Homemade Ravioli Pasta Dough (all-purpose flour)

Homemade pasta dough doesn’t have to be difficult or expensive! This homemade ravioli pasta dough recipe is super simple and made with budget-friendly staple ingredients. No special flours are needed here! All you need is all-purpose flour, olive oil, eggs, and salt to make your own easy homemade pasta.

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Budget-Friendly Homemade Ravioli Pasta Dough

I want to start by saying that there is absolutely no shame in buying store-bought pasta. I buy store-bought pasta all the time! But for special occasions and date nights, we love breaking out our pasta machine, cranking up some Italian tunes on Spotify, and making pasta together.

However, if you have looked up making homemade pasta before, you might have seen recipes with a ton of specialty ingredients and tools–and I am here to tell you that you don’t need anything special! This recipe calls for 4 simple ingredients, is mixed by hand, and if you don’t have a pasta roller, you can 100% use a rolling pin.

Ravioli pasta dough is one of the MOST fun pasta to make from scratch, in my opinion, because you get to fill the pasta with whatever you want!

Can I Make Homemade Ravioli Pasta Dough Without a Machine

Yes!

I was gifted a pasta roller about a year ago, but prior to that, I used what I had: a rolling pin and a floured surface. If you don’t have the tools, it’s totally still accomplishable to make pasta dough without anything fancy. I find that homemade ravioli pasta dough is particularly forgiving.

I will show you my favorite pasta dough cutter in this recipe, but again if you don’t have one– you can use a knife or even a pizza cutter.

Step-by-Step How to Make Ravioli Pasta Dough

If you haven’t made pasta dough from scratch before, I am here to let you in on a little culinary secret. It’s actually not that hard. In fact, it’s easier to make this dough than it is to make homemade bread.

Oh, and is it fun!

I first made homemade pasta dough in 6th grade at summer cooking camp (thanks, Mom for sending me to that! 🙂 )! That was one of the first times I remember having fun in the kitchen, and thinking that food could be play. Making pasta from scratch is a really fun cooking “project” to get beginner chefs into! Check out the steps below to learn how to make it yourself!

Step 1: Make a Flour Mound + “Volcano”

This is probably the most fun step for kiddos, and me, a woman in her mid-late twenties (haha!).

We want to start with a clean, lightly floured surface like a countertop or table. I like to get out my pastry mat for this step, check out my mat recommendation.

To start, you will add your flour and salt to a pastry mat. Mix it a little with a fork. Next, use your hands to shape a “mound” of flour in the center of your pastry mat or floured surface.

Using a fist, create a crater in the middle of your mound to house the egg and oil. Then add 4 whole eggs to your mound as well as the oil. Using the fork we used to mix the flour and salt before, scramble the eggs and oil together.

Step 2: Form Dough

Once the egg mixture is scrambled, start to slowly add flour from the inner wall of the crater into your egg mixture.

When all the flour mixture has been incorporated knead the dough into a ball with your hands. The dough should feel a bit oily, but not sticky or dry. Add a little bit more flour if the dough is too stick to work with and a little more oil if the dough is too dry and not forming a ball.

Knead the dough until it forms a well-incorporated ball.

Step 3: Let Dough Rest

Before we use the dough, we should let it rest at room temperature. Set the dough aside and cover with plastic wrap for 30 minutes.

Step 4: Roll Out the Dough!

You can either accomplish this next step with a rolling pin or with a pasta machine.

If you are using either a rolling pin or a pasta machine, the process is going to start pretty similarly.

Pasta Machine

1. Cut your dough ball into 4 sections. Cover the three sections in plastic wrap, and then flatten the remaining dough ball gently with your hands.
2. Make sure that you set your roller to a higher level like 8 or 7 to start. Crank the handle and roll the pasta dough out.
3. Fold the rolled-out dough into a rectangle for a more even roll. See the image above. Bring in the ends to touch in the center of the dough and fold over uneven sides.
4. Roll the pasta through again at the same level.
5. Set the level to 3 or 4. Roll the pasta through again.
6. Set pasta on the mat to fill. I like to fill sheets one at a time so the pasta doesn’t dry out.

Rolling Pin

To use a rolling pin, make sure to use a very floured surface and a floured rolling pin. Use the same steps above, with a few modifications. Roll the dough out to 1/8th of an inch thick, then fold it into a rectangle. Then roll the dough out thinner (You should be able to just see through the dough).

