Making ravioli with wonton wrappers is my new favorite thing for a super fancy yet easy weeknight dinner! Come along on my journey to making the best wonton wrapper ravioli!
I swear I was an Italian in another life. My obsession with pasta is nothing short of exceptional, and if I could eat it for dinner every night of the week and not gain a thousand pounds, I definitely would. (Unfortunately, my husband does not share my sentiments, and alas my body weight can’t take it. Therefore, we are forced to sometimes not eat pasta.) Regardless, ravioli is definitely my favorite pasta, and while I love the methodic, calming techniques of making ravioli from scratch (maybe I’m crazy?), it’s just not feasible on a weeknight.
Enter: the wonton wrapper ravioli! This craze has been all over the Pinterest-realm lately, and so I thought I’d take a stab at it. I’ve been making ravioli using this method now for several months, and let me tell you: it isn’t easy at first! Here are my top three tips I’ve learned along the way for making successful wonton wrapper ravioli!
Related: Spring Asparagus and Pea Ravioli with Lemon Beurre Blanc
1. Choose the right wonton wrapper.
There are all sorts of wonton wrappers out there, it’s a little confusing, no? There are two main styles of wrappers that I compared, and I added a third unique “vegetable” flavored wrapper for comparison also. Here are the results:
1. Hong Kong style
Hong Kong style wrappers are a super thin style of wrapper made with eggs, giving it a yellow hue. These wrappers are very rich when it comes to their flavor, and while creating the ravioli they behave much like true pasta dough does. When it comes to their use in Asian cuisine, they are typically use to make fried wontons.
2. Shanghai style
These wrappers are eggless, and therefore are a whiter color and are thicker. This makes them great for vegans who want ravioli! The increased thickness compared to the Hong Kong style means they are doughier, which I don’t love when it comes to ravioli but this is obviously a personal preference! When it comes to Asian cuisine, these wrappers are more often used to make dumplings.
3. Vegetable style
These wrappers I threw in just for fun: what a pretty color! The consistency of these vegetable based wrappers is actually the closest to that of actual pasta dough when you are working with it, and this makes them very easy to fill and seal. In my opinion, the taste is pretty much the same as the non-vegetable wrappers. In terms of thickness, they are somewhere in between the Hong Kong and Shanghai wrapper thicknesses.
2. Prepare the perfect filling.
After you’ve chosen which wrappers you want to use, the filling comes next. You can substitute the wrappers for ravioli in pretty much any of your favorite ravioli recipes, but my recommendation is that you choose a recipe where the filling is more like a dough, not a batter. The filling should not be too “liquid-y” or else the wrappers will be very difficult to fill.
3. Seal the wrappers securely.
The most important step is the sealing of the wrappers! This step is crucial: a poor seal will mean your ravioli could easily bust open during the boiling process and leak their filling into your cooking water. Not fun. For these wrappers, the nice thing is that you don’t need any egg wash to seal the wrappers. I tested an egg wash against simple room temperature water and the water came out on top: the egg wash makes the wrappers too sticky and wet to seal properly. Here are my recommendations:
- Spoon about 1-2 tablespoons of filling into your wrapper.
- Lightly run a wet finger around the outside of the wrapper before topping with a second wrapper. Don’t add too much water; you want the wrapper moist but not too sticky.
- Use your fingers to press firmly around the edges of each ravioli, pushing out as much air as possible.
- I find these wrappers harder to seal firmly than regular pasta dough, so I also flip over each ravioli after sealing it and press down firmly on that side as well.
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook your ravioli for about 2-3 minutes. Don’t crowd the pot or they will stick together! Instead, cook in batches!
Then, top with your favorite sauce! For this post, I made one of my favoirte super simple weeknight ravioli recipes, Pumpkin Ravioli from Bon Appetit. This recipe is super simple, super quick, and super inexpensive! Here are some of my favorite dumpling wrappers and other products for making the perfect raviolis:
If you’re looking for more tasty recipes to make with wonton wrappers, be sure to check out my recipe for these lobster ravioli too:
