Pumpkin Ravioli
Recently all I want to eat in the world is pasta with some sort of nutritional yeast sauce. It’s just so tasty and the perfect thing after a long day. In order to spice things up a little and tie in some of that fall flavor, I tried my hand at making pumpkin ravioli. Did you hear about the pumpkin shortage? Word on the street is there might not be any pumpkin left after Thanksgiving this year. Stock up before it’s too late. While you’re at it, you should try some of these raviolis.
This ravioli is rich and filled with all the essence of fall. It is perfectly paired with one of my new favorite sauces, a buttery sage sauce. I was so hungry that I kind of skipped the part where I write down the recipe for these guys but I can at least give you a general idea. All measurements are approximate.
Pumpkin Ravioli Filling
1 can pureed pumkin
1/2 cup Earth Balance
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp Sage
1/2 tsp thyme
1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper
1/4 tsp salt
pinch of nutmeg
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
Melt the Earth Balance in a small sauce pan over medium heat. Add the pureed pumpkin and stir to combine. Add the seasonings to taste and cook for about 5 minutes. Simple, right? Spoon into your prepared pasta dough (or whatever you’re using), form into raviolis and cook for 3 – 7 minutes.
The sauce, is very similar to the filling but with a completely different tangy flavor. It goes good with almost any pasta dish, but you probably want to avoid that since it’s pretty rich. It will be hard to resist though. Just so you know in advance. I never said this recipe was good for you.
Butter Sage Sauce
1/2 cup Earth Balance
1/2 tsp sage
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
juice of 1/2 lemon
ground pepper
Again melt the Earth Balance in a small sauce pan until it starts to bubble. Add the sage and nutritional yeast and let cook for about 3 more minutes, until it thickens slightly. Remove from heat and add lemon juice. Stir to combine fully and serve and devour!
Mushroom & garlic tofu ravioli
It’s official. Making ravioli makes me feel like a real cook. A chef even! I’ve made pies and crepes and hundreds of cupcakes, but this did it. Ok, so I did make one mistake in the process which made the end result not as pretty as I would have liked, but they still tasted amazing.
I started out using this homemade pasta recipe. I got a little excited at the market and got a few different flours so I’m going to try a semolina flour version as well. For the filling, I sauteed some chopped baby bella mushrooms in olive oil and some white wine, with just some salt and pepper and a touch of basil.
I wanted to add some tofu ricotta, but I realized I didn’t have all the necessary ingredients. Then I got a little carried away with the minced garlic (as usual). So it’s more like garlic tofu ricotta. That is not at all a bad thing.
Garlic Tofu Ricotta
7 oz firm tofu (about half a container) drained and crumbled
3 cloves minced garlic
1 Tbsp nutritional yeast
1 tsp tahini
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp basil
1/4 tsp onion powder
Put all ingredients in a bowl and combine using a fork.
After rolling out two sheets of the pasta dough, spoon on a little of both the mushrooms and tofu, trying to stay in a grid pattern as much as possible. Cover with the second sheet and seal in the filling with your fingers, starting in the middle as to not make air pockets. Cut each square with a pie cutter or sharp knife.
Cook in a medium pot of boiling water for approximately three minutes, being careful not to split any holes in them. Definitely don’t put them in a bowl before you put them in a pot and let them get all stuck together. Who would do something like that? Definitely not me! I’m a pro! Oh wait….
