Homemade Spinach and Cheese Ravioli

Thank you to Bertolli for sponsoring today's post and inspiring me to celebrate the everyday with delicious food and fun family memories!

For months now I have been talking about wanting to make homemade ravioli for the first time. When I saw the Bertolli® Riserva Asiago Cheese & Artichokes sauce, I knew that I just had to finally do it. Something about the idea of artichokes in the sauce seemed to just be asking to be paired with a spinach ravioli! And let me tell you... it ended up being a match made in heaven! I had been putting off making homemade pasta because life is chaotic. I kept thinking that this would be a big undertaking... and a big mess. But it is so important to do special things like this to celebrate everyday life! There is no need to wait for a special occasion! The Bertolli cooking school website makes it easy to find little ways to bring something special to all kinds of meals! Of course this one caught my eye: 

The only pasta I have ever made from scratch before was egg noodles, and I wanted the thick, chewy ones so I just rolled them out with a rolling pin and cut them by hand. I knew for ravioli it would be much more beneficial to use a pasta roller, so I borrowed one from my brother. We used the recipe that came with the roller, and it couldn't have been easier: 500g flour (I used half white and half whole wheat) and 5 whole eggs. Then we just mixed in a little water until it was the right consistency. Aiden's favorite part of the whole process was playing with the flour. My awesome husband jumped in to knead the dough for me. We wrapped it in plastic wrap to rest, and set it aside.

While the dough rested, we made the filling. I looked at many, many recipes for filling, but I couldn't find one that sounded just right. So, I decided to go ahead and just create my own. It turned out creamy and delicious! Not only that, but I used the food processor to whip it up so it was super easy! Here is the recipe: 

Creamy Spinach and Cheese Ravioli

1 T butter

1 tsp minced garlic
10 oz fresh spinach
8 oz ricotta
4 oz cream cheese
1/2 c shredded mozzarella
1/2 c finely shredded Parmesan
1 egg

Melt butter in pan and lightly saute spinach and garlic. Transfer to food processor to finely chop spinach. Add remaining ingredients, and process until creamy. Refrigerate until you are ready to fill ravioli. 

Next it was time to roll out the ravioli! Aiden was super tired by this point (he was sick all last week) but he loved using the pasta roller so much! He rolled the same piece of dough over and over and we had a hard time talking him into letting Matt roll out sheets for the ravioli!

Eventually, Matt was able to start rolling and filling our ravioli. We tried several different methods of cutting them, from the cutting wheel to biscuit/cookie cutters, but in the end the most fabulous raviolis were those made using a little Rubbermaid Tupperware container to cut out the finished ravioli! We used about a tablespoon of filling in each, and brushed egg white around the filling before adding the top sheet and cutting. Matt is seriously a natural at ravioli making! He is already talking about other recipes he wants to try!

Of course the best part was eating the finished product! We made about half of the ravioli fresh that night, and froze the other half to see how they cooked up from frozen. Both turned out great! We used the Bertolli® Riserva Asiago Cheese & Artichokes sauce and a little shredded Parmesan and it was so delicious!

I love that these sauces are not your typical spaghetti sauce. They are really something special! However, while they offer a more robust and exciting flavor profile, they are still very kid friendly... at least according to Aiden who enjoyed his bowl for sure!

I definitely want to try the other sauce flavors in this Riserva collection:

Bertolli® Riserva Marinara with Parmigiano-Reggiano

Bertolli® Riserva Porcini Mushrooms & White Truffle Oil

Bertolli® Riserva Balsamic Vinegar & Caramelized Onions

The fact that there is currently a $1.50 coupon will make it even better to try them all! Grab your coupon here!

And be sure to visit Bertolli on Facebook and Tumblr as well!

 Linking up with: Dream Create Inspire | The Wednesday Showcase   What recipes have you been waiting for a good reason to try? I hope this encourages you to make every day a good reason to celebrate and try something new!