delicious ravioli made with gluten-free flour
There is so much good food to discover and enjoy. For this, a life is not enough. If you make good food for others, they will love you. If you make good food for people who have a serious eating problem – like gluten intolerance – they will love you more.
In fact – probably more than others – they appreciate that having good, fresh, healthy food is a privilege, something to treasure and respect every day.
I am not gluten intolerant. I made these for someone who wanted to come and see others making ravioli without being able to eat them. “No girl – I said – you also must eat”.
Love your food please, make some for others when you can, it really is the best gift.
Recipe
for ravioli
- 100 gr (3 and 1/2 oz) gluten-free flour
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 teaspoon water
for the filling
- 120 gr. (4 oz) spinach or swiss chard
- 60 gr (2 oz) ricotta cheese
- 1 tablespoon grated Parmesan or pecorino
For the filling, blanch spinach or other leaf vegetables in boiling water for 3 min. Drain. Cool under cold water and squeeze very dry. Chop greens finely and transfer to a bowl. Mix in ricotta and Parmesan.
For the dough, I bought a baking GF flour made with a mixture of corn starch, potato starch and rice flour. Gluten-free products are widely available in Italian supermarkets and pharmacies.
You can make gluten-free pasta using approximately the same method of fresh regular pasta (please see pictures here and a video here). The main difference is that the dough is soft, tears easily and dries very fast. Therefore you need to roll it quickly and keep the sheets a little thicker than those made with regular dough. When the sheets are ready, make the ravioli as soon as possible otherwise the pasta will dry and fall apart.
In a food processor blend the flour, oil and egg until the mixture just begins to form a ball. Depending on the size of the eggs, it might be necessary to add a little water in order to obtain a soft but not sticky dough.
Set the rollers of a pasta machine on the widest setting. Cut the dough into a few fist size pieces. Flatten one piece of dough into a square and feed through the rollers. Fold the square in three and feed through the rollers. Then fold again in half, roll and repeat 2 or 3 more times. Fold each time and dust with flour to prevent sticking
Turn dial down to next (narrower) setting, dust with flour and feed the dough through rollers without folding. Continue to feed the dough through, without folding, making the space between the rollers narrower each time, until one of narrowest settings is reached. If the pasta sheet is too thin it might tear, so you will need to stop one notch before the narrowest setting.
Cover the sheets with a cotton tea-towel to prevent drying. Arrange a sheet of pasta on a large wooden board. Place teaspoons of the spinach and ricotta filling about 5 cm (2 inches) apart on the sheet so that you can make a “parcel” by folding it over.
spoon filling on the pasta sheets, make sure to leave enough space to seal
Using a pasta cutter seal each parcel by cutting on three sides (the fourth is the fold). Dust a large tray or your worktop with flour and carefully place the ravioli on it taking care that they do not overlap.
a zig-zag cutter is essential to seal the ravioli
Cook in salted boiling water until al dente, about 2 min. Drain and toss ravioli with butter and lemon or a tomato sauce. Distribute onto 2 plates, top with grated Parmesan (or pecorino) if desired and drizzle with good fruity extra virgin olive oil.
Serves 2
Hi Letizia,
I just made a copy. I love gluten free.
Will make on Monday and let you know…sounds delicious. Thanks Much.
Hi to Google from Mojo, WooF!
thanks Kathleen.Let me know how it works! Gluten free flour can be tricky but that one I bought (Cereal brand) worked perfectly, only only needs to adjust the speed as explained above.
Can one use the gluten free pre-packaged lasagnia sheets, boil them, cut them, paint the edges with egg white so that the filling does not fall out, fill them and then do you have to boil them filled again? Could you cut dough with a pinking scissors?
Hi Marie, even the fresh gluten free pasta dough requires some getting used to, so I doubt that what you describe it’s possible with dry lasagna sheets. You could try with fresh pasta sheets, without blanching but indeed using a little egg white or even water to seal the edges. I have never used pinking scissors but I think you can easily find a pasta wheel online http://www.amazon.com/Ghidini-Pasta-Wheel-Fluted/dp/B000FRZC42/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1289503622&sr=8-3
Also please look up my recipes for lasagna and cannelloni for which you can use the dry pasta sheets provided that you briefly blanch them in boiling salted water.
Hi,
just to let you know as a gluten intolerant person, you can use GF dry lasagne sheets to make ravioli but it’s very very tricky! You can’t cook mor than two sheets at a time in a very large pan or they stick together and you cannot seperate them at all! It is possible with a lot of patience and fiddling around. You can make about two giant ravioli per two sheets of lasagne. I think it’s probably a bit thick and needs to cook a long time to make it flexible and soft enough to work with, but then if you press hard with a fork round the edges, it does stick to itself quite well.
I’m so glad to have found this recepie for fresh though, as pre made GF ravioli/tortellini are amlost unheard of in the UK, and I was an addict before I became intolerant!
Hi Jennie
thank you for your comment. My felling is that it is better to invest in a pasta machine and practice pasta making rather than fight with pre-made lasagna sheets. In the end you will probably need the same time but if you make the dough you have a fresher product.
Thank you! Finally I have found a decent Gluten free pasta recipe. I have recently been told I am Gluten intolerant and it is hard because Italian food is may absolute favourite. I can’t wait to try it out
thank you, you might need to experiment with GF flours, some are too dry and will not make good fresh pasta. Make small amounts and cook one or two ravioli to see if they cook properly without falling apart
Thank you I am a new glutein free cook with a 17 ylo daughter who loves ravioli. But she is now glutein intolerate. So thank you for this recipe. On the hunt for a good flour presently. Any ideas, also I remember my grandmother making the pasta, laying the sheets on the bed and making large quanities. Once I get a small amt- recipe fiqure out. How or do you recomend storing Glutein free pasta. I think we are going to get all the girls together once again and try this. (been 10 years so thanks for your tips). Bless you!!
Dear Mary Beth, thank you so much for your comment. I don’t know where you live, so I am not able to advice a type of gluten free flour. I personally prefer organic products as they are not added with al sort of strange chemicals. You cannot really make large amounts of gluten free pasta as it is quite fragile. Do try first to make some ravioli with normal flour, to make sure that you are confident with the technique, then make the gluten free ravioli. If the pasta dough is not strong enough to be rolled add more egg yolk which will make it more pliable. Good luck!