Vegan Wonk: Homemade vegan ravioli

Last weekend we made vegan ravioli with cashew "ricotta" filling. The pasta dough worked out superbly. I'll share the recipe below so others can partake in the ravioli fun -- it is a bit of work without a pasta roller, but they cook really quickly, and what's better than homemade pasta?

I'll give the recipe, then a few photos of the process, rather than interrupting the instructions with photos - that gets really confusing to follow, I know. So look to the end for photos, and enjoy!

Homemade ravioli! With kalamata olives and spinach over tomato sauce

Step 1: Make the cashew ricotta filling first just to get it out of the way...

Ingredients:

1.5 cup raw cashews, soaked for ~2 hours or more
2 tbs olive oil
1/2 cup water
1 tbs apple cider vinegar
2 tbs nutritional yeast
~1/2 tsp salt - but add ≤1/4 tsp first and check the saltiness level!
Dash lemon juice
2 tbs unsweetened soy/almond/whatever milk

Process the cashews for 20 seconds or so in a food processor, add the olive oil, then slowly add the water in while the cashews are processing. You can stop the processing after the water is incorporated, and add the vinegar, nutritional yeast, some of the salt, and the lemon juice. Process again. Taste -- if you like the taste as-is, don't do anything. I prefer a more creamy, tangy, and salty "ricotta" -- so I would add the lemon juice, unsweetened non-milk, and more salt at this point and give it another whirl. Set the filling aside when you're done, and focus now on the pasta...

Pasta ingredients:

3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
4 tbs olive oil
1/2 tsp black salt (kala namak) (optional - gives the very slightly egg flavor of fresh non vegan pasta)
Pinch regular salt
1 tbs nutritional yeast
3/4 cup water plus more...

Mix together the flours in a large bowl and work in the olive oil with a fork. Add the salts and nutritional yeast and stir to combine. Pour in the water and mix up the dough - I had to add plenty more water - until you can knead together to get a firm dough. Knead the dough for several minutes.

If you have the patience, you can wrap the dough up and let it sit for 10 minutes to an hour. I don't really know the advantages to doing this vs. not - we left it for about 10 minutes and it was fine. Looking up non-vegan recipes, it seems like some "resting" period was advised, but I am not curious enough to figure out why. Maybe you know. Just do what feels right. I'll tell you later if I figure anything out.

Anyway - when you have your dough ready - if you have a pasta dough roller, now is the time to use it. We do not have one, so I can't help you there, but I have faith that you can roll a great ravioli dough!

If you are going to use a regular rolling pin like us, divide the dough into 4 or more sections and roll it out so that it's about 8 inches width, and longer than a sheet of paper. The dough should be pretty thin, as thin as you can make it with your awesome dough-rolling muscles. About 1/4 centimeter or less is probably good.

Cu the dough into 2 four-inch strips. These two four-inch strips are going to make two rows of ravioli, if that makes sense. On the right-most side of one of the strips, pile ~1tbs of the cashew filling every 2 inches. (Here is where photos are helpful, below.) Cut the strip in half so that you can top the filling side with a blank side. Push down around the filling piles so that they are air-tight between two pasta strips. Cut between the piles to make the ravioli squares, and press the edges down with a fork. You can cut off some excess if the edges are too long, and roll that back into the dough or just make little noodle strips with it.

We started water boiling after 1/4 of the dough had become raviolis, because you can take them out one-at-a-time as they get done. Put a large pot of water to boil and put in 8-10 raviolis to start (can do more if your pot fits more.) Once the raviolis float to the top, after a few minutes, they're done - use a slotted spoon to strain them of water and put onto a plate or bowl. Keep them warm by putting them in the oven at very low heat, if you'd like.

Top with sauce - we added onions, spinach, and kalamata olives to a generic tomato sauce the first time around. For leftovers, I made a white sauce with flour, Earth Balance, nutritional yeast, and soy milk. Each time was great!

Photos of the prep: