Ricotta ravioli in pesto sauce, overnight dough

The same ravioli as the counter-rest version, split across two days. The dough is made and refrigerated on day one, then filled and cooked on day two. A long cold rest fully hydrates the flour, so the sheets roll thinner and spring back less.

The pasta is made from scratch, the filling is not. It is built around a single 280 g tub of ricotta and a jar of Classico basil pesto, which covers both the filling and the sauce. There is no hard cheese in either.

Prep time below is hands-on work across both days. It excludes the overnight chill and the hour of tempering.

Kit

Pasta machine or rolling pin

sieve

pizza wheel or knife

wide pot

large skillet

slotted spoon

Method 9 steps

Day one: make the dough 9 min

Mound the flour on a work surface and make a well in the centre. Crack in the eggs and add the salt.

Beat the eggs with a fork, drawing flour in from the walls of the well until a shaggy mass forms. Knead until smooth and springy. The dough should feel firmer than bread dough.

A stiff dough rolls thin without tearing. If it feels sticky, work in a little more flour.

Day one: chill overnight

Press plastic wrap directly against the surface of the dough, or seal it in a zip bag with the air pushed out. Refrigerate for up to 24 hours.

The surface may turn slightly grey from the egg oxidizing. This is harmless and disappears on cooking. Past two days the dough goes properly grey and sticky, so keep it to a day.

The wrapping has to be airtight. Exposed dough forms a dry skin that cracks when rolled.

Day two: temper the dough

Take the dough out of the fridge and leave it wrapped on the counter for 45 to 60 minutes.

Set the ricotta in a sieve over a bowl to drain while you wait.

Cold dough is stiff and tears at thin settings. Draining the ricotta prevents a wet filling, which is the main cause of burst ravioli.

Mix the filling 3 min

Stir the drained ricotta, pesto, mozzarella, egg yolk, garlic powder and salt together in a bowl. No cooking is needed.

The mixture should hold its shape on a spoon. If it slumps, give the ricotta longer to drain.

Taste it before filling. With no hard cheese in the mix, it should read slightly over-seasoned on its own, since plain pasta surrounds it.

Roll the pasta 12 min

Cut the dough into 3 pieces and keep the ones you are not working with wrapped.

Roll each piece until nearly translucent: the second thinnest setting on a pasta machine, or thin enough to read print through if rolling by hand. Dust with flour if it sticks.

Rested dough resists less, so you can usually take it a setting thinner than same-day dough.

Fill and cut 15 min

Spoon teaspoon-sized mounds of filling along half of each sheet, spaced about 4 cm apart.

Wet the pasta around each mound with a damp finger, fold the other half of the sheet over, then press the air out from the centre of each mound outward before sealing. Cut with a pizza wheel or knife and rest the ravioli on a floured tray.

Trapped air expands in the water and splits the seams. Do not overfill: the mozzarella melts and pushes outward.

Boil the ravioli 4 min

Bring a wide pot of well salted water to a gentle boil and cook the ravioli in two batches, until they float and the edges feel tender, about 3 to 4 minutes.

Scoop out a mug of the cooking water before draining.

A hard rolling boil tears the seams. Keep the water moving gently.

Loosen the pesto 2 min

Melt the butter in a large skillet over low heat, then take the pan off the burner entirely.

Stir in the pesto and lemon juice with about 45 ml of the reserved pasta water, until it loosens into a pourable sauce.

Pesto should not boil. Heat dulls the basil colour and turns the oil bitter.

Toss and serve 2 min

Lift the ravioli into the skillet with a slotted spoon and turn them gently until coated, adding more pasta water a splash at a time if the sauce tightens.

Finish with the black pepper.

The starch in the pasta water is what binds the oil into a sauce that clings.