Step 5: Cut, Fill, & Form the Ravioli

Cut ravioli dough into strips. To save time, I keep the width of the dough I rolled out in the machine, and cut even strips of dough about 1 1/2 to 2 inches apart.

Fill the dough with about 2 tsp of your favorite filling and fold the dough over. Press all of the edges (including the fold) of the dough together to form a tight seal. I do not recommend wetting the edges of the dough with water. In my experience, this typically ends up with the ravioli breaking. The dough should be sticky enough to stick to itself.

You can do a number of tricks to make the edges of the dough “pretty.” I like to simply pinch in the sides of the dough, but you can also use a fork to create ridges or a fancy pasta cutter.

Place the finished ravioli on a sheet pan (if you use all the dough you will want 2 sheet pans) lined with parchment paper or aluminum foil.

Step 6: Cook the Ravioli

Boil a large salted pot of water on the stove. When the water is boiling, place a few ravioli in to cook at a time, making sure not to overcrowd the pan and stirring frequently.

In most cases, the ravioli will float to the top when they are done cooking, but if that doesn’t happen, as a rule of thumb fresh ravioli only need 3-5 minutes to fully cook.

Remove the ravioli with a slotted spoon and place into a sauce before serving.

Making Ravioli Ahead of Time

Fresh pasta is best fresh. In other words, I recommend making your ravioli at most a few hours ahead of time or utilizing your freezer.

Here are the general time stamps to follow when it comes to fresh pasta dough:

Up to 1hr: Out on the Counter

You don’t want to keep your filled fresh, uncooked ravioli out for that long. Anytime, up to an hour they will be fine on the counter, but after that, you’ll want to add them to your fridge.

Up to 4hrs: In the Fridge

I don’t love to keep ravioli in the fridge and try to avoid it, as they can get sticky + are more prone to breaking, but you can place your uncooked ravioli on a lined sheet pan in the fridge for up to four hours. Typically– I just move my ravioli directly to the freezer for any time that I will be cooking them 3 hours or more later.

+4hrs or up to 3 months: In the Freezer

I use this method all the time to prep pasta for the next night, later in the week, or just to stock my freezer. You will want to prep the ravioli, and then place your lined sheet pan of UNCOOKED ravioli in the freezer to flash freeze for 30 minutes (this helps to keep the ravioli from sticking to each other). Then remove the sheet pan from the freezer and add the pasta to a freezer-safe plastic bag or container for up to 3 months.

When you are ready to cook, don’t defrost your pasta. Place the frozen ravioli directly into a pot of salted boiling water for 6 to 8 minutes.

My Favorite Budget-Friendly Amazon Homemade Pasta-Making Finds!

If you end up making pasta more frequently, you might benefit from outfitting your kitchen with a few simple tools! I used to make pasta dough all the time without these tools. So please, don’t feel like you need something fancy to accomplish this recipe!

But I will say these Amazon Pasta-making finds DEFINITELY speed up the time and make homemade pasta dough a lot easier! If you have it in your budget, these are the tools I would buy again!

Sailnovo Pasta Maker Machine (Amazon’s Choice)
$34.99 *

I absolutely LOVE this pasta maker! In full transparency, I got this item as a gift from my husband, but I would 1000% buy it again or gift it to someone who wants to get into making pasta.

Prior to having this tool, I used my pastry mat and a rolling pin. This tool not only feels really fun to use– it also

It’s easy to use (after a short learning curve) and rolls out perfect pasta every time. You can attach it to the side of your countertop or table for a stable manual crank. Personally, I think it is a bit easier to use with 2 people (although I have used it by myself). It’s an absolute blast to use on a girl’s night, date night, or with kiddos!

5-Wheel Dough Cutter
$19.99*

I love this dough cutter! It’s one of the oddest & most helpful kitchen tools that I have–but gosh–I love it!

It’s so fun to use for making ravioli, or my favorite homemade Cheez-It crackers, or even for marking cuts on brownies, cookie bars, or s’mores magic bars.

26×16 Inch Extra Thick Silicone Baking Mat Pastry Mat
$12.99

My pastry mats get used HEAVILY! My last pastry mat came from ALDI and I love it–however, here is a similar one that you can buy on Amazon.

Anytime that I can find a product that means less mess ( and more importantly–less cleaning) I am 1000% gonna use it and buy it.

*Prices shown reflect the prices at the time of writing this blog post. Prices are subject to change.