Remember, in the TV series "Wild Angel" the heroes ate mysterious ravioli now and then? And we racked our brains about what kind of dish is this overseas? Now that almost everyone has access to the Internet, you can not guess and even cook this yummy at home. Surprise guests and family with an unusual taste, in general. Therefore, we offer you a recipe for ravioli with ricotta and spinach.
What else is ravioli?
Ravioli is a dish of Italian cuisine, which, like many of their dishes, consists of dough and various fillings. In fact, these are the same dumplings or dumplings, they just cook a little differently.
Prepare ravioli from unleavened dough in the form of circles, crescents or squares with curly-edged edges. Someone boils them, while others are fried in oil and served with broth or soup. The filling, as with dumplings, can be very different: from meat and fish, ending with fruits and cheese with greens. That’s the last option and we’ll talk about making ravioli with ricotta and spinach.
Ricotta cheese
This is a special traditional Italian cheese, which is made from whey remaining after the manufacture of other cheeses, such as Mozzarella. Ricotta has a thick, smeared texture, a sweetish taste and about eight percent fat content. It is an indispensable component of many desserts and the most legendary ravioli with ricotta and spinach.
What do you need?
When we figured out the materiel of the issue, we can proceed to the direct preparation of a delicious dish. For ravioli with ricotta and spinach, we need (for three to four servings):
- 200 grams of fresh spinach.
- 200 grams of ricotta cheese.
- One onion.
- Two glasses of flour.
- Egg yolk.
- Olive oil.
Cooking stuffing
For the filling, spinach must first be put in order. Pour boiling water over it and cut out stiff petioles and cut off the bases. Then finely chop the leaves and fry in olive oil for ten minutes and remove from heat. It turns out a green porridge, in which we add ricotta cheese and mix thoroughly. If you like onions, then fry it in the remaining oil and add to the filling. If not, then you can do without it.
Cooking dough
After the filling for the ravioli with ricotta and spinach is ready, you can do the test. Combine egg yolk, flour and 100 milliliters of warm water. Knead the dough until it becomes uniformly tight. After that, it can be rolled out. But do not let the dough remain uncovered, but rather put it in a bag, as it will quickly become airy and stale.
We collect
The most crucial moment came to sculpt ravioli with ricotta and spinach. Here everyone is refined as he can. There are several sculpting options:
- We cut the dough into squares. On one we put the filling, the second we close and pinch the edges with a fork.
- Roll out the dough with a rectangle. In the lower half, at a sufficient distance from each other, we lay out the filling, then cover, crush and cut with a relief knife.
- We use dumplings using a similar technology.
That's all. We send Italian dumplings to boiling water and cook until tender. As you can see, the ravioli recipe with spinach and ricotta is very simple.
Sauces
But it would be too simple if the ravioli were eaten without special sauce. For this dish, two types of traditional sauces are prepared for ravioli with ricotta and spinach. It is butter-garlic and creamy bechamel.
Oil-garlic is made very simple. Melt the butter in a pan and add finely chopped garlic or granulated garlic to it. That’s all magic. And with bechamel you have to tinker.
Bechamel came to the kitchens from France and densely settled there, especially in Italy. This is a basic sauce based on heat-treated flour, milk and fat. It is used as a thickener and the basis for a mass of other sauces. It is most often used in the preparation of lasagna and soufflé. And, of course, ready-made ravioli watered them.
Cooking Bechamel
To prepare this sauce we need:
- 20 grams of butter.
- 25 grams of wheat flour.
- 400 milliliters of fat milk.
- A pinch of salt and nutmeg.
Heat the milk well, but do not boil. In another saucepan, melt the butter over low heat, then gradually pour the flour, stirring vigorously so that it is evenly roasted. Then begin to carefully introduce milk into the liquid and continue to interfere, otherwise lumps will appear, but we do not need them. When everything has thickened, drop a pinch of salt and nutmeg and keep it on fire for a couple of minutes. Do not boil in any case! The consistency of the sauce should be like liquid sour cream. When cooling, it will become only thicker.
Fried ravioli
The ravioli recipe with spinach and ricotta is very simple. But, as we said above, they can not only be boiled, but also fried. Then you need to boil the broth for them or serve them to the soup.
Ravioli should be fried in boiling olive oil until they turn a golden color. You can sprinkle the prepared Italian "dumplings" with grated mozzarella and herbs and carry them like pies.
Variations
As you understand, you can cook ravioli not only with spinach and ricotta. The principle of preparation is very similar to dumplings, therefore, the fillings can be very different.
You can make meat ravioli, and add Provencal herbs to the stuffing. If you are gravitating towards Japanese cuisine, then fill them with red fish, and add nyokam or teriyaki to the sauce. By the way, you can also find a recipe for this sauce on our website.
Well, if you are a vegetarian, then you can use the original recipe with ricotta and spinach, or you can come up with your own options for a wide variety of vegetable fillings, where you should add basil and oregano.
Ravioli is a very satisfying and tender meal, especially when ricotta with spinach is used as a filling. All of the above recipes are designed for 3-4 servings, so if you plan to feed this company a little more, just increase the grammar of the ingredients. They can be frozen and stored in the freezer, like dumplings and dumplings, as many as you like. And if you do not want to bother with sauces, then ordinary sour cream will do.
We are sure that once you try this simple Italian dish, you are sure to enter it into the regular home menu. And enjoy your meal!