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Tofu Ricotta Stuffed Shells

18 Dec

I’ve secretly decided that stuffed shells are the lazy person’s ravioli and I’m not upset by that. I honestly love all forms of carbohydrates with some form of delicious filling; dumplings, ravioli, pierogi, etc. Especially if that filling is as delicious as this tofu & spinach ricotta! This is another recipe that I am thrilled to have Mori-Nu Silken Tofu on hand for-the fact that it’s shelf stable means I can whip this up on a moments notice and have a protein filled meal on the table in less than an hour.

I used a jar of homemade marinara that I canned over the summer-I recommend a sauce with a touch of sweetness to contrast with the salty ricotta. We’re going to be adding a bunch of ingredients to the tofu to give it an authentic ricotta flavor. I’m using lactic acid, which I highly recommend over lemon juice, since its a little more authentic “dairy” flavor. If it’s not something in your pantry for plant based vegan cheeses, you can make the substitute for lemon juice.

Each shell is stuffed with this tofu ricotta mixture, then drizzled with more sauce, and topped with vegan cheese. While I love making my own cheeses, I used a store-bought cheese for this. I recommend Follow Your Heart or Violife products if you have access to them. My favorite tip is to drizzle the cheese you are using with a bit of oil and press into the sauce to enable it to melt better.

After baking, I served with a side salad. This dish can totally stand as a meal on its own, but a salad and garlic bread really pulls it together. It’s even better as leftovers! Click Read More if you’d like the recipe!

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Vegan Calamari

18 Jan

A few months ago I made the Vegan Oxtail recipe by Korenn’s Vegan World of Food and was very impressed by the texture of the oyster mushrooms. Oyster mushrooms are kind of an old card in the vegan world, they work excellent as scallops or pulled barbecue on sandwiches. I thought it would be fun to use their shreddy texture for vegan calamari, and I was not disappointed. The mushrooms take a little oceany flavor on during a bit of marinating time, and get battered in a simple flour mixture. Feel free to use a more advanced batter recipe if you prefer. You can usually find large oyster mushrooms at bigger grocers and international markets. If you can’t find large ones, smaller ones will work just as well, but the calamari rings will be smaller. 

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Vegan Pizza Rolls

4 Mar Vegan Pizza Rolls

I am a 90’s kid and there’s no reason for me to deny it. I spent many an afternoon in front of a TV watching cartoons with a box of Totino’s pizza rolls. I’m sure most other 90’s kids remember watching shows like Hey Arnold and Rugrats after school, although maybe the pizza rolls were a particular remnant of my own childhood.

Vegan Pizza Rolls

I always have fun recreating foods like this and pizza rolls have been on my to-do list for years. I very specifically remember the thin and crispy, oily crust, so I knew a pizza crust wasn’t going to work here. I made a basic pasta dough, but used a bit of vital wheat gluten to firm it up. Alternatively, you could just use bread flour, but it’s not something I usually have on hand.

I didn’t get any pictures of the rolling and filling process, but it’s the same as making ravioli. YouTube is a great help for beginners if you’ve never made ravioli before, but it’s pretty simple. Dough, filling, and dough, and just seal around the edges.

I fried these, but they could possibly be baked on a parchment lined pan. The crispy crust effect won’t be the same so as long as you’re not eating them daily, I recommend a shallow fry. This recipe makes about 12, but you can easily double it and keep the rest refrigerated after cooking until you’re ready to eat them.

 

Be sure to check out the Vegan Meringue Group on Facebook for more aquafaba recipes and a thorough FAQ.

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Ravioli with Cashew Spinach Ricotta

24 Feb Ravioli with Cashew Spinach Ricotta

I don’t think I’ve ever been one to shy away from my love of carbs (except for during a brief Atkins diet period in the early 2000s.) There is just something wonderful about fresh homemade pasta. I will pretty much eat any pasta, but homemade pasta is something otherworldly. I discovered this recipe for homemade pasta from Vegan Dad years ago and I’ve used it pretty consistently since then. One of my favorite recipes for ravioli is filled with butternut squash, but it’s not really squash season anymore.

Ravioli with Cashew Spinach Ricotta

We love this cashew spinach ricotta in my vegan lasagna recipe, so I knew it would be a hit here.  I added a touch of miso paste this time around, but it’s totally optional so if you don’t have any, don’t fret. You may need to adjust the salt level without the miso, so be sure to taste the cashew ricotta for quality control purposes. Or, you know, general hunger purposes. This recipe made about 30 ravioli for me, but if you plan to make square ravioli with an overlapping pasta layer, be sure to double the dough recipe.

