DIY Freezer Meals: Cheese Ravioli

I’m still filling my freezer with extra meals to Save Time In The Kitchen. Last week it was Turkey Meatloaf and Toaster Waffles. This week it’s Cheese Ravioli.
As with the other meals, my method is to double a batch of whatever it is, serve some for dinner, and put the rest in the freezer.
I’ll admit this time was extra labor intensive because I had to form all the raviolis. However, since homemade ravioli tastes infinitely better, it was worth the work in my book.
Having a couple of dinner’s worth of homemade ravioli in the freezer feels like having gourmet food available that you can pull out any time.
To serve the frozen ravioli, all you have to do is drop them in boiling, salted water and serve with your favorite sauce.
I ended up with about 50 extra ravioli, or three meals worth, plus whatever we ate the first night (about 10?). With ravioli, a few go a long way.

DIY Freezer Meals: Cheese Ravioli
Ingredients:
For the Dough:

4 eggs + 1 egg for sealing the ravioli
4 cups flour
6 Tablespoons water
1/2 cup olive oil

For the Filling:

24 ounces ricotta, preferably whole milk
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella
1 teaspoon Kosher salt
1 cup Parmesan
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

Directions:

Make the Dough:
In a separate bowl, crack four eggs and muddle with a fork. Add the olive oil and water.
Sift 4 cups of flour into a mixer or bowl. Pour the egg mixture into the flour. Mix together for 1 minute on medium speed, or with a spoon or spatula, until you have a shaggy ball.
Knead the dough. I used a dough hook for my mixer and let it run for 3 minutes on medium until the dough became a shiny ball. Alternately, you can turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead by hand.
Let the dough sit for an hour.
For the Filling:
Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl. Taste for seasoning.
Make the raviolis by running the dough through a pasta machine, filling, and forming the ravioli. I go over my method in detail in this post.
If cooking right away: Heat a pot of boiling water. Add salt. Drop in the raviolis and wait until they float to the surface, about 2-3 minutes. Serve with your favorite sauces, like this simple Butter-Sage Sauce.
If freezing for later use: Put the raw raviolis on a cookie sheet and freeze until hard. Transfer to a freezer-safe container or bag. Label and freeze. On serving day, simply cook the ravioli in boiling salted water, as I mentioned above. Enjoy!

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