Heart-Shaped Ravioli (Ravioli Hearts)

Heart-shaped ravioli feels like one of those Italian recipes that you would only see in a romantic movie – that makes it perfect as a Valentine’s Day recipe! Or really any special occasion for your significant other. 

Aside from being a delicious pasta recipe, heart-shaped ravioli helps you stand out on occasions where Italian food is a staple (and let’s face it, pasta is a pretty popular option on Valentine’s Day!). 

These ravioli hearts are filled with only two cheeses (ricotta and mozzarella) to keep life simple, and dinner tasty. If this is your first foray into making ravioli from scratch, don’t worry! It’s easier than it sounds. (I’ll even show you how to make that lovely heart shape as well.)

What is ravioli

Ravioli is an Italian pasta dish that dates back to the 14th Century – the pasta is folded into small envelopes containing some sort of filling (usually ground meat, vegetables, or cheese). As it is another form of egg pasta, it is made up using the same standard ingredients – flour, eggs, and oil. 

Fun fact: The plural of ravioli is “raviolo” which translates to “little turnip”.

Ingredients

For the Pasta Dough

• All-purpose flour, 
• Salt
• Eggs
• Olive oil

For the Filling

• Ricottacheese
• Shredded mozzarella

For the Sauce

• Grated Parmesan
• Unsalted butter
• Salt,  pepper and fresh thyme

How to make Heart Shaped Ravioli

If you’ve never made pasta from scratch, the process can be daunting. There are a few steps involved, but thankfully it is not a punishing experience. My first time learning to make ravioli  from scratch involved a chef that moved so quickly that I felt like my eyes were going to pop out of my head! 

We’re going to take it nice and slow. My biggest tip to you is to not worry about time limits. Give yourself plenty of time to get comfortable working with pasta dough, and to shape and seal the ravioli hearts. 

Step By Step Preparation

How to make ravioli pasta dough

1. Combine flour, salt, eggs and olive oil using a food processor.
2. Knead the dough into a smooth ball, and divide into eight.
3. One piece at a time, shape and roll the dough out to 8×8 inch translucent squares. (A pasta machine is helpful with this!)

How to make cheese filling

Mix the ricotta cheese and the grated mozzarella cheese and place teaspoon-sized mounds of filling onto the square of ravioli dough, Make sure the spaces around the mounds of filling are moist (if the dough seems dry, brush some water on it). Use a second dough square to sandwich the first and press down on the edges to seal.

(If you’re making heart-shaped ravioli, this would be where you use a heart-shaped cutter to create the shapes. If you don’t have a cutter available, you can do this very carefully with a knife.)

Cooking the ravioli

1. Cook the ravioli in boiling water for approximately 4 minutes (or until al dente). 
2. Once cooked. drain the ravioli and prepare to serve with brown butter sauce.

Preparing the sauce

1. Brown your butter in a small saucepan until you get a nutty aroma. Be careful not to burn your butter though. The aroma is less pleasant. 
2. Serve over the freshly-cooked ravioli, with a sprinkle of parmesan and fresh thyme.

Tips to make the BEST Ravioli Hearts

• An optional step that helps with the malleability of pasta dough is to refrigerate it for 40-60 minutes. This helps you to roll it out to that thin translucent thickness you’re looking for. 
• Pasta dough can have a strange texture – it’s “tacky” (kinda sticky). Don’t let this scare you, you’re on the right path! 
• If heart-shaped ravioli sounds like a headache you don’t want to deal with, or is a shape you’re not into, it’s totally fine to create any shape. The standard ravioli shape is a square! 
• You don’t need to use an ‘official’ pasta cutter to make your shapes. A regular cookie cutter will do the job! 
• When cooking your ravioli, make sure to use a large pot so that each piece isn’t overcrowded. (Overcrowded ravioli won’t cook as well, and the pieces may even stick together.) Cook in two batches if you have a smaller pot. 

Variation Ideas

• Given that we’ve used a simple cheese filling for these heart-shaped raviolis, the easiest variation is to switch up the cheeses. You can play with different cheese blends such as adding parmesan or asiago cheese as filling ingredients. 
• The next simplest option is to add a more prominent sauce – tomato or marinara sauce is a classic option, but you can go crazy, experimenting with mornay or herb-infused sauces. 
• Once you’re more comfortable with this recipe, you can add more varied fillings such as spinach or ground beef.

