Monday, March 19, 2012

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.

5 comments:

Tami said...

Awesome job, Jen! I love homemade ravioli and need to do it more often.

grrr said...

Super fantastic! I'm totally inspired!

Erin said...

Super impressive!

Bianca said...

Yum! I made ravioli one time, but for some reason, I didn't make it in advance. I waited until right before I was ready for dinner, and I remember it taking a LONG time. And I was all frustrated. Next time, I'll plan ahead!

Hillary said...

I love youre blog. Awesome job on homemade ravioli. You have inspired me to try it myself. Keep up the inspiring writing and cooking.