Cooking with My Son – Pesto Ravioli with Pesto Parmesan Cream Sauce

My children have always loved pesto; since they were little, pesto on spaghetti has been one of their favorite meals. Before they got wise and refused to help, I tortured them annually with the Great Basil Harvest. We sat outside for what seemed like hours as a family, once a summer, picking leaves from dozens of basil plants I grow in the garden. My daughter and I would then go in the kitchen where she helped make voluminous amounts of pesto, which we froze in small containers for quick weeknight dinners all year long.

Over the years, pesto went from a simple sauce covering pasta to other dishes in my kitchen. I would slather it onto bread with fresh mozzarella to make grown up grilled cheese sandwiches. It became an integral component of tomato bruschetta served on garlic and olive oil-brushed crostini that I toasted on the grill. I’d make fat sandwiches on Kaiser rolls with leftover breaded chicken cutlets and fresh mozzarella smothered in pesto. And of course there is crispy, crunchy, hot out-of-the-oven pesto pizza.

About 10 years ago my son Jacob requested something fancier – pesto ravioli. I’m not sure where the thought came from, but perhaps a family trip to Italy sparked the idea, or maybe it just popped into that funny 10 year old head of his. I agreed to come up with a recipe and make it, as long as he helped execute it.

I set about researching how to make homemade ravioli and we brainstormed how the pesto would work its way in to the stuffed pasta. Jacob wanted to go full in with pesto, deciding the dish required both a pesto sauce to smother the ravioli, as well as a pesto filling. The filling was easy; we could just add pesto to a traditional ricotta, Parmesan, mozzarella mixture. But the sauce was a different story. Because ravioli don’t have nooks and crannies, they wouldn’t hold much pesto; the sauce, with its abundance of olive oil would just slide right off. I had to come up with a sauce that would cling to the smooth ravioli. That’s when I thought of a pesto Parmesan cream sauce, basically pesto Alfredo.

On a Saturday afternoon we made the ravioli, mixing up the stuffing and rolling out long sheets of pasta with a pasta maker I received as a gift from my family after that trip to Italy. We put dollops of filling, evenly spaced, on the sheets of pasta laid flat on the counter. They were covered by another flat sheet, sealed, and cut so the filling would not escape while the ravioli were cooking. That evening Jacob stirred them in a boiling pot of water, while I stood next to him making the sauce.

They were rich and creamy and decadent and everything my son hoped they would be.

I immediately wrote down the ingredients on a 3 x 5 card, so that I would be able to make them again. At the top of the card, I titled the recipe “Jacob’s Ravioli.” These days, when my children want a fancy meal, perhaps for a birthday or other special occasion, more often than not, they ask me to make pesto ravioli in a pesto Parmesan cream sauce. I am always happy to oblige, both because they are delicious and because it reminds me of cooking with my son.

Pesto Ravioli in Pesto Parmesan Cream Sauce

There is no doubt that making homemade ravioli is a project. And while they can be made without any fancy equipment, it is certainly easier with access to a pasta maker and cutters. But do not let that scare you, because the sauce is simple and can be made any weeknight in about as much time as it takes to boil pasta, as long you have already prepared pesto on hand. If you’re not going to make homemade ravioli, serve the sauce atop store-bought cheese ravioli or tortellini. Lately, when I don’t have the time to make ravioli, I’ve been serving the sauce with store-bought gnocchi, and it makes for a fine, impressive meal.

Traditionally pasta dough is made by hand. I make mine in a food processor and then knead it by hand until it is smooth. I use a pasta maker to roll out the flat sheets of dough, but it can also be done with a rolling pin. As for stuffing, cutting, and shaping the ravioli, there are a variety of tools and techniques. I have found it is easiest to place the filling between the two layers of dough and then use an Atco cutter to seal the sheets of dough together and a larger size to cut out round ravioli. Other times I have used my fingers to seal them and then cut them in squares with a knife. You can also purchase various rollers to cut wavy-edged ravioli and round and square shaped ravioli stamps that make jagged-edged ravioli. Any way you make them will be delicious.

