Think of these grain free and keto ravioli as pillowy-soft bites from heaven! Filled with spinach, ricotta and toasted pine nuts, they’re then fried in a garlic and thyme-infused brown butter for a killer result.
Spinach & Ricotta Keto Ravioli
Pillowy-Soft!
I looove to fill up these keto ravioli with spinach, ricotta and toasted pine nuts. Simple, yet ridiculously tasty. They’re then cooked in a garlic and thyme-infused butter; which browns as the ravioli cook, yielding a delicious dipping sauce.
Just don’t forget the cherry tomatoes, as they lighten up the dish beautifully!
Fun fact: since the recipe was first published (back in January ’18), many of you have informed me that there’s such a thing as toasted ravioli up in St. Louis (and that these are not far off!). How neat is that?!
p.s. These guys are super awesome for meal-prepping! Simply whip up a large batch, freeze, and cook straight from the freezer as needed.
The Flours
These keto ravioli are a spinoff of my famous Crazy Keto Dough!
Think almost the same ingredients: almond flour, coconut flour and a touch of xanthan gum (minus the baking powder). But slightly wetter, so you’re able to get it nice and thin (think almost translucent).
p.s. click through for specific brands I use personally (i.e. they work best!).
Allergic to nuts? I’ve heard great things about substituting the almond flour with sunflower seed meal or pumpkin seed meal from readers. Color and taste will be different though.
Otherwise, no substituting flours here and the xanthan gum is absolutely necessary. And, if possible, weigh your ingredients for consistent results.
The Method
The real trick here is to get the keto pasta dough nice and thin. This way you’ll end up with pillowy-soft ravioli, as opposed to doughy ones. In the end, you want the filling-to-dough ratio to be much greater.
1. Roll out the dough between parchment paper
This is easiest done using either a tortilla press (cast iron ones are the best) or an actual pasta machine. But a rolling pin (with some patience) will work too. The dough should end up translucent when held up against natural light.
2. Add filling
Heap roughly a tablespoon of filling onto the dough. Drape a second piece over it and press around the edges to seal, removing any air bubbles. The dough will sticky, so no egg wash is needed.
3. Trim
I simply used a cookie cutter here, but feel free to use whatever floats your boat. Just keep in mind that you’ll want to trim the edges close to the filling.
4. Freeze
You’ll want to freeze the ravioli for 15 minutes prior to cooking. And yes, you can go ahead and freeze them too, but thaw them out slightly before cooking. You’ll also want to cook these guys always in a little olive oil or butter, never in water (they’ll just be mushy). But they’re absolutely killer fried.
(Pillowy-Soft!) Spinach & Ricotta Keto Ravioli
Ingredients
For the keto pasta dough
- 96 g almond flour
- 24 g coconut flour
- 2 teaspoons xanthan gum
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt depending on whether sweet or savory
- 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 egg lightly beaten
- 3-5 teaspoons water
For the ricotta & spinach filling:
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil for cooking
- 2 cloves garlic grated or ran through a press
- 400 g spinach
- 250 g ricotta cheese
- 40 g Parmesan cheese freshly grated
- 30 g pine nuts lightly toasted
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- kosher salt to taste
- black pepper freshly ground to taste
- 1 egg yolk
To serve
- 56 g grass-fed butter as needed
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 4 cloves garlic slivered
- 4 thyme springs
- cherry tomatoes to taste
- Parmesan cheese slivered
Instructions
For the keto pasta dough
- Add almond flour, coconut flour, xanthan gum and salt to food processor. Pulse until thoroughly combined.
- Pour in apple cider vinegar with the food processor running. Once it has distributed evenly, pour in the egg. Add water teaspoon by teaspoon, as needed, until the dough forms into a ball. The dough should be firm, yet sticky to touch and with no creases (which mean the dough is dry and you need to add a little more water).
- Wrap dough in cling film and knead it through the plastic for a couple minutes. Think of it a bit like a stress ball. Allow dough to rest for 15 minutes at room temperature and place in the fridge for 45 minutes (and up to five days).
For the ricotta & spinach filling:
- Heat up olive oil in a skillet or pan over medium heat. Add garlic and sauté briefly until golden. Add spinach and turn down the heat. Once wilted, squeeze out excess liquid, transfer it to a board and roughly chop it. Allow to cool.
- Mix spinach with ricotta, grated Parmesan cheese, toasted pine nuts and freshly grated nutmeg. Season to taste with salt and freshly ground pepper to taste. Mix in egg yolk.
To assemble the keto ravioli
- Roll out the pasta to its thinnest point using a pasta machine or a tortilla press (between parchment paper). You can also use a rolling pin, but it'll take a little longer. The dough should end up translucent when held up against natural light.
