Ravioli
rah-vee-OH-lee
Filling sealed between two squares of egg sheet, edges crimped.
47.5 mm wide, 0.8 mm thick
Name. Possibly from rabiole, Genoese for leftovers, the scraps that went into the filling. First recorded in the 1200s.
What it is
Ravioli are the general name for a square or round parcel of filling sealed between two sheets of egg pasta. Every region has its own: ricotta and spinach in the north, meat in Piedmont, fish in Liguria, potato in Mugello, and a hundred others under local names.
The filling is the dish and the sauce is a dressing. Ravioli are also the standard frozen and canned pasta of the supermarket.
How to cook ravioli
3 to 6 minutes in boiling salted water. Take the shorter time for al dente, the longer time for fully cooked.
3:00
Start when the water returns to the boil.
Water and salt
- Pasta, dry
- 400 g
- Water
- 4 L
- Salt
- 40 g
100 g per person as a main. A litre and 10 g of salt per 100 g. Adjust with the portion calculator.
The steps
- Bring 4 L of water to a full boil in a tall pot. Add 40 g of salt when it boils.
- Add the ravioli. Stir for the first minute so nothing sticks. Start the timer when the water returns to the boil.
- Keep the water at a gentle boil, not a rolling one, so the parcels do not split. They are done about a minute after they float.
- Scoop out a cup of the cooking water. Drain, or lift the pasta straight into the pan.
- Toss with the sauce over the heat for a minute. Add cooking water a splash at a time until it clings.
Read more: what al dente means and why the pasta water matters. Times for every shape are on the cook page.
How it holds sauce
The filling carries the flavour, so the sauce stays simple and smooth: brown butter with sage, a light tomato, a little cream, or a broth. A heavy ragu fights the filling and tears the pasta.
Pairs with: Butter and sage · Pomodoro · In brodo · Cream sauce · Walnut sauce
Classic plates: Ravioli ricotta e spinaci al burro e salvia, Ravioli di magro, Ravioli di carne al sugo, Ravioli di pesce.
Nutrition
Per 100 g of fresh pasta. The shape does not change these numbers. The dough does, so a whole wheat or egg version of this shape reads differently. See every dough.
| Per 100 g | Energy | Protein | Carbohydrate | Fibre | Fat | Sodium | Iron |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dry | 288 kcal | 11.3 g | 54.7 g | g | 2.3 g | 26 mg | 3.4 mg |
| Cooked | 131 kcal | 5.2 g | 24.9 g | g | 1.1 g | 6 mg | 1.1 mg |
One portion. 100 g dry becomes about 220 g cooked, 288 kcal and 11 g of protein. Pasta takes on 2.2 times its weight in the pot.
Who makes ravioli
2656 ravioli products are catalogued, most of them sold in France, Italy, Switzerland. Of those, 375 are organic.
Brands: Rana (82), Lustucru (77), Saint Jean (58), Panzani (57), Carrefour (53), Giovanni Rana (51), Zapetti (50), Auchan (47), Viči (34), Lidl (28).
No ravioli? Use these
Ranked by how they behave with sauce, not how they look. Full substitute list.
Side by side
Easy to confuse with
Tortelli
Stuffed · Emilia-Romagna
filled parcel, square, rectangular, or rolled, by region
Agnolotti
Stuffed · Piedmont
small pillow of roast meat filling, folded from one sheet and cut
Mezzelune
Stuffed · Trentino-Alto Adige
circle folded in half over a filling into a half-moon
Tortelloni
Stuffed · Emilia-Romagna
large tortellini, folded the same way around a ricotta filling
Other names
raviolo, ravioli di magro, ravioli di ricotta.
Read more
Semolina versus egg dough: the two doughs of Italian pasta
The difference between durum semolina pasta and egg pasta: flour, water, eggs, where each is made, how each cooks, and which sauces each dough wants.
Fresh versus dried pasta: neither is better, they are different foods
The difference between fresh and dried pasta: dough, texture, cook time, storage, and which shapes and sauces belong to each.
Sources
- Cook time: fresh; dried or frozen 6 to 10 min.
- Photograph: Ravioli-casalinghi-con-la-ricotta-2.jpg, G. Melfi, CC BY-SA 3.0.
- Open Food Facts (products, brands, labels), Open Database License, read on 2026-08-25.
- USDA FoodData Central (nutrition per 100 g, by dough: FDC 169727, Pasta, fresh-refrigerated, plain, as purchased; FDC 169728, Pasta, fresh-refrigerated, plain, cooked), public domain. The cooked yield is derived from the two energy figures.
- Ravioli, Wikipedia (names, origin), CC BY-SA 4.0
- Dimensions: brand spec sheets and measured boxes. Blank fields are unmeasured, never guessed.