Filled Pasta: How to Make Ravioli, Tortellini & Other Stuffed Pasta Shapes?

If you’re planning to make your own filled pasta, you will start with fresh pasta dough. You will then roll the pasta very thinly and finally fill and shape it. This article will cover everything from the pasta dough and equipment needed to fillings and shaping of the stuffed pasta!

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What Pasta Dough to Use for Stuffed Pasta?

There are three main types of pasta dough (you can read all about pasta dough in Home Made Pasta: Three Doughs & 10 Different Shapes). One made with water, another one with whole eggs and the third one with just egg yolks.

When it comes to Filled Pasta, you want to ensure that your pasta dough is strong enough to withstand the boiling process and protect the filling inside. If your pasta bursts, not only will you lose flavour, but the filling will cover the pasta from the outside, spoiling your presentation.

So which pasta dough works best. We experimented with all three doughs and found that egg pasta made with 00 flour worked best for us. Firstly, the moisture in this pasta dough comes from eggs which is a much stronger binder than water. However, when it comes to flour, you can use either 00 or semolina flour. Semolina flour typically has higher gluten content. That makes the pasta dough softer and more elastic, which is beneficial for filled pasta. We, however, haven’t noticed much difference in terms of the strength of the dough, based on the flour we used.

Pasta bianca (made with semolina and water only) lacks resistance, so may burst in the cooking process. Likewise, egg yolk pasta dough won’t have the strength of the egg white to bind it together, so your pasta may fall apart. In summary, we recommend using whole eggs in your dough, whether you choose 00 flour or semolina flour. The recipe for the dough is below.

Tools & Equipment For Filled Pasta Shapes

Yes, you can make filled pasta with just a rolling pin and a sharp knife! However, if you’re planning to make pasta regularly, it’s definitely worth investing in some great tools that make the process a breeze. Here’s what we have and use:

• A Food Processor (optional): food processors can be used to make the dough. It helps distribute the water or eggs in the flour by pulsing the blades. However, I feel it’s easy enough to do it with your hands. What food processor is extremely useful for, though, is making fillings for your stuffed pasta and a variety of pasta sauces. We highly recommend the Kenwood Food Processor.

• Pasta Machine is essential for thinly rolled pasta. Whilst you can roll your dough using a rolling pin, it is unlikely you will get it as thin. The best stuffed pasta has the filling as the star of the show, so you don’t want it to be too dough-heavy. We use Marcato Atlas Pasta Machine.

• Dual Cutter (or a very sharp knife): a cutter we use has two blades, one for a straight edge, and another one for fluted. You can simply use a pizza cutter or a very sharp knife.

• Ravioli/ Girasoli Stamps: An easy way to stamp out pasta that is even in size and has lovely fluted edges. This can be replaced with cookie cutters.

• Bicicleta: for the purposes of transparency, we don’t have one of those (Yet!), but it looks like a wonderful tool to have to ensure your pasta is cut evenly without having to measure every single piece.

Stuffed Pasta Filling

You can fill your pasta with whatever your heart desires. There are a few things to keep in mind though:

• Rich meat fillings are more suitable for smaller bite-size shapes, like tortellini (small tortelloni). Bigger shapes are best filled with cheese and vegetables.
• Make sure your filling isn’t too thin in its consistency. You want to be able to either spoon it or pipe the filling and then fold the pasta dough over it, so it may get very messy if it is so thin that it doesn’t hold shape.
• It’s best not to leave large bits of ingredients in the filling. A large spinach stalk or a corner of unmashed butternut squash may pierce the pasta dough when you shape your pasta.

Over the coming month, we will be sharing our favourite filled pasta recipes, so keep an eye out on our pasta section if you’re looking for ideas. When it comes to fillings, the possibilities are endless. Most traditional Italian pasta fillings include simple seasoned ricotta, spinach & ricotta, pumpkin or butternut squash and sausage and cheese.

Some of our favourites include (that we will be sharing over the course of this year):

• Wild Mushroom & Truffle
• Smoked Salmon Mousse
• Beetroot & Goat’s Cheese
• Butternut Squash & Nutmeg
• Lavender & Cheese

Tips & Tricks For Shaping Pasta

• Roll the dough out thinly: when eating filled pasta, you need to be able to taste the filling. That’s why you should make sure that you roll your pasta dough out so thinly that the filling is the main flavour and the pasta is merely a parcel holding it all together. Our Marcato Pasta Machine has 6 settings and we roll ours to the last (thinnest) setting (sometimes it’s 5 for bigger shapes that can hold more filling). It is risky though, as the thinner you roll the easier the dough will tear and the more likely it is to burst in the boiling water. However, as you practice more and become more confident in shaping the pasta, thinly rolled dough will certainly make your filled pasta more special and technically impressive. To start with, work with small pieces of dough so that you don’t have to handle a meter at a time when rolling.

• Moisten the dough: Once your dough is rolled out and spread across kitchen surfaces, it may take a while to fill and shape. That means your thin dough is likely to dry out. It will lead to it cracking when you shape your pasta and it simply won’t seal very well. To prevent that, once your dough is rolled out, spray it with some water using an atomiser (I simply use one from my travel-size bottle kit).

