Vegan Ravioli

I've been experimenting with making my own pasta.  Now I wouldn't exactly say that it is 'fasta pasta' than the dried stuff you buy in the shops and by no means would I survive a round of Masterchef with my results. However, it's kind of fun, therapeutic and creatively edible!   

I've never had normal shop bought 'fresh' pasta before as that always has eggs in it so the taste of the home made stuff was completely different to the shop bought dried pasta I was used to. The only comparison really is the vegan Biona ravioli that we've had in the past.  This ravioli inspired me to give it a go and make my own, along with some normal tagliatelle style pasta. 

The recipe I used was 'Vegan Homemade Pasta' from the book Nonna's Italian Kitchen (which by the way is a fabulous vegan book). The abbreviated version of the recipe is below. 

I used pasta flour instead of the white or mix of white and whole wheat flour stated in the recipe, merely because I already had some in the cupboard.  For the filling, I had a rummage in the cupboard and the fridge to see what I could come up with.  I found a couple of baked sweet potatoes left over from the evening before in the fridge and a jar of sun-dried tomato paste in the cupboard. Mashing the sweet potatoes with the paste, and with the addition of a few herbs, I had a suitably interesting filling for the ravioli.  All I had to do is make the pasta.  I don't have a pasta roller/maker so out came the rolling pin (and my muscles) and I just used a cookie cutter for the shapes.  I think the pasta was, with hindsight, a little on the thick side but nothing that a bit more rolling out and patience couldn't have fixed!  It still tasted good!  I even had a crack at a couple of tortellini shapes (see my efforts on the left in the above photo)!

Vegan Homemade Pasta for Ravioli
Makes about 1lb of pasta

1 2/3 cups pasta flour
1/2 cup soya flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
2/3 cup water
Bit of soya milk

Mix the flours and salt then add the oil. Pour in the water and mix initially with a fork but then get in there with your hands and bring together into a ball of dough. Knead the dough for about 10 minutes until smooth.  Pop it in a plastic bag and bung in the fridge for at least 10 minutes (or until you are ready to use). I made my pasta in the morning but then didn't roll it out and make the ravioli until the evening and it seemed okay.


Roll out the pasta as thin as you possibly can without it tearing (I should have done mine thinner) and then cut with a cookie cutter into shapes.  Put a small amount of the filling of your choice (see my suggestion above) in the middle of half these shapes.  Brush the edges of the shapes with soya milk and take the 'unfilled' halves and place on top, pinching the edges together.  I doubly secured them by then using a fork pushed around the edges.

We cooked the ravioli for about 5 minutes in rolling boiling water and all was well. We served it with Meridian Creamy Sundried Tomato Sauce which is lazy of me but also tasty!

I actually doubled the above recipe so we had some left over which I decided to freeze (pre-cooking) for a later date.

Enjoy!