As she is newly in possession of several pasta-making attachments for her KitchenAid mixer, mom has been requesting a pasta night for a couple weeks now. Yesterday, I finally made fresh pasta--ravioli stuffed with a spinach mushroom tofu filling. I decided to experiment with what is known about the internets as "tofu ricotta." It's a dairy-free vegan ricotta substitute made with tofu and nutritional yeast. I'll be honest, I was super skeptical about this concoction. As it turned out, it was very good. Surprisingly good, actually. It doesn't, however, taste anything like cheese--ricotta or otherwise. And why should it? I like to let vegan and vegetarian foods do their own thing. Tofu will never taste like cheese; seitan will never taste like meat; beans will never taste like hamburger. Tofu, seitan, and beans, however, are all awesome in and of themselves. It's better then to think of this recipe as containing an Italian tofu filling, equally well-suited for ravioli, stuffed shells, or lasagna, rather than a ricotta substitute. Note: the filling is vegan, but the pasta and sauce are not.
This ravioli was great--light and flavorful, not gummy or heavy. The tofu filling lent a satisfying volume to the little pastry pillows while the spinach and mushroom provided a strong, savory flavor combination. Browned butter basil sauce is perfect for fresh pasta. It compliments rather than overwhelms. A bit of shredded parm on top completes the dish.
These went over really well. Mom, dad, and LCBF all thought they were very good (we didn't mention the tofu to dad, an avowed hater of all things that might be considered "health food"). We wound up with far too many ravioli for the four of us. It's a good recipe to make and freeze half for later (they'll cook just like, well, frozen ravioli). Recipes after the jump.
Spinach Mushroom Ravioli
with Browned Butter Basil Sauce
Yield: 60 to 72 ravioli (6-8 servings)
Ingredients
For Pasta:
2 cups flour + extra for dusting
1 tsp. salt
2 whole eggs
3 egg yolks
water as needed
For Filling:
1 bunch spinach
8 oz. sliced mushrooms
1 clove garlic
~10 leaves fresh basil
1 lb. firm tofu
juice of 1/2 a lemon
3 tbl. nutritional yeast
1/2 tsp. salt + extra as needed
1/4 tsp. pepper + extra as needed
2 tsp. + 2-3 tbl. olive oil
For Sauce:
1/2 c. butter
~10 leaves fresh basil
~1/2 c. shredded parmesan (for serving)
Overview
Start by pressing the tofu, if needed. At the same time, make the pasta dough. Then let the dough rest while you prepare the tofu ricotta. Place tofu ricotta in refrigerator while you roll out the pasta dough into sheets. Allow sheets to dry on a pasta drying rack while you sauté the mushrooms and spinach. Fill ravioli and cook for 3-5 min. while you prepare the brown butter basil sauce. Toss ravioli in pan with butter sauce and serve.
Pasta Recipe
Place 2 c. flour and 1 tsp. salt in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a plastic dough blade. Pulse a few times to combine. Add 2 eggs and 3 egg yolks and process until a ball begins to form. If the mixture is too dry, add a little water. If it's too wet, add a bit more flour. Turn dough onto lightly floured surface and finish shaping into a ball (if needed). Cover with plastic wrap and let rest while you make the tofu ricotta.
After the dough rests (for a minimum of 10 minutes), divide the ball into 6 smaller balls. Take one of the small balls and press it into a flat disc with your hands. Feed the disc through the largest setting (#1) on your pasta roller. I used mom's fancypants KitchenAid attachment, but I use my trusty hand-crank roller at home.
Fold the dough in half and send it through the roller again. Sprinkle with flour as needed throughout the rolling process to prevent sticking.
Repeat until the dough is as wide as the roller (about 6"). Trim edges so it fits cleanly in roller.
Change to next setting (#2) and feed dough through roller. Repeat on increasingly smaller settings until the dough is very thin and you can see your hand through it (setting #6).
Hang on rack to dry (10-30 min).
At this point you could make noodles out of the pasta sheets if you wanted to by running them through a cutter (or simply by rolling up and cutting with a sharp knife). To make ravioli, however, you must fill these sheets (scroll down for filling recipe). You don't need the KitchenAid attachment I used here (or any fancy filling machine, really). I actually think it's easier to simply spoon filling onto the sheets by hand, as I do in
this butternut squash ravioli recipe. Mom wanted me to test out the attachment, however, and I was happy to do so.
To fill with the KitchenAid ravioli maker attachment, fold a sheet of pasta in half, feed the folded edge into the machine and slowly crank until the dough starts to catch between the rollers. Spread open the two halves of the dough, allowing each to rest over opposite sides.
Place filling hopper in the middle.
Scoop 1-2 spoonfuls of filling into the hopper. Spread and press filling into the corners.
Slowly crank handle, adding filling as needed.
Place finished sheet flat on lightly floured surface.
Break or cut into individual ravioli (I used a pizza cutter--it was easier).
To cook, bring a pot of water to boil and salt. Cook for 3-5 minutes.
Scoop floating ravioli out of pot with a strainer (or slotted spoon), toss in browned butter basil sauce and serve topped with shredded parmesan cheese.
Italian Tofu Filling Recipe
Press block of firm tofu for about 20 min. before beginning (if needed--some brands of tofu are wetter than others). To press, wrap tofu block in paper towels and set on a rimmed plate. Place a cutting board on top of tofu and weigh it down with a few heavy cans to expel excess moisture from the block. After about 20 minutes, place block of tofu in bowl and use your hands to crumble it into pieces. Add basil, 1/2 tsp. salt, a few grinds of a pepper mill (about 1/4 tsp.), and juice of 1/2 a lemon (about 3 tsp.).
Mix together with your hands (I tried a fork, but hands just work better) until mixture obtains a ricotta-like slightly smooth texture.
Add 2 tsp. olive oil and stir with fork to combine. Mix in nutritional yeast. Cover and refrigerate until needed.
Spinach Mushroom Filling Recipe
Heat 2-3 tbl. olive oil in a large sauce pan over medium heat. Add 1 clove chopped garlic. Cook for a minute or two. Add sliced mushrooms and cook for 5-9 min. until browned.
Add spinach and cook until wilted, another 2-3 min. Salt and pepper to taste. Remove from heat.
Add spinach and mushrooms to the bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal cutting blade. Process until coarse.
Stir in Italian tofu mixture.
Fill ravioli with mixture.
Brown Butter Basil Sauce Recipe
Melt 1/2 c. butter in large saucepan. Cook a few minutes until it starts to brown. Add fresh basil leaves and cook until they shrivel and brown--another few minutes.
Comments
Post a Comment