Make ravioli with our easy guide (2024)

Lisa DeJong, The Plain DealerUnder the watchful eye of his grandmother, Mary Annandono, Antonio Annandono, 7, uses a rotary cutter to separate individual ravioli.

When Michael Annandono, chef-owner of Michaelangelo's restaurant in Little Italy, recently offered to demonstrate how to make those succulent homemade pasta pillows, he said it was a family affair. Sure enough, when this reporter and Plain Dealer photographer Lisa DeJong arrived to observe, the house was bursting with activity.

Annandono's wife, Stacey, and their children Antonio, 7, and Giuliana Olivo, 10, were on hand. So were Annandono's father and stepmother, Al and Mary Annandono; Michael's sister, Emily; and his uncle, Bill -- Al's brother.

All were ready to work. And when chef Annandono signaled that the pasta dough was ready to roll, each member of the crew fell into place.

Before going through the steps, some preliminary preparation took place behind the scenes.

• Pasta dough was prepared that afternoon. It's an easy recipe that requires long, slow kneading, provided by the family's KitchenAid stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. (Annandono sets the machine on the lowest speed, letting it run for about 8 minutes. "The biggest mistake is if you don't give the flour's gluten a chance to stretch and develop," he explains. Without that, he adds, "you'll never get the elasticity and tenderness you want." The finished dough is lightly dusted with finely ground semolina, covered with plastic and allowed to "proof" at room temperature so that it relaxes and softens, becoming easier to work with.

• Sauces and fillings are made ahead of time. Both can be made a day or two in advance, then covered tightly and refrigerated. Gently warm sauces shortly before it's time to boil the ravioli and assemble the dishes. Remove fillings from refrigeration about 30 minutes before using them -- or simply prepare them just before filling the ravioli.

• Homemade ravioli can be assembled, cooked and served on the same day, or made several days (or longer) ahead of time and frozen.

View full sizeLisa DeJong, The PDGiuliana Olivo, 10, cranks the pasta machine while her stepfather, chef Michael Annandono both feeds in the dough and extracts thin sheets of pasta.

Step 1: Roll out the dough With patience and good arms, you can use a rolling pin to roll out thin sheets of pasta for ravioli. But if you're smart, and especially if you're going to prepare several batches, you'll use a hand-crank pasta machine. Michael Annandono recommends setting a conventional hand-crank machine on the second-thinnest setting.

• Slowly feed in portions of dough, roughly the size of your fist. While someone cranks the handle, another person can both feed in the dough and handle the thin sheets of pasta that emerge.

• Feed the sheets through a second time, gently stretching the sheet as it comes out. (Having a third person to help is handy, especially if you roll extra-long sheets.)

• Most common manual pasta machines produce sheets of dough about 4 to 6 inches wide and as long as you like. Annandono uses a sharp knife to cut sheets of dough roughly 12 to 14 inches long -- about the size to produce a dozen ravioli each.

View full sizeLisa DeJong, The PDBill Annandono pipes dollops of ravioli filling onto sheets of freshly rolled pasta.

Step 2: Add the filling "It's time for the sheeting," announces chef Michael Annandono. Four assistants stand around the dining room table. Each place is set with an oversize cutting board, and each worker -- armed with pastry cutters and piping bags with the day's ravioli filling, a mixture of cheeses, finely ground veal and chopped, cooked spinach -- prepare to tackle the job of filling and cutting ravioli.

• Stacey Annandono purchased disposable plastic piping bags, made by Wilton Industries, at Bed Bath & Beyond. They can be fitted with plastic piping tips or used without by simply cutting a small piece off the end of the bag. (In a pinch, just use a regular plastic bag.)

• Chef Annandono delivers segments of freshly rolled pasta and lays them flat on the board. On cue, the assistants pipe a dozen evenly spaced dabs of filling (about 2 to 3 teaspoons each) onto the dough. "We don't worry if they're bigger or smaller," says Mary Annandono, the chef's stepmother. "None are identical -- like little snowflakes," she adds.

View full sizeLisa DeJong, The PDBill Annandono uses a rotary cutter to separate ravioli into individual servings with decoratively scalloped edges.

Step 3: Finish, cut the ravioli Chef Annandono has delivered a second sheet of freshly rolled pasta to each station. The workers arrange the dough over the filling, carefully stretching it to the edges.

• To ensure that the pasta pillows don't burst open during filling, each worker uses the tip of an index finger to gently but firmly press the upper sheet of dough into the lower sheet. Edges are similarly sealed. (If you wish, a light brushing of egg yolk may first be applied around the edges of each lump of filling for a better seal. The Annandonos don't use egg.)

• Once the individual ravioli have been shaped and sealed, a rotary cutting wheel is used to create attractively finished ravioli.

View full sizeLisa DeJong, The PDA pan of finished ravioli awaits a potful of boiling salted water -- or a stint in the freezer for later use.

Step 4: Ready to cook (or freeze) At this point, the impatient diner is ready to run for the kitchen, where a potful of lightly salted boiling water awaits. They're done when the ravioli rise to the surface of the pot and remain there.

• Stacey Annandono says it's easy to make the ravioli a few days, even a week or two, ahead of time and freeze them before cooking. "I put them on a sheet pan dusted with semolina, then put that in the freezer for maybe 10 minutes -- long enough to firm them up. Then transfer them to Ziploc bags, and freeze them until you want to cook them," she says.

• Have the sauce ready to serve when the ravioli are drained. Serve them in large bowls or platters that have been warmed before filling.

Some culinary projects just lend themselves to a group effort. Making ravioli is one of them.