The Biggest Mistakes To Avoid With Homemade Ravioli

Homemade pasta is cherished by every Italian grandmother as a true form of art. Although pasta is always abundantly in stock at every local grocery store, once you start making it yourself you'll quickly realize the difference in flavor is well worth the extra effort. Ravioli is one of the most creative pasta dishes you can make at home, thanks to the countless flavorful filling ideas you can play around with. However, it's precisely the filling that makes ravioli a bit trickier to cook in comparison to other homemade pasta. That's why we reached out to a true Italian cuisine pro and asked him about the biggest mistakes we're making with homemade ravioli.

Jasper J. Mirabile Jr. is the owner and chef of Jasper's Restaurant, an award-winning Italian restaurant in Kansas City, and the host of Live! From Jasper's Kitchen Radio. The first thing he tells us is that "overfilling the dough is probably one of the biggest mistakes." Too much filling means the ravioli won't close properly and could open up during the cooking process, which would instantly ruin the dish. If you're using a filling that needs to be cooked first, make sure it fully cools down, too — otherwise, the heat will melt your pasta. Another mistake Mirable warns us about is not sealing the ravioli edges properly. This can happen if your pasta dough is too dry, so keep it covered to preserve the moisture.

You might think ravioli dough needs to be thicker to hold in the filling, but you should actually be aiming for dough that's more on the thin side. "[One mistake is] not rolling the dough out thin enough," Jasper Mirabile explains. "I like my dough to be just thin enough so it still holds up in the boiling water and can maintain the filling." So be sure to take your time with the rolling process. In practical terms, this means the dough is partially see-through, thin enough for you to still see your hand through it.

Mirabile's final tip for us is one every Italian food lover should internalize and pass on to the next generation: "You never want to overcook the pasta." Al dente is the way to go, always. Overcooking the ravioli will result in a mushy dish and drippy filling, making the much-anticipated meal rather unappetizing. Unlike their store-bought counterparts, homemade ravioli don't come with package instructions, so the best way to nail the cooking time (which depends on the thickness of your dough) is by cooking just two or three ravioli first to determine the exact cooking time.