Easy Gluten/Dairy Free Ravioli

This recipe was a first for me! I have always wanted to give homemade pasta a try, so what could be better than documenting this experience? I have celiac disease and have been gluten free for 10 years. Thankfully there are more options today for gluten free foods, but homemade is always better!

With the mind set of “use what you got” and making dinner as easy as possible, lets get to making some ravioli!

I find it much easier if you gather all your ingredients before you begin. I will list them below in the order we will be cooking.

*NOTE: On my first attempt, at this recipe, I made the pasta dough before I made the filling. You will notice some cracking of the dough on top of the raviolis once cut, that is because it got dried out sitting out. This is why I recommend getting your filling done and then working with freshly rolled pasta.

Filling:

• Fresh Baby Spinach- 2 cups
• Dayia Mozzarella Cheese- 1 cup
• Garlic Powder- ½ tsp
• Salt- ¼ tsp
• Black Pepper- ¼ tsp
• Olive Oil- 1 tsp

Ravioli Dough:

• Gluten Free Flour (I used Pillsbury brand flour) - 1 ¼ cup + more for flouring workspace
• 3 Eggs
• Pinch of Salt

Tools:

• Small Skillet
• Rolling Pin
• Food Processor
• Kitchenaid & Pasta Sheet Roller Attachment
• Pasta Crimper
• Medium Sauce Pan
• Ziplock Bag
• Cutting Board
• Knife
• Assorted Measuring Cups & Spoons
• Microwaveable Mixing Bowl
• Microwave

Heat the skillet on medium high heat. Once the skillet is hot, add the olive oil and swirl to coat the bottom of the pan. Add the spinach and sauté, stirring occasionally until the spinach is wilted.

Once the spinach is cooked, remove from heat and chop into small pieces on the cutting board. Add to the microwaveable mixing bowl.

Add the Dayia cheese, garlic powder, salt, and pepper to the bowl with the spinach. Microwave for 1 minute and stir, microwave for an additional minute and stir. If cheese had not melted continue microwaving in 15 sec intervals.

*NOTE: With this cheese being dairy free it will melt differently than regular cheese. Don't get frustrated if it all doesn’t melt! When you boil your ravioli it will melt perfectly and be nice and creamy!

Place the gluten free flour, eggs, and salt into the food processor. Manually pulse till the dough starts to come together, do not over work the dough.

Prepare your workspace with extra flour to prevent dough from sticking. Place dough from food processor onto the floured surface and knead into a ball. Next, cut dough into four sections and place them into a ziplock bag to prevent dough from drying out while you get your Kitchenaid ready.

There are two methods to rolling out your dough into sheets.

1. Attach pasta sheet roller to your Kitchenaid. Place the setting on #1 and your are ready to get your first dough ball out of the ziplock bag.

2. If you do not have a Kitchenaid, you can certainly roll out the dough by hand with a rolling pin, just make sure you do not leave the dough too thick (it will be chewy) or too thin (very hard to work with, it may break). Have extra flour on hand to make sure your dough sheets do not stick.

Grab one dough ball, using a rolling pin, roll it out to ⅜ inch thick on floured surface.

Starting on setting #1 on the Pasta Sheet Roller, feed dough in with one hand and catching it with your other hand. Once all the dough has gone through on the #1 setting, change setting to #2 and repeat, feeding the dough in allow it to roll out the dough thinner.

Lay dough on floured workspace and grab another dough ball and repeat, starting with rolling out dough and sending it through on setting #1 then #2.

Now that you have your two sheets ready to go on your floured workspace, its time to clean them up!

To make sure both your dough sheets are evenly shaped, cut the edges off one of the sheets all around to clean it up. Next, place the second sheet on top on the first sheet and cut to match.

Its time to take that yummy filling from earlier and add it to your pasta!

Using a ½ tsp to scoop the filling from the bowl, leave 1 inch in between each scoop. Repeat going down the sheet.

Have a cup of water ready, wet the tip of your finger or brush and wet the edges and in between each scoop with a little water. This will help the top pasta sheet stick to the bottom.

Apply top sheet, push down on all edges and in between each scoop to seal.

To make sure all the edges are clean, sealed, and to separate each ravioli square, take your pasta crimper and cut the edges, and in between each square.

Fill a medium sauce pan with water and bring to a boil with some salt added to the water. Once boiling gently add pasta. Now homemade pasta will cook FAST! You do not want to boil it any longer than 1-2 minutes, so keep any eye on the time!

Add your favorite sauce if you wish or just enjoy plain! Look at that gooey, yummy “cheese” on the inside of that perfectly cooked pasta!

And no one will ever know its missing any gluten or dairy.