortellini, and other filled types of fresh pasta, or layer it into a vegetable lasagna with tomato sauce and Parmesan cheese. It is easy to make with bagged fresh greens or thawed and drained, chopped frozen spinach.

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• Gluten-Free Gorgonzola Sauce for Ravioli

  

  Gorgonzola sauce is just the thing to dress up a bowl of store-bought pasta or take your from-scratch pasta to the next level of deliciousness. Creamy, rich, and full of unmistakable blue cheese flavor, it would also be delicious drizzled over perfectly-cooked steaks.

Make Your Own Ravioli Dough From Scratch

• Traditional ravioli are always square. Other similar, filled, sealed pasta shapes do exist all with their own signature Italian names (for instance, tortellini, agnolotti, and mezzelune).
• When rolling out your dough, whether by machine or hand, do your best to make it paper-thin. This will help the dough to cook quickly, and take on the proper texture when boiled in salted water.
• A ravioli cutter is the easiest tool for slicing the dough, but you can also use a sharp knife, or a square cookie cutter, in a pinch.
• When stuffing ravioli, try to get as much filling as you can into every little bite.
• Ravioli freeze beautifully for a perfect last-minute meal. Spread uncooked ravioli on a flour-dusted baking sheet, and freeze in a single layer. Then pop them into freezer bags for adding to boiling salted water when you’re ready to eat them.
• Typically, fresh or frozen ravioli are briefly boiled before they finish cooking in whatever sauce you are using.