This spinach artichoke ravioli fillings is one of the easiest ravioli fillings out there! In this recipe we use frozen spinach and canned artichokes so there is no need to cook any of the filling ingredients. It doesn’t get much easier than that!
These delicious homemade ravioli are made with gluten free flour so they are 100% gluten free. However, if you do not have a gluten intolerance you could also make these ravioli with regular all purpose flour. In addition to being gluten free, these spinach and artichoke ravioli are also vegetarian, nut free, and egg free.
What is in spinach artichoke ravioli filling?
These ravioli are filled with a delicious spinach artichoke filling. This ravioli filling is cheesy, easy to make, and absolutely delicious. The main ingredients in our spinach artichoke ravioli filling are as follows.
- Frozen spinach
- Canned artichoke hearts
- Ricotta cheese
- Mozzarella cheese
- Lemon juice
- Red pepper flakes
This spinach artichoke ravioli filling hits a real sweet spot. It is a step up from plain old cheese ravioli but it is much faster and easier to make than other vegetarian ravioli fillings. We do love indulging in butternut squash ravioli and pear and gorgonzola ravioli from time to time, but we do not always have the time to wait an hour while a butternut squash roasts or to slowly simmer cubed pear pieces.
What is in the brown butter sage sauce?
The brown butter sage sauce we use on these ravioli is one of our all time favorite pasta sauces! This sauce has it all – a little bit of sweet, a little bit of savory, and a little bit of acid to balance it all out. Here are the ingredients in the browned butter sage sauce.
- Melted butter
- Dried sage
- Brown sugar
- Lemon juice
- Olive oil
- Salt
- Black pepper
How to make ravioli without any special tools
1. Roll out the ravioli dough
First you need to roll out the dough until it is about 1 – 2 mm in thickness. If you have a rolling pin, now is the time to break that out. If you do not have a rolling pin, you can use any round bottle with a smooth surface as a rolling pin. Before I had a rolling pin I used to use a wine bottle to roll out my dough.
When I roll out dough I like to use saran wrap and parchment paper to keep the dough from sticking to anything and tearing. I usually put a sheet of parchment paper under my dough and a sheet of saran wrap over my dough. You could also just use two sheets of parchment paper but I like to use saran wrap so that I can see my dough and tell how thick it is.
2. Cut out the ravioli shapes
Next you have to cut out the shapes you will use to make your ravioli. If you have special ravioli cutters or cookie cutters you can use these. If you do not have ravioli cutters, you have two options. You can either use a knife to cut square shapes freehand or you can use the rim of a glass to cut round ravioli.
3. Add the ravioli filling
Use a spoon to add the filling to the center of one of the ravioli sheets. You should leave a border that is 1/2 cm – 1 cm in thickness around the edge of your ravioli. You need to leave this border so that you can seal the ravioli shut without causing the filling to leak out the edges.
4. Seal the edges of the ravioli
Finally you need to seal the edges of your ravioli so that the ravioli filling does not fall out. It is easiest to do this with a fork. All you have to do is take a fork and press down to make indentations all around the outside border of your ravioli. You should either grease the fork with a little vegetable oil or cover the fork in a little flour to prevent it from sticking to the dough.
I include an image that shows the steps you need to go through to fill and seal the ravioli below. This image was taken from our butternut squash ravioli recipe. A different filling is used, but the process for assembling the ravioli is the same.
Spinach artichoke ravioli
Ingredients
Spinach artichoke ravioli filling
- 2 cups ricotta cheese
- 2/3 cup frozen spinach
- 2/3 cup canned artichoke hearts
- 2/3 cup mozzarella cheese
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp red pepper flakes
Ravioli dough
- 2 cups gluten free all purpose flour (plus up to 1/4 cup extra)
- 1 cup warm water (plus up to 2 tbsp extra)
- 2 tsp olive oil
- 1/4 tsp salt
Brown butter sage sauce
- 5 tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp gluten free all purpose flour
- 1 tsp dried sage (heaping)
- 1/2 tsp lemon
- 1/2 tsp brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1/4 tsp salt
Instructions
Spinach artichoke ravioli filling
- Prepare the artichoke hearts for the ravioli filling. Remove as much water as possible from the artichokes by wrapping them in a towel or thick stack of paper towels and wringing them out. After you have removed as much water as possible from the artichoke hearts you should mince them into small pieces.
