Easter is almost here! We cannot believe April is going by so quickly. We love the warmer weather and are so excited for all the new recipes we’ll have coming up for this spring. I have to say, though, that these spring pea and ricotta ravioli may be one of my favorite recipes we’ve ever created! If you’ve never attempted homemade pasta, this is the time! Ravioli can be easily made without any fancy pasta making equipment (although it helps, more on that later). They will most definitely impress on Easter Sunday.
We love making ravioli, but we have always stuck to a more traditional meat or spinach and cheese filled ravioli. This winter in Florence, we tried one of the most unique raviolis we’ve ever had – lemon ravioli! They were filled with tons of bright lemon zest folded into fresh ricotta and served in a pesto sauce. It opened our eyes to all the amazing flavor combinations possible and showed that even ravioli can feel “light” if made the right way.
We saw some fresh peas at Central Market the other day and immediately thought they would make the perfect spring ravioli dish for Easter. What’s awesome about this dish is it can be a main or side. You can absolutely serve it as is for a vegetarian dish, but it also pairs wonderfully with salmon, shrimp, or scallops.
While these can be made without any special pasta tools, they definitely help. If you are at all into making fresh pasta, they are worth the investment. We use the pasta attachment for our Kitchen Aid stand mixer, but if you don’t have the stand mixer, you can buy a stand alone pasta maker like this one and a ravioli press. We got a really great one in Bologna that we LOVE – here are a couple of similar ones here and here. If you’re going without any tools, you’ll need a rolling pin (a wine bottle is a good alternative) and a knife to cut out your ravioli squares.
We chose to eat ours as a meatless meal today. We prepared them in a lemon butter sauce with pistachios and loved the additional crunch they added.
Don’t be intimidated by fresh pasta! The results are so delicious and perfect for feeding a crowd for Easter Sunday. We hope you enjoy these spring pea and ricotta ravioli as much as we did.
Spring Pea and Ricotta Ravioli
Ingredients
Ravioli Dough
- 400 Grams All Purpose Flour
- 3 Large Eggs
- 6 Egg Yolks
Pea and Ricotta Filling
- 1.5 Cup Green Peas
- 1.5 Cup Whole Milk Ricotta
- 6 Lemons Zest only
- 3/4 Teaspoon Kosher Salt
- 1/4 Teaspoon Black Pepper
- 1 Egg Whisked
Lemon Butter Sauce
- 3 Lemons Juiced
- 1 Shallot Minced
- 1 Stick Cold Unsalted Butter Cubed
- 1 Tablespoon White Distilled Vinegar
- 1/4 Teaspoon Kosher Salt
- 2 Tablespoons Parsley Chopped
- 1 Handful Fresh Mint Chopped
- 1/4 Cup Pistachios Roughly Chopped
Instructions
Pasta Dough
- Combine flour and eggs in large stand mixer bowl with dough hook
- Turn mixer on to a low-medium speed for 3-5 minutes until dough and egg are fully incorporated. If dough appears dry after 5 minutes, add spoonfuls of extra egg whites as needed. Dough should not be sticky and spring back when press gently with finger.
- Place ball of dough in a plastic zip-lock bag for 1 hour to rest.
Ravioli Filling
- Combine green peas, ricotta, lemon zest, salt, and pepper in food processor. Blend until all ingredients are fully incorporated. Refrigerate until ready to fill ravioli.
Making the Ravioli
- Separate dough into 6 smaller balls. (Keep each piece of dough in the plastic bag to prevent drying while making the ravioli)
- Roll out one ball of dough with a rolling pin into a long strip. Then run the dough through a pasta roller until you reach desired thickness. We use number 6 or 7 on the kitchen-aid pasta roller which leaves the dough roughly 0.8 mm thick (1/32 of an inch).
- Flour the ravioli tray and lay the thin rolled out sheet of dough over the tray.
- Fill each space with approximately 1 tbsp of filling (may vary depending on the size of your ravioli mold).
- Brush the edges of the ravioli with the whisked egg, then fold the remaining dough over the tray to cover the filling.
- Gently press over each ravioli to get the air out, then roll over the tray with a rolling pin to cut pasta.
- Pasta may be cooked at this point or frozen on a tray and saved for later use.
Lemon Butter Sauce
- Place a large pot with water and salt on high heat and bring to a boil.
- Meanwhile, add minced shallot, lemon juice, and vinegar to a small pot and place over medium-high heat for 5-8 minutes. Cook until nearly all liquid has evaporated.
- Once all liquid has been reduced, begin whisking and adding 1 cold cube of butter at a time. Continue whisking until all butter has been emulsified with the reduction.
- Add salt and chopped parsley and leave on lowest heat, whisking occasionally until needed.
- Boil ravioli for 4 minutes then remove the ravioli and place them in a large sauce pan on medium-low heat.
- Toss ravioli in sauce pan with lemon butter sauce. Top with chopped pistachios, mint leaves, and freshly grated parmesan cheese.