7 Of The Best Sauces for Ravioli Served in Restaurants

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Whether you make your own homemade ravioli like me, or buy the from a store, it's useful to have a few easy sauces in your tool kit to serve them with. After getting a number of requests for different sauces to serve with ravioli, I put together a small list of some of the best sauces for ravioli I've made over the years. While there won't be an explicit recipe card for each sauce, I'm going to do my best to describe the recipes in the text and images for you.

An infographic showing 4 different sauces served with ravioli. — Ravioli sauces infographic.

Chef's Tips

Remember less is more. The focus of ravioli should be on the filled pasta-the sauce is just supposed to be a supporting accent that doesn't overpower them. Although, with mild fillings like cheese you can get a little more aggressive with the seasonings.
There's nothing wrong with tossing ravioli in nothing more than a little butter. It's also a great place to use flavored compound butters like truffle butter or mushroom butter.
Also, I know I live in America, but for the sake of clarity, the plural form of ravioli is ravioli, spelling it with an "s" on the end to raviolis is an incorrect English spelling. A single ravioli is a raviolo, and is typically much larger than the ravioli shown here.
Cheese, especially parmesan and Parmigiano Reggiano, tend to clump when cooked. Instead of adding cheese directly to the sauce, serve some at the table so the cheese keeps its integrity.

Classic Broken Brown Butter Sauce

Nothing more than butter cooked until the milk solids start to brown, this is the simplest, and makes the best sauce for butternut squash ravioli. The key is technique. The more brown the butter gets (without burning) the better the sauce will be. It's called a broken butter sauce as there's not enough liquid in it for it to be emulsified.

Ravioli in a pan with brown butter sage sauce. — Classic broken brown butter sauce.

To make brown butter sauce for two people, cook 3 tablespoons of unsalted butter in a pan, swirling it until the butter turns light brown and smells nutty. Add a tablespoon of sliced sage or mint, cook for a moment, than add ¼ cup dry white wine. Add the cooked ravioli to the pan, along with a splash of pasta water if needed, double check the seasoning for salt and serve.

Cooking unsalted butter in a pan to make brown butter. — Cooking unsalted butter in a pan.

A pan tilted to show the exact stage of perfect brown butter before adding wine to the pan. — The butter should be browned and aromatic before the wine is added.

A pan of brown butter sauce with fresh sage or mint leaves and wine. — Add fresh sage or mint leaves to the pan before adding the wine.

It's fine on it's own, but also good spooned on top of a simple ravioli di magro, served on top of a pool of marinara with the brown butter sauce spooned over the top.

Ravioli in a browned butter sauce on top of tomato marinara. — Ravioli in browned butter sauce on top of a smooth marinara.

Emulsified Brown Butter Sauce

Perfectly rich but not overpowering, this is one of the best sauces for mushroom ravioli. In restaurants brown butter sauce is often served emulsified with a knob of fresh butter to make it creamy. The process starts out the same as the regular brown butter sauce.

A plate of cooked porcini mushroom ravioli on a plate with a brown butter sauce, spinach and sauteed fresh porcini. — Mushroom ravioli with a brown butter sauce, spinach and sauteed fresh porcini.

To make the emulsified brown butter sauce for two people, cook two tablespoons of butter until nut brown and aromatic, add a ¼ cup dry white wine, ¼ cup chicken stock, and two tablespoons cold, diced butter.

Deglazing a pan of brown butter with white wine.

Adding cold butter to a pan of brown butter sauce and whisking it to make it creamy. — Adding cold butter to the pan and tilting it to concentrate the liquid.

Vigorously whisking a pan of brown butter sauce to melt the butter and make it creamy. — Whisking the sauce and tilting the pan to concentrate the liquid.

Simmer gently, whisking the sauce constantly until it barely coats the back of a spoon. Add the ravioli, simmer for a minute to enrich the sauce with starch, and serve. Spinach and mushrooms are a great addition as pictured.

Cooked porcini ravioli simmering in a brown butter sauce with spinach and sauteed porcini. — Simmering the ravioli to thicken the sauce.

Tomato-Beer Butter Sauce

One of my all time favorite ravioli sauces from the years I was sous chef at an Italian restaurant in St. Paul, this is a simple tomato butter sauce flavored with a splash of slightly bitter Italian Peroni beer. Dark beers should not be used here.

To make the sauce for two people, sweat 1 oz of diced or minced shallot in unsalted butter until translucent, then deglaze with a good ¼ of Peroni beer. Add ¼ cup chicken stock and ¼ cup tomato paste.

Adding Peroni beer to a pan of cooked shallots. — Deglazing the pan with beer.

Adding tomato sauce to a pan of beer and shallots. — Adding a small amount of tomato puree to the pan.

Add 2-3 tablespoons of unsalted butter to the pan and cook until thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.

Adding cold diced butter to make a tomato-beer butter sauce for ravioli. — Adding cold butter to thicken and enrich the sauce.

Add the ravioli and toss to coat, diluting the sauce with a splash of pasta water if it becomes too thick. I like to add fresh sliced mint or basil leaves.

Mushroom ravioli on a plate dressed with tomato beer butter sauce. — Porcini mushroom ravioli with a tomato-beer butter sauce and fresh mint.

