Mushroom Ravioli Recipe: How to Make Mushroom Ravioli

Mushroom ravioli is a style of Italian pasta featuring a mushroom filling encased in a thin envelope of pasta dough. Ravioli come in many shapes and sizes, from large half-moons (mezzaluna pasta) to bite-size squares known as ravioletti.

To make the filling, use any variety of edible mushrooms, including wild mushrooms, button mushrooms, cremini, dried porcini mushrooms, or a mixture of multiple types.

There are many ways to mushroom ravioli: floating in a chicken or mushroom broth, coated in cream sauce, or sautéed with brown butter or olive oil. Here are some more ideas:

1. 1. Coated in a cream sauce: For a more decadent take on mushroom ravioli, toss the pasta with a creamy sauce such as an Alfredo sauce made with butter, heavy cream, ground black pepper, and freshly grated Parmesan. Learn how to make Alfredo sauce from scratch.
2. 2. Floating in broth: In Italy, one of the most popular ways to serve filled pasta is “in brodo” (“in broth”). You can make an easy mushroom broth from the liquid left behind after rehydrating dried mushrooms such as porcinis and shiitakes. (Use the rehydrated mushrooms for the ravioli filling.) If using fresh fungi, take inspiration from Chef Massimo Bottura’s passatelli in brodo and craft your own “brodo di tutto” (“broth of everything”) out of vegetable scraps, including the woody stems of the mushrooms.
3. 3. In a brown butter sauce: Brown butter sauce cooked with shallots and sage is a classic sauce for gnocchi, but these savory flavors also work well with mushroom ravioli. After boiling the mushroom ravioli, sauté them in brown butter along with your favorite aromatics. Serve the ravioli with freshly cracked pepper and grated Parmesan cheese.
   
4. 4. Tossed with pesto: Serve mushroom ravioli with a bright pesto sauce made with garlic cloves, Parmesan cheese, pine nuts, fresh basil leaves, a drizzle of olive oil, and a pinch of salt. Try Chef Massimo Bottura’s basil mint pesto for a subtle twist on the classic.
5. 5. With more mushrooms: Sauté or grill extra mushrooms for garnish. Make a broth with the mushroom trimmings, sautéed onions, and fresh thyme, or use an enriched chicken broth as the base of the sauce along with melted butter. Serve with a drizzle of olive oil and this gremolata recipe featuring a dry mixture of parsley, garlic, and lemon rind.

Making fresh pasta from scratch doesn’t have to be complicated. Here’s what to know:

1. 1. Use a variety of mushrooms. For mushroom ravioli with delicious flavor and a range of textures, use a combination of different kinds of mushrooms. Try rehydrated dried mushrooms like porcini paired with fresh cremini mushrooms sautéed in an onion and garlic mixture.
2. 2. Roll the dough into a thin sheet. The thinner the dough, the more delicate and snappy the mushroom ravioli will be. As the old saying goes, you should be able to read the newspaper through a sheet of properly rolled pasta dough. Rolling the dough correctly also makes it easier to seal the edges and encase your filling. After cooking, the mushroom ravioli should have the gentlest give as you bite into it, rather than a thick, doughy chew.
3. 3. Seal the edges. Unlike tortellini—another pasta shape that relies on folding to seal its contents inside—mushroom ravioli need a bit of water to help them close. After sealing the ravioli, cut them out with a crimping-style pasta cutter, paring knife, or a ravioli mold. Sealing the pasta with water helps ensure that the filling will not leak out in the cooking process.
4. 4. Make extra mushroom ravioli and freeze. Prepare more mushroom ravioli than you plan on serving, and store the leftovers in a freezer bag. To reheat frozen ravioli, simply boil them in a large pot of salted water until fully cooked. (They will take a bit longer to cook than fresh ravioli.) Frozen homemade ravioli will keep in the fridge for up to two months.