Keto Ravioli (No Cheese Dough, Pan-Fried, 6.5g Net Carbs)
- Total time
- 1 hour 45 minutes
- Makes
- 4 servings (5 ravioli)
- Net carbs
- 6.5g
- Calories
- 405
Every low carb pasta I had made until this one started the same way: melt a pile of mozzarella, stir flour into it, work fast before it seizes. It works. It also means everything you make tastes faintly of pizza.
These keto ravioli have no melted cheese in the dough at all. Almond flour, coconut flour, an egg, a splash of cider vinegar and two teaspoons of xanthan gum make a dough you can actually roll, chill and cut like real pasta. The filling is spinach and ricotta. Five ravioli come to 6.5g net carbs.
The one rule: they never touch boiling water.
Why These Keto Ravioli Use No Cheese in the Dough
Fathead dough gets its stretch from melted mozzarella, and mozzarella has a flavor. In a pizza base that is the point. Wrapped around a delicate ricotta filling it fights with it, and you end up tasting cheese through cheese.
Xanthan gum does the same structural job without the flavor. Two teaspoons in 120 grams of flour sounds like a lot, and it is — that is the whole reason this dough stretches instead of cracking. Cut it to one teaspoon and the sheet tears every time you try to lift it.
The vinegar is there for the same reason it goes into gluten-free bread. It softens the dough and makes it more elastic under the rolling pin.
My keto gnocchi are fathead through and through — mozzarella, Parmesan and almond flour, simmered then crisped. My 2-ingredient keto pasta is just mozzarella and egg yolks, dried overnight in the fridge before it is boiled. This dough is the only one on the site with no cheese in it, and it is the only one that behaves like a pasta sheet.
Recipe Overview
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Chilling: 45 minutes for the dough, plus 15 minutes in the freezer before cooking
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: about 1 hour 45 minutes
- Makes: 20 ravioli, 4 servings of 5
- Net Carbs: 6.5g per serving
- Difficulty: Medium
Ingredients
For the dough
| Ingredient | Quantity | Notes |
| Blanched almond flour | 96 g (about ¾ cup plus 2 tbsp) | Weigh it if you can |
| Coconut flour | 24 g (3 tbsp) | Absorbs the extra moisture |
| Xanthan gum | 2 tsp | Not optional, and not less |
| Apple cider vinegar | 2 tsp | Makes the dough more elastic |
| Large egg | 1 | Lightly beaten |
| Water | 3 to 5 tsp | Added a teaspoon at a time |
For the filling and the pan
| Ingredient | Quantity | Notes |
| Fresh spinach | 200 g (about 7 cups packed) | Wilts down to almost nothing |
| Whole-milk ricotta | 200 g (about ¾ cup) | Drain it if it looks wet |
| Parmesan cheese | 30 g (about ⅓ cup) | Finely grated |
| Large egg yolk | 1 | Binds the filling |
| Garlic clove | 1 | Minced |
| Ground nutmeg | ⅛ tsp | The classic partner to spinach and ricotta |
| Fine sea salt | ½ tsp total | ¼ tsp in the dough, ¼ tsp in the filling |
| Unsalted butter | 3 tbsp | For the pan |
Squeeze the spinach until you think you have broken it. Two hundred grams of raw leaves cooks down to a handful, and that handful still holds a surprising amount of water. Wet filling steams inside the ravioli and blows the seams open in the pan.
Ricotta varies a lot between brands. If yours sits in liquid in the tub, drain it in a sieve for 20 minutes while you make the dough.
Recipe Timing
| Order | Step | Time |
| 1 | Make the dough | 10 minutes |
| 2 | Rest at room temperature, then chill | 15 + 45 minutes |
| 3 | Cook and squeeze the spinach, mix the filling | 20 minutes |
| 4 | Roll, fill, seal and trim | 20 minutes |
| 5 | Freeze the finished ravioli | 15 minutes |
| 6 | Pan-fry in butter | 4 to 5 minutes |
Step-by-Step Instructions
1. Make the dough in a food processor
Pulse the blanched almond flour, coconut flour, xanthan gum and ¼ teaspoon of the fine sea salt until evenly mixed. With the motor running, pour in the apple cider vinegar, then the beaten large egg. Add the water one teaspoon at a time until it gathers into a ball.
You want it firm but tacky, with no dry cracks. Too dry and it will split when you roll it; too wet and it glues itself to the parchment.
2. Rest it, then chill it
Wrap the dough and leave it on the counter for 15 minutes, then refrigerate for 45. Both waits matter. The xanthan gum keeps hydrating the whole time, and a cold dough rolls thinner without tearing. It keeps in the fridge for up to five days.
3. Cook the spinach and build the filling
Wilt the fresh spinach in a dry pan over medium heat with the minced garlic clove, two or three minutes, until it collapses. Tip it into a sieve and cool it enough to handle, then squeeze it hard in a clean towel and chop it.
Mix the chopped spinach with the whole-milk ricotta, the grated Parmesan cheese, the large egg yolk, the ground nutmeg and the remaining ¼ teaspoon of fine sea salt. Chill the filling for 15 minutes so it firms up and spoons neatly.
4. Roll it until light comes through
Work with half the dough at a time and keep the rest cold. Roll it between two sheets of parchment until it is thinner than ⅛ inch, thin enough that you can see light through it when you lift the parchment to a window. This is the step people stop too early, and thick keto ravioli are heavy and doughy.
5. Fill, seal and trim
Peel off the top parchment. Spoon mounds of filling, about a tablespoon each, in rows with a good two-finger gap between them. Lay the second rolled sheet over the top.