While the light tomato sauce is good with just about anything, I really like it with shrimp or lobster ravioli, and you can substitute champagne or vodka for the beer. Make sure to add a pinch of crushed red pepper flakes too. Tarragon or mint are also very good.

Spinach Puree

A simple, elegant sauce I like to make when I want a ravioli sauce without cream. It's nothing more than spinach pureed into baby food with olive oil in a high speed blender. It's the perfect compliment to ravioli with rich cheese fillings.

To make the spinach puree for two people, trim the stems from 1.5 lbs of spinach so you have about 1 pound. Blanch the spinach in boiling salted water for 30 seconds or until just wilted, then shock in an ice bath.

Blanching spinach in a pot of boiling water.

Chilling blanched spinach in an ice bath.

Remove the spinach without completely draining it, and put it in a blender like a Vitamix. Drizzle in extra virgin olive oil as you puree the spinach to help it get smooth and velvety.

Making spinach puree in a blender and drizzling in olive oil to make it smooth. — Drizzling olive oil into a blender to make the sauce smooth.

A blender full of fresh spinach puree. — Pureeing the sauce until very smooth.

You may need about ¼ cup of olive oil. Adjust the seasoning for salt to taste and refrigerate until needed. You can gently reheat the puree, spooning a pool of it onto an entree plate, nestling the ravioli on top.

Mushroom ravioli on a bed of fresh spinach puree with sauteed mushrooms. — Mushroom ravioli on a bed of spinach puree with sauteed maitake mushrooms.

Classic, Smooth Marinara Sauce

When I would make pasta for my college roommates or my little brother and sister this is what I make. It's the perfect thing for picky eaters, or if you just want a mild, slightly sweet, basic tomato sauce. It's one of the best sauces for ricotta and spinach ravioli.

Ravioli marinara on a plate garnished with parmesan cheese. — Ravioli on a bed of fresh marinara sauce garnished with parmesan cheese.

It is technically marinara as it contains vegetables where tomato sauces called sugos or ragus may not include anything more than garlic or onion, if that. It's a workhorse sauce you can use with just about any pasta you want.

To make the sauce to serve 4 people, take a 32 oz can of whole peeled tomatoes, squeeze the seeds out and puree the tomatoes in their juice, passing them through a food mill for the smoothest, seedless product.

Sweat 1 oz each of carrot, shallot and celery with 1 chopped clove of garlic in 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter until soft. Add the tomato puree and simmer for 5-10 minutes, then puree until smooth in a blender.

Cooking carrot, garlic, onion and celery in a pot to make marinara. — Cooking mirepoix in butter.

Adding pureed, canned peeled tomatoes to a pot of carrot onion and celery. — Adding the tomato puree to the pot.

Pureeing fresh marinara sauce with a hand blender.

Adjust the seasoning for salt and serve. You can toss the ravioli in the sauce or spoon it underneath them.

Ravioli en Brodo (Broth)

The lightest sauce for ravioli is broth. Here you want a good, homemade stock, and there's countless versions you could make. Dried mushrooms make one of the best broths, but as long as the broth is clear you can use just about anything you want. My smoked bone broth is nice, especially with cheese ravioli.

Pouring broth into a bowl of mushroom ravioli with spinach and chanterelle mushrooms. — Mushroom ravioli with spinach, porcini broth and chanterelles.

Broth is a light way to serve ravioli and especially tortellini, but it also lets you garnish the finished dish with flavored or colored oils. The oils will bead and float on top of the liquid giving it an attractive look and flavor.

Mushroom ravioli en brodo garnished with truffle oil. — Mushroom ravioli en brodo garnished with white truffle oil.

Walnut Sauce (Salsa di Noci)

The richest sauce I know of is made from walnuts or other nuts, a little garlic, wine, chicken stock and cream. I'm outlining the easiest way to make it, but I also have a more involved, traditional version that uses stale bread soaked in milk. The bread version is a little lighter than the cream version, but both are good.

Freshly cooked ravioli in a black walnut salsa di noci. — Mushroom ravioli in black walnut salsa di noci.

It's especially good with a bitter greens filling as it's the traditional sauce served with Ligurian pansotti. I'm using black walnuts, but you can use just about any nut or seed that can be ground.

To make the walnut sauce for two people, melt two tablespoons of unsalted butter in a sauce pan with one medium minced clove of garlic for a minute. Add ½ cup raw walnuts ground in a spice grinder and cook until the mixture foams and the walnuts start to turn golden.

Adding ground walnuts to a pan of garlic and butter.

A close up image showing ground black walnuts being cooked in a pan and getting browned. — Cook the walnuts until they start to brown and turn golden.

Adding dry white wine to a pan of salsa di noci walnut sauce. — Deglazing the pan with dry white wine.

Add ¼ cup of dry white wine, and ¼ cup chicken stock and reduce by half. Add ¼ cup heavy cream, mix and simmer for a moment until thickened, then add the ravioli, double check the seasoning and serve immediately.

Adding heavy cream to a pan of walnut sauce. — Adding heavy cream to a pan.

Fresh ravioli simmering in a pan of walnut salsa di noci. — Tossing ravioli in the walnut sauce.

The sauce can get tight from the starch of the nuts-loosen it with a splash of pasta cooking water if you need. Pictured below is the sauce served with the traditional pansotti shaped pasta.