2 hours, serves four

For the dough:

1½ cups white flour, plus more for dusting

¾ cup semolina flour

3 extra-large eggs at room temperature

1 Tbsp. olive oil

For the filling:

¾ cup ricotta cheese

½ cup grated mozzarella cheese

½ cup grated Parmesan cheese

3 Tbsp. pesto

½ tsp. kosher salt

For the ravioli:

1 small egg, beaten

semolina flour for dusting

For the sauce:

2 Tbsp. butter

1 cup light or heavy cream

¼ cup half and half

3 Tbsp. pesto

½ cup grated Parmesan cheese

To make the dough:

1. Put 1½ cups white flour and semolina flour in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade. Pulse once or twice to combine.
2. Crack the eggs and add them to the bowl along with the olive oil. Run the food processor until they are well-combined with the flour. You are likely to have a pebbly or sandy looking mixture.
3. Add warm water, one tablespoon at a time until you get the right consistency for pasta dough – about the consistency of Play-Doh. The dough should be soft enough that all components are well-combined and can be easily kneaded, but not so soft that it is wet, too mushy to work with, or will stick to itself, the pasta maker, or the counter when rolling it out. Add more water or flour as needed.
4. Remove the dough from the food processor and knead it for a few minutes until all ingredients are fully combined and the dough is smooth.
5. Form it into a ball, wrap it in plastic wrap, and let it sit at room temperature for about an hour.

To make the filling:

1. Mix together the ricotta, mozzarella, Parmesan, pesto, and salt in a bowl.
2. Cover and set aside in the refrigerator until ready to use.

To make the ravioli:

1. Lightly dust a sheet pan with semolina flour.
2. Cut the dough into four pieces and dust each piece with flour. If using a pasta maker, flatten each piece into a rectangle the width of the pasta maker. Pass the dough through the rollers set on the largest setting. Fold the dough and roll it through again. Then roll the dough out into a long sheet using consistently higher numbers (narrowing the rollers) until you get to a thickness of about 1/16^th of an inch (five on my pasta maker). As you finish each sheet, lay it out on a counter dusted with flour, and cover it with plastic wrap. Continue rolling the other three sheets of dough, placing each on a flour-dusted counter and covering with plastic wrap when done. If you are not using a pasta maker, roll the dough until it is about one sixteenth of an inch thick.
3. Put one teaspoon to one tablespoon-size dollops of the pesto-cheese mixture on one of the flat sheets of pasta. They should be separated by about three inches.
4. Brush the beaten egg mixture lightly on the dough, around each dollop of filling. This will help the dough stick together, sealing the ravioli.
5. Take another sheet of dough and place it over the first. Starting at one end, stretch the dough carefully around each mound of filling and seal the dough, trying to push out all of the air from between sheets of dough to prevent air pockets.
6. If using cutters, find one that just fits around the filling and press lightly with the top (the non-cutting edge) to seal the dough. If not using cutters, press lightly around the mounds of filling with your fingers to seal the dough.
7. If using cutters, pick a larger size and cut out each ravioli. If not using cutters, cut the dough between each ravioli using a knife or fluted roller.
8. Place each formed ravioli on the sheet pan and allow to dry for at least 10 minutes. If you are not cooking them right away, cover the sheet pan with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to use.

To cook the ravioli:

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.
2. Cook ravioli in boiling water until pasta is done, about 4 minutes.
3. Remove ravioli to a plate and cover with sauce.

To cook the sauce:

1. Melt butter in a heavy 10 inch skillet on medium heat.
2. Add cream and half and half. Heat, stirring constantly, until just before boiling.
3. Take off heat, add pesto, and stir to combine.
4. Add grated Parmesan cheese a little at a time, stirring constantly as it melts until it is a smooth, thick consistency.
5. Immediately spoon over ravioli and serve hot.

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