- Mix all of the ingredients for the spinach artichoke ravioli filling then set the filling aside. If your frozen spinach is loosely packed you can add it into your filling straight out of the freezer. If the spinach is frozen into a clump you might need to microwave it to seperate the spinach pieces.
Spinach artichoke ravioli
- Prepare the ravioli dough. Mix all of the ingredients for the ravioli dough together and knead the dough ball a few times. You want the dough to be wet but not so sticky that the dough sticks to your hands when you try to shape it. If your dough is too wet, you can add a little more flour half a tbsp at a tbsp at a time. If your dough is too dry you can add water 1 tsp at a time.
- Roll out the ravioli dough so that it is about 1 - 2 mm thick. If your dough is sticking to your rolling pin you can add a sheet of parchment paper or saran wrap on top of the dough to separate the dough from the rolling pin.
- Cut out your ravioli shapes. If you have dedicated ravioli cutters or cookie cutters you can use these. If you do not then you can use the rim of a glass or a shot glass to cut out circular ravioli. After you have cut out as many shapes as you can you should collect the dough scraps back into a ball and roll out this dough ball. Continue to do this until there is no dough left.
- Fill the ravioli. Take one cut ravioli shape to be the top and one to be the bottom. Add ravioli filling to the bottom ravioli shape, leaving 1/2 - 1 cm open around the edges to seal the ravioli. Then place the top of the ravioli on top of the filling.
- Seal the ravioli. Use a fork to create indentations going all around the edge of the ravioli. Fill and seal the rest of your ravioli until there are no ravioli shapes left.
- Boil a large pot of water over high heat then add the ravioli to the pot. Cook the ravioli for 3 minutes or until they float to the top of the water.
Brown butter sage sauce
- Add the flour and 1 tbsp of the butter to a medium saucepan to make a roux. Heat the pan over medium heat and cook the roux for 2-3 minutes.
- Cook the butter for 5-10 minutes until it becomes light brown in color. Add the rest of the ingredients for the brown butter sage sauce then spoon the sauce over the ravioli.
Notes
Substitutions for spinach artichoke ravioli
- Fresh spinach. You can substitute fresh spinach for frozen spinach in this recipe. If you use fresh spinach you should start out with 1 1/2 cup of spinach as the spinach will reduce in size when it is cooked. You can pre-cook the spinach by putting it in a small bowl with 1 tbsp of water then microwaving it for a minute or two if you do not want to break out a pan to sauté the spinach or a pot to steam the spinach.
- Fresh sage. You can substitute fresh sage for dried sage in this ravioli recipe. Make sure to chop the fresh sage into small pieces before adding it to the sauce. Fresh sage tends to be a little less potent than dry sage so I recommend doubling the amount of dry sage used in the recipe.
- Flour. If you do not have a gluten intolerance then you can substitute standard all purpose flour for the gluten free all purpose flour we use in this recipe. If you are going to use gluten free flour to make the ravioli I would recommend using all purpose flour or another mix of flour that you regularly use to make pasta. You should not use any one type of gluten free flour (rice flour, almond flour, tapioca starch) to make pasta.
- Lemon juice. It is not essential that you use lemon juice. You just need to add a little bit of an acidic element. Balsamic vinegar or red wine vinegar would also work.
Other recipes you will love
If you are on the market for homemade ravioli you should also check out our recipe for gluten free butternut squash ravioli.
These pear and gorgonzola ravioli strike the perfect balance between sweet and savory. Check out this recipe if you are looking for a ravioli recipe that feels a little extra fancy!
