Ricotta and spinach ravioli

To prepare ricotta and spinach ravioli, start by preparing fresh egg pasta. Take the flour (you can leave about 3T (50 g) aside to add when needed) and pour it into a bowl 1 together with the beaten eggs 2. Knead the ingredients with your hands to make a homogeneous mixture 3. If the dough is not very elastic, add lukewarm water to make your dough softer so that it can be rolled with a rolling pin or with the pasta-maker machine. If, on the contrary, it is sticky, add the flour you set aside by hand.

Transfer the dough to a work surface and knead it vigorously, when you have obtained a smooth and homogeneous dough, form a ball 4 that you wrap with cling film: let the dough rest for 30 minutes away from light and drafts that could dry it. While the pasta is resting, make the filling: take a non-stick pan with a wide bottom that you put the rinsed spinach in 5, covering it with a lid to make it wilt 6. Let it cook until soft, it'll take a couple of minutes or so.

When it is well softened 7, drain it to remove excess liquid 8: keep it aside. Take a large bowl and pour the ricotta and Parmesan cheese into it 9.

Flavor with nutmeg 10 and, using a hand whip, mix the ingredients to combine them 11. Salt and pepper to taste. When they are combined, chop the spinach in a blender and add to the cream with ricotta 12. Mix the ingredients well to obtain a homogeneous mixture.

Transfer the mixture into a sac-a-poche 13 and keep it aside. At this point, your pasta will have rested. Take it and split it in two. Leave one half wrapped in cling film so it does not dry out. After having lightly floured it with reground semolina (which will not be absorbed into the dough), pull the other half through the machine by passing it between the rollers from the widest to the penultimate narrowest thickness: you will need a rectangular sheet about 0.04 inches (1 mm) thick 14. Repeat the operation with the other half. Roll out the two pasta rectangles on a lightly floured work surface (remember to use semolina flour) and make small piles of filling with a pastry bag 15.

Place them at a distance of about an inch or so (3 cm) from each other 16. Spray water on the edges of the sheet 17 (if you prefer you can also brush the edges with a kitchen brush) so that when you lay the second sheet on top of it 18, it will attach more easily. Make sure to get the air out between one ravioli and another, pressing your fingers down around the filling, so that the ravioli do not open during cooking letting the filling escape.

When laying the second sheet, match the edges with the first 19. Then, with a notched pastry cutter, cut the ravioli out, about 1 1/2 in square (4x4 cm) 20: you will obtain about 24 ravioli that you put on a tray lightly floured with ground semolina 21. Your ricotta and spinach ravioli are now ready! You can then cook them in boiling water and season them as you like, for example with butter and sage!