Pass the Pasta!

Yes, that is a super lame post title!

I had the girls from uni over on Friday night 'cause one of our friends was visiting from Adelaide (we miss you Tif!). We went to see Atonement and I cooked for three hours! Atonement was awesome. We're all big fans of Ian McEwan's work 'cause our thesis supervisor wrote her Ph. D on his novels. Read the book before you see the film!

Down to the reason you're here: food!

I made a bastardized version of the spinach and ricotta filling from Nonna's Italian Kitchen using the Cashew Ricotta from Veganomicon. I added a packet of frozen spinach, a handful of fresh basil (from my pot in the kitchen - it's the only thing I can actually grow!) and a shake of dried basil. I made a batch of the chickpea pasta from Nonna, and proceeded to make ravioli. Rolling out the pasta and filling it took 2.5 hours! Now I remember why I only make fresh pasta on special occasions. I need a pasta mold or similar.

Anyway, here 'tis with a modified Marinara Sauce from V-con (I added zucchini!).

I also made my usual olive foccacia. I used smoked olives from the divine deli that my brother works at!

The whole Shebang:

A few days before I made the Pumpkin Ziti filling, but I put it in cannelloni!

Here it is from the side too!

Hope everyone's having a fun summer. It's not raining in Brizzy anymore, much to my dismay. Only three more sleeps to see if I got into law school! And Cam starts med school in two weeks (actually it was two weeks yesterday)! Exciting times....

Completely unoriginal - gnocchi!!!

I have to thank Vegetation over at Vegetation Ramblings (link to the right) for the idea for this (although after three hours cooking, I'm not so sure ;) ).



Anyway, it was pretty tasty!!! My recipe was as follows:
Ingredients:
1 portion of gnocchi (recipe from Nonna's Italian Kitchen)
1 portion of vegan parmesan (ditto)
1 portion of almond vegan ricotta (ditto again)
500g roasted pumpkin
Nutmeg, salt and pepper to taste
Recipe:
In a bowl, combine about a cup of ricotta, the pumpkin and 4 tablespoons of the vegan parmesan in a bowl. Mix together (don't mash the pumpkin too much, although it isn't really that bad...) and add nutmeg, salt and pepper to taste.
After cooking the gnocchi, drain and put back into the empty saucepan. Add the pumpkin sauce and stir until warm. Divide into bowls and sprinkle with more parmesan. Enjoy!
Original Recipe here!

Anyway, have a go....

The next day I made an ultra simple pasta sauce and cooked the rest for lunch. The pasta sauce is, you guessed it, Isa's pizza sauce, bastardized (thanks Tez - the tropical vegan) for my requirements (I use the entire tin of tomatoes, including the juice). Cam played Cricket with friends on Saturday morning and was STARVED!!! I believe we enjoyed this in front of an episode of Scrubs. ;)



I sent my batch of cookies off for the first Aussie cookie swap on the PPK forums, but I won't spoil the surprise for my partner. Check back in a few days for cookie pics!!!!

Vegan Spinach and "Ricotta" Cannelloni

I made this to take to Cam's parent's house on Monday ('twere a public holiday in BrisVegas).

The recipe basically comes from Nonna's Italian Kitchen - the spinach and ricotta filling with Isa's pizza sauce from VWAV (is there anything I can't put that sauce in - it's very versatile).

Here's the before photo:



And the after (cooked photo):



It was REALLY tasty - I can't believe I hadn't thought of making this before. Anyway, if you have about two hours free, you should try this.

On other matters, I'm (Amy) trying to get some work done on my thesis - it's going okay, but I really need to pull my finger out (and the PPK forums are way too distracting). Um, everything else is good I guess. It's Mother's Day this weekend, and I'm involved in the AU Cookie swap (I organised it on PPK), so I expect to do a fair bit of baking this weekend.

I'm not quite sure what kind of cupcakes to make for Mother's Day. I was thinking the margarita cupcakes, but my nephews (they're all under the age of six) will be there. I want to try something other than the chocolate ones with peanut butter icing (it's like eating a tub of solidified oil - a tasty tub of solidified oil).

Expect cupcake and cookie pictures on the weekend. It's an RDO for me on Friday, so I'll be procrastinating as usual. I have plans to make lasagne, but I've posted a picture of that tastiness already....

Pasta - Pumpkin Ravioli with Tomato and Mushroom Spicy Sauce

The filling recipe also comes from Nonna's Italian Kitchen, but the sauce is an Amy Original.

Really easy sauce - fry up some garlic and two big handfuls of mushrooms in olive oil. Add a couple of tablespoons of tomato paste & fry for a few seconds. Add a tin of chopped tomatoes & a teaspoon of chilli (I'm too lazy to cut up chillis, so I use the stuff in the jar). Also add some vegan stock powder & half a cup of water.

I like to make the pasta sauce first and let it bubble away while I'm making the pasta - tasty!!!! 

Pasta - Lasagne (Spinach and Ricotta teamed with Lentil and Tomato)

I had a fair bit of the Spinach and Ricotta filling from Sunday night's ravioli dish (which took about 3.5 hours from start to finish - including the "cheese").

So I made more pasta (it's like playdough for grown-ups) and made a quick "meaty" sauce by opening a can of lentils and mixing it with a bottle of tomato pasta sauce - I believe it was a Raguletto Venetian sauce.

I then layered this into a square ovenproof dish and topped with five slices (yes, that is a sh*tload of fat) of Tofutti Mozzarella "cheese" slices.

Bake for about 40 mins & finish off under the grill.

This stuff was so good, the omnivores at work were asking what it was!!!!

Pasta - Spinach and Ricotta Ravioli in a Tomato & Mushroom Sauce

I got myself a pasta maker last week and I've made three different pasta dishes so far!!!

This one's a Spinach and Ricotta Ravioli with a Tomato and Mushroom Sauce. Recipe for the pasta and filling comes from Nonna's Italian Kitchen by Bryanna Clark Grogan.

Very tasty!!!