Saturday, Cooking Day: Homemade Ravioli and Pistachio/Poppy Seed Cookies..

Cooking is very meditative for me. I can totally zen out, even with the most complicated of recipes. I have been wanting to try making pasta for some time now, but was a tiny bit intimidated. I carved out time yesterday and got started making not only pasta, but a cookie that I have been wanting to try. I was worried it wouldn't be as relaxing as it normally is because there was a lot going on in the kitchen between those two projects, but it ended up being great!

The pasta turned out really quite good, although I have a few things that I would change.

1. Next time, I would use half white whole wheat flour/half unbleached all purpose four. I use whole wheat or white whole wheat pretty much exclusively around here, but pasta would be the exception. It is just so thick and hearty and I would have liked it to be a bit lighter.
2. That said, I would roll the dough out even thinner than I did (and I rolled it out pretty thin). I guess it would be lovely to have a pasta roller (maybe someday) because it takes a lot of muscle to roll it. I would have liked it to be a bit more delicate!
3. Don't let the ravioli touch each other before they dry! They stick and tear and the filling squeezes out. Lay them, separated, on a flat surface to dry.

So, I will give you the basic recipe I used for the dough. It uses eggs, but it wasn't too "eggy" as I was worried about. If you have a pasta roller--go for it! But if not, just roll up your sleeves and get to work! I made a vegan filling with cashews and tofu (that is what I had around) but ricotta would be great too. I topped them with swiss chard, portabello mushroom, carmelized onions, Meyer lemon zest, and chopped, toasted hazelnuts, sprinkled with smoked gouda cheese. You could use any topping you want (red sauce, other veggies, pesto, etc.) and it can be eaten hot or cold. And they freeze ridiculously well, so make the whole batch, lay them on a cookie sheet in the freezer for an hour, then pop them into a freezer bag (pre-cooked).

Pasta dough (adapted from a variety of online sources):
(makes 4 sheets rolled out)

• 3 c. flour (I recommend 2 unbleached white and 1 white whole wheat) plus more for rolling
• 1 tsp. salt
• 3 eggs or egg replacement equivalent of 3 eggs
  
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• any dried herbs you want to add such as basil, oregano, thyme, sage, etc.
• approx. 3/4 c. of water (add about a 1/4 of a c. at a time until you have a smooth, not too sticky, not too dry dough and adjust if needed)
  

Mix flour and salt in an electric mixer (by hand is okay too, but it will take more work!). Beat eggs and oil. Add to flour mixture. Add water until it comes together. Knead for 8-10 minutes until it becomes an elastic and shiny ball of dough. Wrap in a damp towel for 30 minutes while you prepare the filling.

Cashew and tofu ricotta (adapted from Veganomicon cookbook):
(makes 2 cups)

• 1/2 c. raw cashew pieces
• 1/4 lemon juice (fresh squeezed if possible)
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 lb. of firm tofu, drained
• 1 1/2 tsp. salt
• any dried herbs such as oregano, basil, thyme, sage to taste
• 1/4 c. of nutritional yeast or parmesan cheese (reduce salt by 1/2 tsp. if parmesan)

Blend cashews, lemon juice and olive oil in a food processor until cashews are broken up into fine pieces. Add tofu, salt, herbs, and parmesan or nutritional yeast. Process until well blended. Set aside while you roll out the dough.


To roll out the dough you need a rolling pin, a clean, smooth surface, and some extra flour. Dust the surface with flour, along with your rolling pin. Take a quarter of the prepared dough and create a ball. Flatten it out as much as possible with your hands. Begin rolling back and forth, flipping it over every once in a while and adding flour when it begins to stick. Roll until you have a very thin sheet (approx. 1/8 " thick all the way around). Carefully pick it up and do the same for the remainder of the dough. You can work with smaller pieces if you want to. When finished rolling, take a piece of the thin dough and put tablespoon-sized dollops of the filling all over the sheet, leaving a 1/2" border and about the same in between each one. Do this until you fill the sheet. Wet your finger and trace a circle around the lump of filling to help make a seal. Add another sheet of dough on top and press around the filling lumps to seal the top and bottom dough together. Use either a round cookie or biscuit cutter, a water glass, a pizza cutter or a metal scraper to cut the ravioli into shapes. I used a biscuit cutter, floured every time. You will repeat this until the dough and filling are used up. Take a fork and carefully press around the outside edge of the ravioli to seal completely. Set the ravioli aside on a flat surface (not touching each other!) to dry for 30 minutes-ish. If you have leftover dough, but no more filling, you can use a pizza cutter or scraper or knife to make pasta noodles. They need to dry the same way.

After you are finished and they are dried a bit, you can freeze it at this point or cook them. The ravioli cook in boiling water for about 9 minutes. The pasta about the same!

Aren't they cute?!

Pistachio cookies with poppy seeds! This recipe is for my friend Beth! Yay! Hi Beth! So, I found a recipe for a savory cracker in the cookbook, Savory Baking, that looked really beautiful and interesting. They look just like little sushi rolls...well, sort of. I thought that it would be even better as a sweet cookie. Well, I guess I wanted it to be a not super sweet cookie. You see, we eat a lot of chocolate around here, and sometimes I want something NOT chocolate, and not too sweet. Anyway, I changed some of the ingredients up and added a few more. The texture turned out really good. I think that if I made them again I would add cardamom and rose water and subtract the poppy seeds. Although for this particular recipe, the poppy seeds are really good...anyway.


Pistachio Cookies with Poppy Seeds (adapted from Savory Baking):

• 1/2 c. shelled pistachios, plus a handful extra for garnish
• 1/4 c. butter
• 4 Tbsp. granulated sugar
• 1 egg or egg replacement equivalent
  
• 3/4 c. white whole wheat flour
• 2 Tbsp. milk (I used soy)
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1/2 c. black poppy seeds
• extra granulated sugar for garnish or powdered sugar and water for a glaze

(Raf digging in :)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Put the butter, pistachios and sugar in a food processor. Blend until the nuts are very well chopped, approx. 2 minutes, scraping down the sides a few times. Add the egg, vanilla, and soy milk and process until smooth. Add the flour and pulse a few times until the mixture comes together. Gather the dough with your hands and split in half. Create two, smooth logs out of each half by rolling them on a plate and then tapping each end on the plate to make the ends flat.

Spread poppy seeds out on another plate. Gently roll the logs, one at a time into the poppy seeds until they are well coated.

Place the coated pistachio logs in the refrigerator for at least an hour.

Take the logs out. They should be very firm. With a serrated knife, cut them into rounds, about 1/2" thick. Place them on an ungreased cookie sheet. Gently press a pistachio half into each cookie. If using powdered sugar, prepare a glaze (2 Tbsp. powdered sugar to a few drops of water). If using granulated sugar, press it into the tops of the cookies before baking. Place them in the heated oven for 10-12 minutes. When cookies come out, gently glaze them while they are still hot. Let cool. Eat!