Holy Ravioli!

I took a stab at making my own homemade ravioli! I can't believe I thought it would be hard. All pasta is is flour, salt, water, oil, and a binder. Many use eggs, but in the age of allergy awareness-(and I'm hoping a dash of compassion), many companies make their pasta vegan.
Just buy a bag of semolina flour and follow the basic pasta dough directions. To veganize, sub each egg required with 1T flax meal+3T warm water.
After you mix the dough, let it take a nap for about 20-30 minutes to let the gluten do it's thang. Flour a surface and roll it flat, about 1/8 of an inch, but no more than 1/4 of an inch. Take a pizza cutter-(or ravioli cutter if you have one, but if you do chances are you don't need this tutorial) and cut into 2x2 squares. Spoon your favorite filling using a heaping teaspoon, being careful to not overfill. I used a mixture of garlic, soysage, oregano, salt, tofutti cream cheese, spinach, and some bread crumbs.
Watch me go! I put one square over the other and pinch the edges with a fork so it looks like a gnawdorable lil' pillow.
A pillow filled with magical spinachey goodness.








Don't eat it raw! Get some water boiling as you make your ravioli. Get it to a rollin' boil. Throw those babies in there, and set a timer. You want to watch 'em float.

In the meantime, preheat your oven for 350. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Once your ravioli are all boiled, brush with a lil' olive oil and place them on the paper. Bake for about 5-7 minutes. You don't want them to dry out, just not be so soggy.

Now cover them with some marinara and vegan parm. Don't worry, I'll give you the recipe:

1/2 c. raw pumpkin seeds
1/8 c. nutritional yeast
1/8 t. salt
1/2. t. garlic powder
1/2. t. Ms. Dash Sun Dried Tomato and Basil Blend

Put all ingredients in a coffee bean grinder and pulse a few times. If you don't have one, then pulse a few times in a blender. If you don't have that, get a baggie and smash the hell out of the seeds with a meat tenderizer and mix the seeds with the nutritional yeast, salt, and spice blend.
Store in an airtight container.

Look, it's spaghetti.

Ah, one of the cheapest meals to make no matter if your omni or vegan--spaghetti. Kind of unexciting, I know. Until I smell the garlic, onions, and peppers sauteing in the olive oil, and then I just start to feel classy. I add the tomato sauce and paste***magic wand flourish*** it's a nice filling dish, especially when paired with a green veggie.

Aside from my use of smart ground and spaghetti noodles, the sauce was made from scratch. Tomatoes from my garden were cooked down into paste and sauce. Basil-(garden), garlic, onions, peppers-(garden) joined the free-for-all in my stock pot. Yes it took some time, but there was some satisfaction in eating something I made from stuff I grew all by mahself.

I normally don't use commercial vegan crumbles. When they're on sale, I do use them just because it's easy and I have lazy tendencies like everyone else. The crumbles could have easily been subbed with some cooked white beans or lentils, or better yet-- plain veggies are awesome. No shame in simplicity.

The Parmesan? It's super simple, really. No, really--you don't have to spend $7 on a friggin' container of sprinkle cheese substitute. Eat something real! I use 1/3 c. nutritional yeast, 1/2 t. garlic powder, 1/4 c oat flour, 1/2 t. salt, and some oregano. Mix it together and you have vegan parm. Store that in a tupperware container and use it for other stuff. That makes pesto siiiiiing.

i don't wanna work, i just wanna bang on my timbale all day...

okay okay...i'm confused. when i saw this being made on the food network's itallian cookin' show, the chick said that this was called a timbale, which meant drum in itallian. i looked up timbale on google, and it's a term for a cone shaped mold in cooking and is derived from "thimble". i think it's itallian for "yummy veganized eggplant upside down casserole". this was really pretty and i didn't want to cut it, but we were all hungry. it all fell apart and didn't make neat pie-like slices like the food network lady, but oh well. i think to preserve the prettiness during presentation (sorry for the alliteration), i'll make mini timbales with cupcake tins. i'll let you know how it works out.

anyway, i'm not a recipe person so here's a loose interpretation

• cooked pasta (the recipe called for ziti, but i used macaroni because it was on sale. i used the fortified stuff that has lots o' protien and fiber)
• pasta sauce- i made some home made from tomatoes, tomato paste, oregano, basil...you foodies know how to make sauce, right?
• peas
• smart ground seasoned with some sage and fennel seeds. or you can just buy gimme lean sausage
• follow your heart mozzarella
• grilled eggplant slices- (a couple large eggplants worth)
• basil for garnish
• round casserole pan (the recipe calls for a spring form pan, but us punks use what we can)

so you cook the macaroni and drain. cook the mock meat in a skillet with the peas. mix pasta, fake meat, peas, and sauce (this will look like goulash) and set aside. preheat the oven to 350. take that casserole dish and line the pan with grilled eggplant. it is very important that you grill the eggplant. line the pan so that the eggplant hangs over kind of like long flower petals. make sure the bottom of the pan is covered. okay, put some shredded follow your heart mozzie on the eggplant, then add the goulash mixture, then sprinkle some more on top. fold the eggplant slices over so it looks like a nice little package. take any remaining eggplant slices and cover the top of the casserole with it. you shouldn't see any goulash at all. bake in the oven for 45 minutes. take out of oven and let cool for 5-10 minutes. take a plate and put on top of casserole and turn upside down like you would an upside down cake. if you're lucky, it'll turn out pretty. marvel at the pretty. top with some fresh basil leaves and take a picture. if you're feeling ambitious, make some vegan tiramisu for dessert.

i hope that made sense.