Storing ravioli

Homemade ravioli can be refrigerated in an airtight container for 3-4 days. If you want to make the recipe ahead of time, the pasta dough (once it’s been molded into shape), can be frozen for up to three months (and there’s no need to defrost the ravioli hearts before cooking – just cook for a few extra minutes!).

Helpful Tools

The link below is an affiliate link. This means that if you choose to purchase using it, I will receive a small commission (at no additional cost to you). These small commissions help keep Chocolates & Chai going. Thank you.

A pasta maker will be handy to make ravioli sheets. If you don’t have one, you can roll out the sheets, but it is quite a bit more work. A food processor will also speed up your initial dough creation phase!

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More Italian Recipes

If you don’t fancy making homemade pasta this time around, here are a few options for Italian recipes that will make your loved one’s heart (and stomach!) sing:

• Creamy Mushroom Pappardelle
• Beef Lasagna
• Lemon Fettuccine with Garlic Shrimp

And that’s it for today, bestie! What did you think of these heart-shaped ravioli? Are you going to make it? Did you enjoy it? Comment below and let me know!

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📖 Recipe

Heart-Shaped Ravioli (Ravioli Hearts)

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• Author: Riz | Chocolates & Chai
• Total Time: 45 minutes
• Yield: 25 heart-shaped raviolis 1x
• Diet: Vegetarian

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Description

Heart-shaped ravioli, stuffed with cheese, is a delicious and romantic Italian dish. Perfect for special occasions like Valentine’s Day or anniversaries.

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Ingredients

Units USM Scale 1x2x3x

For the Pasta Dough

• 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
• 1 tsp salt
• 4 large eggs
• 2 tbsp olive oil

For the Filling

• 1 cup ricotta cheese
• ½ cup shredded mozzarella

For the sauce & garnish

• 2 tbsp grated Parmesan
• 6 tbsp unsalted butter
• Salt and pepper and fresh thyme

 

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Instructions

Making the pasta dough

1. Place the flour, salt, eggs and olive oil in a food processor.
2. Run the machine until the ingredients are well combined, 1-2 minutes.
3. On a clean countertop, knead the dough into a smooth ball and divide it into 8 even pieces.
4. Working with one piece of dough at a time (keep the other pieces covered in plastic wrap to prevent drying out) shape it into a square and roll out to about 8×8-inches. (You should be able to see your hand through the dough when you pick it up.)
5. Place each square of dough on a lightly floured surface, covered in plastic, while you work on the others.

For the ravioli filling & assembly

1. Mix the ricotta cheese and the grated mozzarella cheese in a medium bowl.
2. Place teaspoon-sized mounds of filling onto the square of dough, Make sure the spaces around the mounds of filling are moist–if the dough seems dry, brush some water on it.
3. Sandwich the first dough square with a second square of dough. Press down in between all the mounds of filling and all around the edges to seal the two pieces of dough together.
4. Working with each ravioli individually, squeeze with your fingertips all the way around the filling to remove any air bubbles and seal the edges together and cut the dough with a heart mold (assuming you want heart-shaped ravioli!). Repeat with the remaining pieces of dough.

Cooking the ravioli

1. Bring a large pot of water to boil.
2. Cook the raviolis in the boiling water for 4 minutes.

Preparing the sauce

1. While the ravioli cook, place the butter in a small saucepan and cook over medium-low heat until browned and gives off a nutty aroma.
2. When the raviolis are done, drain them and then quickly transfer to a serving plate.
3. Serve with brown butter, parmesan and fresh thyme. Enjoy! 

Notes

• An optional step that helps with the malleability of pasta dough is to refrigerate it for 40-60 minutes. This helps you to roll it out to that thin translucent thickness you’re looking for. 
• Pasta dough can have a tacky texture. Don’t let this scare you, you’re on the right path! 
• A regular cookie cutter will cut shapes in dough just as well as a “pasta cutter.”
• When cooking the ravioli hearts, make sure to use a large pot so that each piece isn’t overcrowded.

• Prep Time: 40 minutes
• Cook Time: 5 minutes
• Category: Main Course
• Method: Cooking
• Cuisine: Italian

Keywords: heart-shaped ravioli, ravioli hearts,