Homemade Ricotta Cavatelli (2024)

The Best Homemade Ricotta Cavatelli Recipe! A delicious, authentic Italian dinner that is easy to make with only 4 ingredients. A must try! Learn how to make the best homemade pasta with this easy recipe!

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Growing up in an Italian family, pasta on Sundays was a staple. My mom or grandparents would always have a pot of sauce filled with meatballs, sausage, and braciola simmering for hours.

We still have Sunday sauce every week (this is the tomato sauce recipe we use!) and it’s still something I look forward to!

It’s a little different depending on what meat we have on hand – sometimes toss these meatballs in, other weeks we opt for bolognese, but no matter what – it’s delicious!

Cavatelli have always been my favorite pasta, and today I’m showing you how to make them at home!

Cavatelli Recipe ingredients

To make ricotta cavatelli you’ll need:

• whole milk ricotta
• all purpose white flour
• salt
• water

You can find substitutions for all of these ingredients below in the green shaded substitutions box.

We also recommend getting a pasta board/ shaper. They’re less than $9 on amazon and make the process much quicker.

How to make Ricotta Cavatelli Pasta Recipe

1. In a bowl mix together flour, salt, ricotta, and water with hands.
2. At first the dough may seem sticky, but work the dough squeezing it together for about 2 minutes.
3. It will look a bit scraggly, don’t worry!
4. After 2 minutes the dough should be relatively formed together – enough that you can make a big ball.
5. Turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead for another 1-2 minutes. This helps the dough to become much smoother.
6. Set the dough aside and add more flour to your surface.

7. Knead the dough ball until smooth

8. Take about 2 tablespoons of dough and roll into a thin strip (about ½ inch thick)

9. Using a scissor or knife cut the strips into small balls (smaller than a dime)

10. Toss the balls with flour and then use the pasta tool or fork to shape (see above for step by step tutorial. We use the pasta block and press firmly with our pointer or thumb, rolling the pasta downward. Be liberal with the flour when rolling/shaping.

11. Place the cavatelli on a floured baking sheet (you can also use parchment paper) as you’re making them – shaking the sheet every few minutes to make sure they’re not sticking to one another Put the cavatelli in the freezer for 1 hour

12. When the cavatelli are frozen, pour them into a mesh strainer. Shake the excess flour off of them.

Store in a ziploc bag or container in the freezer until ready to eat.

When ready to cook – boil for about 4-5 minutes, or until cavatelli float to the top of the pan.

Serve however you like!

Technically – no you do not need the pasta tool. You can make the cavatelli with a fork, but they’re much more difficult to make with a fork and do not come out as well.

This pasta board is less than $10.

When you make the ricotta cavatelli with a fork, the dough sometimes gets stuck in the prongs and does not roll off easier. It will take you longer to make. You can see the difference in the images above. The left are the cavatelli made with the pasta board, the right are the ones made with a fork.

The ricotta cavatelli made with a pasta board curl much nicer and have more ridges, which soak up whatever sauce you’re going to toss them with.

How to make Ricotta Cavatelli Pasta with a machine

We do not have a cavatelli machine, but I’m sure you could use this dough in a machine! This machine has fairly good ratings on Amazon. Honestly, I would just recommend buying a block for under $10.

It’s more fun to make by hand! You can also get this two pack of blocks if you have a family and want to make them together!

See how all the ridges soak up the sauce? YUM.

Homemade Ricotta Cavatelli Tips

• Adding Water: You may need to add a little more water depending on your ingredients. If your dough is not coming together at all after a minute, add 1 tablespoon at a time until it starts to stick together. DO NOT add more than this at a time, you can always add more water, but once you’ve added it to the bowl you can’t take it away.
• Adding Flour:Conversely, if your dough is super sticky – you can add a little bit more flour. I’d add 1-2 tablespoons at a time.
• Consistency:The dough should almost feel a little thicker/dried than play dough. It shouldn’t be so soft that it turns to mush in your hands, but it also should be pliable enough that you can easily roll it/shape it.
• Use a lot of flour when rolling/shaping. Having the little balls coated thickly in flour will help them to slide down the pasta tool.
• Make sure you freeze the cavatelli before you cook them. If you put them directly in the pot after shaping they will lose their form.
• Make sure to shake off excess flour after you have frozen the cavatelli. If you do not shake off the excess flour you will wind up with gunky/cloudy pasta water.
• Stir frequently when boiling so that they don’t stick together
• Serving: This recipe makes about 2.5 lbs of cavatelli – 4 large servings or 6 smaller servings. It depends on how hungry you are!

Cavatelli Sauce Recipe

This is our favorite tomato sauce recipe! It’s so easy to make. We like to put meatballs and sausage in the sauce and let it cook for 24-48 hours.

You can also make a sauce of olive oil and garlic, serve them with this Healthy Bolognese, Rosemary Chicken Sauce, Healthier Alfredo Sauce or do a version of pasta primavera.

Cavatelli will go with pretty much any sauce you like! You could even use them in this Feta Pasta Recipe or with this Brown Butter Mushroom Sauce!

These cavatelli are worth the extra time it takes to make them. They’re absolutely delicious and simply the best homemade pasta! We hope you love them as much as we do!