• Don’t overfill your pasta: Whilst you don’t want to be stingy on your lovely filling, if you overfill your pasta you won’t be able to shape it properly. What is more, if the filling gets into the seal, your pasta will burst when boiling and all the filling will escape.
• Squeeze the air out: Another reason why filled pasta bursts in boiling water is air pockets trapped within the filling. Air heats up and expands turning into steam. This creates pressure from the inside and eventually thin pasta dough bursts. To prevent that, make sure you don’t leave any air around your filling when shaping.

• Seal well: If your dough is moist, you may be able to simply press the edges together to seal the dough. If your dough feels dry, brush the edges with some water or egg wash (beaten egg with a couple of tbsps of water).
• Cooking: Like with any pasta, it is important not to overcook your filled pasta. Since you don’t want your pasta bursting, when you first drop the pasta in the water, shake the pot by the handles gently to prevent the pasta from sticking to the bottom and to each other.

Types of Stuffed Pasta

If you’re wondering how to make different pasta shapes, you are in the right place. Here we list a range of Italian classics: filled pasta shapes and their names.

Ravioli

Ravioli is likely the most popular filled pasta shape. Ravioli are most commonly square and can have straight or fluted edges. Traditional fillings vary across regions, with the most popular being spinach & ricotta. Using a Ravioli Mould makes them look very neat and tidy, but we don’t use one for a more rustic homemade look.

To shape ravioli, roll out two thin sheets of pasta. Pipe or spoon your filling on one of them leaving approx 3-4 cm between depending on the size of your ravioli. Carefully place the other pasta sheet on top draping it down in between piles of filling to avoid air being trapped. Press around each mound to seal well pressing outward toward the edges, pushing out any air pockets. Using a sharp knife, a ravioli stamp or a cutter, cut out even squares of ravioli.

Girasoli

This pasta shape gets its name from a beautiful sunflower (girasoli means sunflower in Italian). It is essentially a round ravioli with a fluted edge. Use the same technique as making the ravioli (method above). We opted to use a girasoli stamp to make ours.

Mezzaluna

Half-moon shaped filled pasta is native to Tyrol. Similarly to ravioli, mezzaluna is filled with both vegetarian or meaty fillings and served with a variety of sauces including pesto, tomato or butter sauce. To make Mezzaluna Pasta, cut rounds of thinly rolled out pasta dough. Pipe/ spoon the filling in the centre. Fold the dough over to create a half-circle and seal the edge with your fingers. Finally, press the edge down with the fork to create indents.

Tortellini/ Tortelloni

Both are shaped exactly the same way, but tortellini is a much smaller version. Normally filled with a meaty filling and served in broth, these are the size of the tip of your thumb. Tortelloni on the other hand are larger, traditionally filled with cheese or vegetables and served with butter sauce. Whilst there’re lots of variations, we make our tortelloni starting with a square piece of dough, filling it, folding it into a triangle, sealing and then drawing the two bottom corners of the triangle together.

Cappelletti

Similar in shape to tortelloni, we made these with a circle of dough to start with. Cappelletti means ‘small hats’ in Italian. After you’ve added your filling, simply fold it to form a semi-circle and bring the bottom corners together. The signature move in shaping the cappelletti is folding down the brim of each hat. These are traditionally filled with meat and served in poultry broth.

Agnolotti

Smaller than ravioli, these are made by folding the pasta sheet over the filling, making it a square shape, but with only three fluted edges. Originating in the Piedmont region, agnolotti are traditionally filled with vegetables or mushrooms.

Sacchetti/ Sacchetinni

Literally ‘sacks’ or ‘little sacks’ in Italian, Sachetti are little parcels of filling held by a bag of pasta dough. A more modern filled pasta shape, these can be made with any filling your heart desires. To make Sacchetti, start with a square thinly rolled piece of pasta dough. After placing your filling in the middle, pinch together the two corners on the right and the two corners on the left keeping the middle open (Photo 2). Meet all the corners together in the centre (Photo 3) and seal the four edges into a pyramid.

Another variation of Sacchetti or Sacchetinni are made by pulling the dough up and around the filling and crimping off the neck, leaving some pasta overhanging. 

We hope you feel inspired to make some stuffed pasta at home yourself! There are so many more types of stuffed pasta that you can create – what a fun project for the weekend! Below you can find the recipe for the pasta dough that we use for any filled pasta dishes!

Pasta Dough Recipe

Pasta Dough for Filled Pasta

Simple pasta dough that's suitable for filled pastas. Made with whole eggs, this pasta is both richer in flavour and stronger and more elastic in texture, ensuring your filled pasta won't burst whilst boiling.

5 from 18 votes

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 30 mins

Resting Time: 30 mins

Total Time 1 hr

Course Dinner, Main Course

Cuisine Italian

Servings 2 -3 people

Equipment

• See the list in the text above

Ingredients

 

MetricUS Customary

 

1x2x3x

• 200 g 00 flour or semolina flour we prefer 00 flour
• 2 eggs medium

Instructions

 

• Place the 00 flour or semolina on a clean kitchen surface. Make a well in the centre and crack the eggs into it.
• Using a pinching motion, incorporate eggs into the flour as much as possible.
• Flour your hands and begin kneading. If your dough is too dry and crumbly, add a tablespoon of water, if it's too wet, add a sprinkling of flour. After about 10 minutes of vigorous kneading, you will end up with a ball of smooth, silky and elastic dough.
• Wrap it with clingfilm and leave it to rest for about 30-60 min at room temperature before rolling it out.

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