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Doughy Pizza Pizza Dough

20 Nov

If you met me four years ago, I would’ve told you about all the pizza places I’ve worked at-I’m up to 4 now. Making a giant batch of dough used to be a daily routine to me. You’d think by now I’d be sick of pizza-Ken would tell you otherwise. I could probably eat pizza for dinner every day for the rest of my life and be happy. As long as I had sushi for lunch. 🙂

There’s a million recipes for pizza dough online, so why would you care about this one? It’s not even a no-knead, 30 minutes and it’s ready dough. You actually have to give it time to proof and wait for the yeast to bubble. So I don’t know why you’d ever pick this specific dough recipe to pin, but I’ve been making it every Friday for years.  It’s a pretty solid recipe, especially if you like thick crust.

I usually start making my dough a few hours before I make the pizza to give it plenty of time to rise, but you could probably start this an hour before and be fine. I used to make mine by hand; now I use a dough hook on my food processor. It’s much faster, but making it by hand is still the most basic and effective method.

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Vegan Calzones

2 Oct

We’ve been watching a lot of Parks and Recreation lately and there’s a lot of talk about calzones. Personally, I was never a huge fan of calzones. I think this picture sums it up.

I may have changed my mind after last night. These were delicious and VERY filling. Try drinking a brown ale with these-since it’s autumn, I’d suggest Sierra Nevada’s Tumbler.

Vegan Calzones

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Eggplant Stacks

6 Sep

Our local farmers market runs on Wednesdays and Saturdays and I like to take my daughter with and pick out a few vegetables for meals during the week. Last week we found this pretty purple and white striped eggplants.
Eggplant Stacks

Tonight I wanted to combine the remaining eggplant and my favorite cheese recipe, from here.
It’s not quite eggplant parmesan, but you could easily fry these during the saute step! I served them with fettucine, but angel hair or capellini would be equally as beautiful here.
Eggplant Stacks

Our garden is still producing massive amounts of cherry tomatoes, so they’re making another appearance here. Substitute regular tomatoes if you don’t have cherry tomatoes.
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Roasted Cherry Tomato Sauce

14 Aug

Last year we planted a cherry tomato plant…if only I knew then what I know now. It was a prolific plant that produced more tomatoes than we knew what to do with. In fact, quite a few were lost to the ground in the months while it was growing. Little did we know, those lost tomatoes would sprout with a vengeance this year.

We have a two car garage and the entire area behind the garage is full of tomato plants. I can barely keep up with them – these were picked 3 days after I had picked a similar amount. My husband has been taking them in his lunches and I’ve been snacking on them, but we still had four cups that had gone untouched.

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I made this recipe multiple times last year with our abundance of tomatoes. If you want it really red, add tomato paste or red wine, otherwise the sauce will have an orange tinge to it.

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Hazelnut Pesto

7 Aug Hazelnut Pesto

I grew a successful pot of basil this year, all from seeds. I’ve always purchased basil already started then moaned at how straggly and thin the plants grew throughout the summer. But not this year! I tossed in the seeds and now have a thriving, bushy plant!

I had leftover roasted hazelnuts from making my dacquoise and I figured “hey, throw them in the pesto, can’t hurt.” It’s been quite a while since I had pine nut pesto, but I can tell the hazelnuts have a different complexity to them. If you don’t have hazelnuts on hand, pine nuts or walnuts would work just as well!
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Coconut Macaroons

24 Jun

Weeks before I started attempting macarons, I made this beautiful batch of macaroons. There’s major differences between the two – one is a drop cookie, the other is piped, one has coconut, the other has almond. However, they are both delicious! My little one couldn’t keep her hands out of my macaroons (but she loves macarons now!)

Vegan Coconut Macaroons

Yet again, this recipe uses the legendary aquafaba, which is now becoming mainstream. If you aren’t already a member, you should definitely join the vegan meringue group on Facebook. I found that these really needed a little more body to hold the cookie together and I already liked the coconut macaroon recipe from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar, so I added aquafaba to the recipe. The aquafaba adds a nice sheen to the cookie and a little more moisture, but the recipe is also great without it. They are best enjoyed with cute babies and a glass of milk!

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