Homemade Spinach and Ricotta Ravioli

Steps

1. Tip the flour onto the counter, make a well in the middle, break the three eggs into it and add the oil and a pinch of salt.

   5 min

2. Draw the flour into the eggs with a fork, then knead 10 minutes. The dough must end up firm and smooth — far stiffer than bread dough.

   12 min

3. Wrap it and rest it 30 minutes. Unrested dough springs back and will not roll thin.

   30 min

4. Wilt the spinach in a dry pan for 3 minutes, tip it into a sieve and squeeze every drop out. A wet filling bursts the ravioli in the water.

   8 min

5. Chop it fine and mix it with the ricotta, the 40 g of parmesan, the extra egg and plenty of pepper.

   5 min

6. Cut the dough into four. Roll each piece thinner and thinner, turning it a quarter turn each pass, until you can see your hand through it. Keep the pieces you are not working on wrapped.

   25 min

7. Lay teaspoons of filling in a row 4 cm apart on one sheet. Brush around each mound with water, lay a second sheet over and press the air out from the middle outwards. Trapped air splits them as they cook.

   20 min

8. Cut them out with a wheel and set them on a semolina-dusted tray in one layer.

   10 min

9. Boil them a dozen at a time in plenty of salted water for 3 minutes. They float almost at once — the three minutes are for the sealed double edge, not for the filling.

   8 min

10. Brown the butter with the sage, turn the drained ravioli through it and finish with the last of the parmesan.

    5 min

Serving suggestion

Nothing beyond the butter and the parmesan. A heavy sauce buries the filling.

Storage

Freeze them uncooked on the tray, then bag them. Boil from frozen, a minute longer.

Notes

No pasta machine? A long rolling pin does the job, it just takes the arm. Work one quarter at a time so the rest does not dry out.