Vegan Pumpkin Ravioli

Pasta (adapted from Fresh Pasta recipe in The Artful Vegan by Eric Tucker and Bruce Enloe, Dessert Recipes by Amy Pearce)

Time Estimates

Prep time: 40 min  

Cook time: 1 hr 20 min  

Total time: 2 hrs  

 

Notes

1. One pumpkin will yield way more than the one cup needed for this recipe, so you might want to plan on making a pie, soup, and/or the very easy and delicious Pumpkin Saag in Veganomicon the same week as your ravioli. Or quadruple this recipe; ravioli freezes well. Or just drain, bag and freeze your excess pumpkin.

 

2. Pumpkin seeds are easily and deliciously roasted. Save and rinse them, toss in oil , spread on a baking sheet and roast at 350 for about 30 minutes, stirring half way through.

 

3. You can make the ravioli ahead of time;  they keep very well on parchment paper in tupperware in the fridge.

 

Instructions

Roast the pumpkin:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Slice your pumpkin in half horizontally and scrape out all the seeds and surrounding stringiness.
3. Place both pumpkin halves cut side down on a baking sheet at roast for about an hour or until the skin is very soft and brown in spots and the flesh is soft and easily separates.
4. Scrape flesh away from skins and let drain in colander.

1. Melt margarine over medium heat in a large saucepan.
2. Add nutmeg, cinnamon, cumin, pepper, salt and ground cashews.
3. Stir in pumpkin and cook, stirring and mashing, until your mixture is fragrant and the consistency of stringy, creamy mashed potatoes.
4. Turn off heat and set aside.

1. Sift together flour, salt and basil. Add oil and water and knead until a stiff dough forms.
2. If you're going to be cooking your ravioli the same day that you're making them, you'll probably want to put a large pot of water up right about now so it'll be ready to go when you're done with assembly. Add a dash of salt and a dollop of olive oil to the water.
3. Turn out dough on a lightly floured surface and roll it as thin as you can with a rolling pin if you're like me and don't have a pasta maker (thought if you have a pasta maker, by all means use it). You may want to work with a small portion of the dough at a time.
4. Cut your dough into roughly matching squares; I like 2.5".
5. Put aprox 1 tablespoon of your pumpkin filling in the middle of a square, place another square on top, and pinch around the edges to seal. This is a great step on which to enlist the help of family and friends--it will go much quicker with more hands on the job. Place ravioli on parchment paper to prevent sticking.
6. Gently drop ravioli into a large pot of boiling water.
7. Cook for 15 minutes and carefully drain.
8. Serve with sauce of your choice. I braised some minced garlic, onion and fresh sage in a few tablespoons of olive oil and Earth Balance butter substitute.

Note:  Use as much organic content as possible for the healthiest recipe.

Serves 4-6

Source: PlentyMag.com

Photo: stu_spivack/Flickr