Ricotta & Sweet potato Ravioli

SF

Serves 3-4 people

Difficulty level: medium

Ricotta & Sweet potato Ravioli

Preparation time

1.5 hours

Cooking time

5-30 minutes

When is it ready?

1.5-2 hours

Ravioli can be made either manually or with a pasta maker. I enjoy the simplicity of the process using the pasta maker. But if you don't have it, don't let it discourage you from making ravioli! It is simple enough making ravioli without the machine and totally worth it!

For the filling I chose two options, one is super simple, and uses a couple of ingredients only, out of the fridge and ready to use. The other option requires some preparation, but very simple to do, and to my tasters' opinion it was somewhat tastier, so perhaps give both a try, especially if you're entertaining guests.

Ingredients

For the dough

2 cups all purpose flour

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 1/4 cups of water

3 tbsps Sunflower oil

1 tsp salt

For the filling

Option 1

1 sweet potato, peeled

1 tbsp vegan parmesan (I used follow your heart)

1 tsp vegan Ricotta (I used Kite hill)

1/3 tsp Rosemary leaves

1/2 tsp grounded black peppercorn

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp olive oil

Option 2

2 tbsps Ricotta

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp grounded black peppercorn

For the sauce

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 garlic clove, crushed

1 tsp nutritional yeast

Rosemary leaves

Grounded black peppercorn

Salt

Let's get cooking!

Mix all the dough ingredients and knead by hand or with a mixer for about 3-4 minutes. Cover the dough in plastic wrap and set it aside for at least 15 minutes. Preferably, let it rest for 30 minutes or more.

Meanwhile prepare the filling

Option 1

Cut the sweet potato to 2 inch cubes and cook until soft (takes about 20 minutes)

In a mixing bowl, mash the sweet potato and add the rest of the ingredients. Mix well.

Option 2

Mix all the ingredients well. Nothing else to do here :)

If you're using a pasta maker, start by cutting a longitudinal piece of the dough, and gradually flatten it, starting with level 0/1. Then move up to level 4-5 to get a as thin dough as possible, without getting it torn. The thinner the dough is, the tastier the ravioli will be.

Lay the flat dough on a clean surface and either use a circular cookie cutter (2-3 inch in diameter) or cut the entire piece to get a rectangular shape. You can see both options in the photos above. If you're making two fillings, it's useful to have more than one shape, so you can distinguish between the two types.

Put a tsp-amount of filling in the middle of the circle or in even distances along the rectangle. Then, with a similar sized rectangle dough, or circles, cover the one with the filling to create the ravioli 'pockets'. Using a fork, as can be seen in the picture above, press the edges of the dough to seal the raviolis.

Throw the raviolis into boiling water and cook for 3 minutes. The raviolis will quickly float which means they're ready. I tried serving these cooked only and also cooked & then fried. Both are very successful, but the fried ones are less durable, in taste and texture. They should be served shortly after preparation.

When the raviolis are done and served on a plate, sprinkle olive oil that was pre-mixed with the crushed garlic, on top of the raviolis. Then, add a bit of nutritional yeast on top (not too much though. It has a cheesy-flavor and can enrich the taste, but if put too much it will do the opposite). Add also a bit of rosemary leaves and grind on top the black peppercorn. Serve while hot!