Ravioli and Cavatelli

I wanted to make homemade ravioli, but I wasn't sure what to fill them with. I had a zucchini that I needed to use up just sitting in the fridge, but you don't often see "zucchini ravioli" unless the actual dough is replaced by strips of zucchini wrapped around filling. I did, however, know how to make a vegan ricotta of sorts, and I decided that I would just add the zucchini into the "ricotta."

I made the filling:

1/2 cup cashews

1/2 cup chickpeas
1 egg
1/4 onion
1 clove garlic
1/2 lemon
3 large basil leaves
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

1 small zucchini

I blended it all up in my food processor, and took a small taste. It was delicious. I moved on to making the ravioli dough:

3 cups flour

2 eggs

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup water

 

After kneading the dough together, I put it on a lightly floured surface and rolled it out with a rolling pin until it was super thin. The difficulty with ravioli is that you want the dough to be thin enough so that you actually get some filling and it's not just a mouth full of dough, but you need it to be thick enough that it holds together while cooking and doesn't come apart. I did my best. 

 

Then, I laid the dough on top of my ravioli tin (which basically just shapes the ravioli and makes it easier to combine the two layers of dough). 

 

I put a small spoonful of filling into each pocket, then draped more dough over top. I sliced the dough apart into individual raviolis. 

 

I pressed my fork against each edge of the ravioli, sealing in the filling. Overall, the dough made 24 ravioli.

 

I brought a pot of water to boiling and then dropped the ravioli. After cooking for 15 minutes, they were done!

 

These were really good--although I will say that the dough still might've been too thick, and the edges of each ravioli could've been trimmed to cut down on the dough.

After cooking the ravioli, I still had a lot of filling left, so I decided to try my hand at this ricotta cavatelli recipe using my vegan zucchini ricotta. Appetizing words, I know. I made the dough:

3 cups flour

1 pound ricotta cheese

2 eggs

Obviously in place of the cheese I added the rest of my filling, and I only added one egg because I had already added an egg to my filling. I kneaded the ingredients together and got a really cool green dough from the basil and zucchini.

 

Per the recipe, I let the dough sit, covered, for 30 minutes. Then, I took it back out and divided it into 4 pieces.

 

Working with one piece at a time (and setting aside the others) I rolled the dough out into a rope. The recipe said 1/4 inch thick. I didn't do a great job at this but I sure did try. Making pasta is just such a laborious task, and at this point I was starting to get a little tired--and lazy.

  

I then cut the rope into pieces 1/2 inch thick.  

 

I shaped each piece with the end of my wooden spoon into some really weird looking shells. I don't know. I was getting super tired. I continued this process with the rest of the four pieces. Finally, I cooked the pasta in boiling water for 15 minutes.

 

These were pretty good. I had both the "cavatelli" and ravioli for dinner with some broccoli and tomato sauce. Overall, though, I think that these are the first recipes on my blog that I wouldn't make again. Good flavors, good experience, but boy am I TIRED! Tomorrow, store bought pasta it is.