HOMEMADE RAVIOLI WITH ROSEMARY RICOTTA FILLING
While my family is of mixed ethnicity there must be some Italian in our blood because let me tell you, we LOVE pasta! Not just pasta from a box with some sauce... but making pasta! My brother in particular is very talented in this department and has actually discovered a great vegan pasta dough. Making pasta from scratch can range from just flour and eggs to flour and water so we originally were making the naturally vegan recipe with just water and flour. This method is great for plain pastas like pappardelle or linguini but ravioli dough needs more elasticity. When the company EatJust came out with their egg replacer "JustEgg" which my family has now called "JEgg" we wanted to see if this could give the dough that elasticity we were looking for. It worked perfect!
My brother introduced me to the book Flour + Water: Pasta which he would use for all of his pasta recipes. We took their Ravioli Dough and made it vegan by using JustEgg instead of the regular eggs. I slightly alter this recipe once again in my version by adding some beet juice to make it pink!
You can find this egg substitute in most grocery stores in the vegan section or can use Bob's Red Mill Egg Replacer. Or if not you can still just use a classic water and flour recipe for the pasta, the dough may just be a little bit thicker/ less stretchy.
For the filling I used my own Tofu Ricotta Recipe for the base that I usually use for my Lasagna recipe. Alternatively, if you don't want to make yours from scratch you can use KiteHill's Vegan Ricotta which you can find in the vegan section at most grocery stores these days.
When making pasta something that would definitely come in handy would be the KitchenAid pasta attachment which helps roll out the dough to the proper thickness. My family usually uses this when making pasta and I can tell you, it is a huge help! But if you are like me and don't even have your own Kitchen Aid to attach it to, then a rolling pin and well floured surface will do just fine! You may break a sweat though so cancel your workout for the day haha.
Once I rolled out the dough in order to cut out the shapes I just used a drinking glass to press down a circle then cut around it with a sharp knife. There is a helpful tool to make them look more uniform and speed up the process that is kind of like a ravioli mold. You lay a sheet of pasta over it, add a bit of filling to each spot, wet the edges, lay a sheet over the top, then roll over with a rolling pin to seal. Then you have 12 ravioli in just a few minutes!
PINK ROSEMARY RICOTTA RAVIOLI RECIPE
Yield: 10-15 ravioli depending on size (appx. 3-4 servings)
Time: 1 hour
Ingredients:
For the Dough:
1 small- medium beet
1/3 cup JustEgg or Egg replacer
2 tsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
2 cups all-purpose flour
For the Rosemary Ricotta Filling:
1 1/2 cups My Tofu Ricotta
1 tbsp fresh rosemary finely chopped
2 tbsp beet juice (use leftover from dough)
For the Sauce:
*Loosely based off of Aglio Olio
4 cloves of garlic
2 tbsp lemon zest
2-3 sage leaves, sliced into ribbons
3 tbsp toasted pine nuts
4 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp lemon juice
Directions:
Dough
Start by making the dough. Add all of the ingredients to a large bowl and use your hands to loosely combine. The traditional way would be to add all of the flour to your cutting board, make a well, then add in the wet ingredients, but I find that this can get a bit messy so I recommend starting in a bowl! When it begins to get clumpy pour onto a clean, well floured surface and knead until a ball forms. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 30 minutes.
Filling
Make the ricotta filling according to my linked recipe. Add the rosemary and beet juice, mix till well combined.
Dough
Back to the dough, cut the ball into 4 pieces and start rolling one out. If you are rolling by hand this may take a few minutes but get it about 1/8 of an in thick or as thin as you can. Use a drinking class, round, or square cookie cutter, to cut the dough into your desired shape. Once finished with the first piece move on to the second piece of dough. You will need two circles for each ravioli so try to get an even number.
Assemble
Time to fill! Take a circle or square of dough and add about 1 tsp-1 tbsp of ricotta filling. The amount will depend on the size of your ravioli so start with a tbsp and if it squeezes out when you try to close it then add a bit less. To seal the ravioli dip your finger in water and run it along the edge of the dough. Then press the top piece of dough on and close the edges with a fork.
Cook
Boil a large pot of heavily salted water so that they have room and won't stick together.
Sauce
While the water is boiling begin working on the sauce. Toast the pine nuts in a pan on medium to low heat stirring constantly. Keep your eye on these so they don't burn!
Add the oil to a pan on medium heat. Once hot add the garlic and sage. Saute till the garlic get's lightly browned then add the lemon juice and zest and remove from heat.
*You can use any type of sauce here, but I prefer to use a clear sauce so that you can see the pink ravioli.
Cook
Add the ravioli to the boiling water and let cook for about 2-3 minutes or until they float. Add directly to the sauce, stir till well coated.
Enjoy :)
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