- Heap roughly a tablespoon of filling onto the dough (see pictures in post). Drape a second piece over it and press down around the edges to seal, removing any air bubbles. The dough will sticky, so no egg wash is needed. Trim the edges close to the filling using a cookie cutter (or pizza cutter/knife/glass). Place all the ravioli on a baking tray and freeze for 15 minutes prior to cooking.
For the thyme-butter sauce
- Heat up butter and oil in a skillet or pan over low heat. Once warm, add in garlic slivers and thyme. When the garlic begins to brown, add in chilled ravioli.
- Cook ravioli in the butter until golden all over, a minute or two on each side. If the garlic slivers begin to brown too much, you'll want to pull them out (do not discard).
- Serve right away over a bed of cherry tomatoes and topped with slivered parmesan and the crispy garlic slivers (opt out if garlic isn't your thing).
Let me preface this by saying this is the only recipe I’ve ever made of yours that I didn’t love. Literally all of your recipes are *amazing* so I hate to write this! But wanted to share: I followed recipe exactly, and even used a tortilla press and ravioli stamp. They looked perfect, smelled amazing, but the texture and taste was a 6/10 for me. The texture was more of a calzone than a ravioli noodle. I would definitely use this as a calzone dough though and I think it would be amaaaazing. I ended up with way more filling than dough so I would suggest those following to cut filling recipe in half.
Elyse, thanks for commenting. I am glad you thought outside the box regarding using the dough as a calzone. I haven’t tried this yet, but, will take you thoughts into consideration. Thanks for the input. Happy Ketoing!
Would i still beable to make this without a processor?
Wow! I just made a test recipe (only 4 ravioli) and it turned out great! I even cooked it too long (made it a bit crunchy, but still great!) Will be making a big batch tonight for dinner. Thankyou!!♡
Who are you woman!! OMG!! I am trying to go low carb to lose weight and boy, do I love carbs!!
You are amazing to create and share these carb substitutes with us. Thank you!! I love raviolis and pasta and sick of eating just cauliflower rice. Thank you Paola!
Awww looool thanks N!! If you’re into pasta, you might want to check out the (3g net carb!) option we released for you guys 😉 https://www.getnooda.com
xo!
I made these and used a 3″ round circular ravioli cutter, and the dough recipe yielded approximately 11 ravioli. I did roll the dough to translucent thinness and filled as much as I could with the filling but have around 50/55% of the filling still after filling all of those and exhausting the dough. I served mine with a sauteed seafood mix. The taste of these done is phenomenal! I would just either cut the filling recipe in 1/2 or double the dough recipe.
Ummm I ended up with more filling than dough? I didnt have a food process so I did it old school. Where did I go wrong? So 6 pieces of ravioli is all I yielded. Maybe I screwed up the dough?
Sadly, many folks with gluten intolerance cannot consume any of the gums either, as their guts respond to all gums as if they are gluten. Just a shout out for those for whom this may be an issue …
I used chia seeds instead of xanthan gum.
Would this dough work for lasagna?
I made lasagne today using the dough recipe, subbed chia seeds for xanthan gum, as I didn’t have any. I made the dough in the food processor, chilled it, cut it in half, and rolled out with a rolling pin as thin as I could. Ended up approx 1mm thick. I rolled between parchment paper. Then transferred the dough to a pizza tray and baked it for 7min at 160C. Let cool, then cut into lasagne dish size, and proceeded as normal. Lasagne had a nutty and coconutty flavour, but was not unpleasant, just different. Will be making this again. 🙂
Quick question, how many raviolois would be considered a serving? Counting carbs…………
I believe I understood it to say that the nutrition information was per EACH ravioli if you got 20 total from the recipe and FOUR ravioli is 6 net carbs – again if you get 20 total from the recipe. She wrote: “Nutrition facts below were estimated per ravioli with the filling, so a serving of four pieces is 6g net carbs.”
Omg!!!! These were so good! Made a batch yesterday using my 2 inch ravioli stamper and was able to get 30. I put them all in the freezer and made 10 today…soooo delicious! Definitely time consuming to make, but TOTALLY worth it! Next time I make these will make a double batch to keep in freezer…soooo yummy and filling!!
I have to admit…I really screwed up on this recipe. I was creating several meals and had other things to tend to so the night before I had written down the ingredient to the filling. I decided to add leftover chicken to mine. I didn’t think about sautéing the spinach or toasting the pine nuts. I just created a filling. Made the dough as per process. Found an old grill cheese maker to flatten out the dough. Then used a cake pop holder to create pockets to make the ravioli. I would equate them to toasted perogies and you could even add sour cream. Five pieces were plenty filling enough!!
I haven’t made these yet, but now you have me thinking about making cauli fauxtatoes with carmelized onions and cheese as the filling and going full on pierogi. Yum.