Press down around each mound with your fingertips, working outward, and push every bubble of air out as you go. Trapped air expands in the hot pan and splits the seal. Cut around each one with a cookie cutter or a knife, then press the edges once more with a fork.
6. Freeze for 15 minutes
Lay the finished ravioli on a lined tray and freeze them for 15 minutes. They hold their shape far better going into a hot pan firm, and this is the cheapest insurance against a split seam there is.
7. Pan-fry in butter, never boil
Melt the unsalted butter in a large skillet over medium-low heat. Add the ravioli in one layer, not crowded, and cook 1 to 2 minutes a side until golden.
Two of the three sources I worked from will let you simmer these gently instead, and it does work, but the dough that survives water is a thicker one. The thin sheet this recipe asks for is much happier in butter, and the browned edges are better than anything boiling gives you.
Recipe Tips and Variations
Weigh the flours. A cup of almond flour can vary by 20 grams depending on how it was scooped, and this dough has no margin for that.
Three cheese filling. Skip the spinach and use 200 g ricotta, 60 g grated mozzarella and 40 g Parmesan with a pinch of black pepper.
Brown butter and sage. Keep frying the butter past golden until it smells nutty, add a few sage leaves for the last 30 seconds, and spoon it over.
Make the dough ahead. It keeps five days wrapped in the fridge, so the assembly can be a separate evening from the eating.
If a seam splits in the pan, you overfilled it or left air inside. Use less filling and press outward from the mound next time.
Serving Suggestions
Brown butter and Parmesan is the classic and it is hard to beat. For something saucier, my keto spaghetti sauce is a 30-minute tomato sauce that makes twelve half-cup servings, so there is always some in the freezer here.
A green salad and nothing else. These are rich, and five of them is a full plate.
Storage and Reheating
Uncooked, frozen: freeze on the tray until solid, then bag them for up to 3 months. Fry straight from frozen and add a minute a side.
Cooked, refrigerated: up to 3 days in an airtight container. Reheat in a buttered pan, not the microwave, which turns the shell soft.
Dough on its own: wrapped in the refrigerator up to 5 days.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I boil keto ravioli?
Not this dough, rolled this thin. If you want to try it, roll a little thicker, freeze them solid first, and use a bare simmer with no bubbles breaking the surface. A rolling boil will take them apart.
Can I leave out the xanthan gum?
No. It is the only thing making this dough stretch instead of crumble. There is no substitute that behaves the same way in a sheet this thin.
Why is my dough cracking as I roll it?
It is too dry, or it was not rested long enough. Work in another teaspoon of water, rewrap it, and give it 20 more minutes in the fridge.
Do I need a pasta machine?
No, and I would not use one. This dough is stickier than wheat pasta and does better between two sheets of parchment with an ordinary rolling pin.
How many carbs are in a serving?
Five ravioli are 6.5g net carbs and 405 calories, including the butter they are fried in. That is about 1.3g a ravioli.
More Keto Italian Recipes
- Keto Bolognese — a 40-minute meat sauce with beef bacon, grated zucchini and a little cream.
- Keto Alfredo Sauce — butter, cream, Parmesan and cream cheese in 25 minutes.
- Keto Meatballs — beef and dark-meat turkey, chilled before browning so they hold together.
- Keto Cabbage Rolls — cauliflower rice instead of rice, at 8.6g net carbs for two rolls.
Recipe Card
Want the same flavors in a tray? My keto lasagna bakes its noodles from eggs, cream cheese and almond flour, and they can be made a day ahead.
Keto Ravioli
Equipment
- Food processor
- Rolling Pin no pasta machine
- Parchment paper 4 sheets
- Cookie cutter about 2 1/2 inches, or a knife
- Large skillet
Ingredients
Dough
- 96 g blanched almond flour about 3/4 cup plus 2 tbsp
- 24 g coconut flour 3 tbsp
- 2 tsp xanthan gum not optional, and not less
- 2 tsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 large egg lightly beaten
- 3-5 tsp water added a teaspoon at a time
Filling
- 200 g fresh spinach about 7 cups packed
- 200 g whole-milk ricotta about 3/4 cup, drained if wet
- 30 g Parmesan cheese finely grated
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 garlic clove minced
- 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp fine sea salt 1/4 tsp in the dough, 1/4 tsp in the filling
To cook
- 3 tbsp unsalted butter
Instructions
- Dough: Pulse the blanched almond flour, coconut flour, xanthan gum and 1/4 tsp of the fine sea salt in a food processor. With the motor running add the apple cider vinegar, then the beaten large egg, then the water a teaspoon at a time until a firm, tacky ball forms with no dry cracks.
- Rest: Wrap and rest 15 minutes at room temperature, then refrigerate 45 minutes (up to 5 days).
- Filling: Wilt the fresh spinach with the minced garlic clove in a dry pan over medium heat, 2-3 minutes. Cool, squeeze hard in a clean towel and chop. Mix with the whole-milk ricotta, grated Parmesan cheese, large egg yolk, ground nutmeg and the remaining 1/4 tsp fine sea salt. Chill 15 minutes.
- Roll: Working with half the dough at a time and keeping the rest cold, roll between two sheets of parchment to thinner than 1/8 inch, thin enough to see light through.
- Fill and seal: Spoon about 1 tbsp mounds of filling in rows with a two-finger gap. Lay a second sheet over, press down around each mound working outward to push out every air bubble, then cut out with a cookie cutter or knife and press the edges with a fork.
- Freeze: Lay on a lined tray and freeze 15 minutes so they hold their shape.
- Fry: Melt the unsalted butter in a large skillet over medium-low heat. Cook the ravioli in a single uncrowded layer, 1-2 minutes a side, until golden. Do not boil them.
Notes
Keep cooking
