Simple Vegan Pasta Dough & Butternut Squash Ravioli Recipe

Butternut Squash Ravioli

Prep Time 45 mins

Cook Time5 mins

Total Time50 mins

Butternut Squash Ravioli:

Ingredients

4 cups butternut squash, cubed (about 1 medium-small squash)

olive oil

7 ounces firm tofu (usually half a block)

1/3 cup cashews, roasted

1 tablespoon nutritional yeast

vegan ravioli dough (next recipe below)

Sage Brown Butter Sauce:

1 clove fresh garlic, crushed and minced

8 fresh sage leaves

1/4 cup vegan butter (like Earth Balance)

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1/4 cup vegetable broth

1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions

*Prepare ravioli dough in advance. 

to make the butternut squash ravioli

Preheat oven to 425°F (220°C). 

Peel butternut squash then cut in half. Using a spoon, scrape out and discard all the seeds and stringy parts. Cut butternut squash into one-inch cubes and place on baking sheet. Drizzle olive oil and sprinkle salt and pepper on top. Mix to coat all the cubes and roast in preheated oven for 25 minutes, flipping halfway.

In the last 5-7 minutes of roasting, add cashews to the baking sheet (or you can use a separate baking sheet). Roast the cashews until they start to brown, making sure not to burn them.

In a food processor, add the roasted butternut squash and cashews, tofu, and nutritional yeast. Purée until smooth and creamy, scraping down sides as needed (about 3-4 minutes). 

Cut ravioli dough into even 3 inch squares. Place a teaspoon of butternut squash filling in the center of a square. Then place another square of dough on top and use a fork to crimp the edges until sealed. 

Add prepared ravioli to a large pot of boiling water.* Boil them in batches, depending on the size of your pot (don't overcrowd them), for 5 minutes. Remove with slotted spoon. Enjoy with sage brown butter sauce.

to make the sage brown butter sauce

Melt vegan butter in a large skillet on medium-heat. Cook until butter starts to brown. Add sage leaves and let sizzle for a few seconds.

Remove from heat and add garlic. The garlic should start to brown quickly so be sure not to burn it. Once the garlic is fragrant, add salt, lemon juice and vegetable broth.

Recipe Notes

*This recipe freezes well! Do not boil the ravioli before freezing. Place prepared ravioli on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper into your freezer for about 20-30 minutes, until slightly frozen and hardened. This is so they won't stick together. Transfer to a freezer bag or tupperware. When you want to eat them, just add to a pot of boiling for 5 minutes.

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Simple Vegan Pasta Dough

Ingredients

2 cups flour

2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil

1/2 cup water

2 pinches salt

Directions

In a large bowl, add flour and salt, mixing the two ingredients together to distribute the salt throughout the flour. Add the olive oil and about half of the water. I prefer to mix my dough by hand as to better control the mix rate and moisture levels.

Working from the outside of the bowl to the center, work the dry into the wet, adding small amounts of the remaining water as you go. A dough ball will form after 3 to 7 minutes of mixing and kneading your ingredients.

If the dough is too wet, add small amounts of flour and continue to knead, if it is too dry, add small amounts of water and continue to knead. Note on wearing latex gloves: They will help to keep your hands clean, but make sure they don't have a coating or powder on the them.

Once the dough is made, move to a flat surface for rolling out the pasta, and dust the top with flour. Separate the dough into 2 separate balls, roughly the same size. Using a rolling pin, place one of the dough balls into the center, and begin rolling out the pasta, being sure to flour the dough and rolling pin as needed to avoid sticking.

Flipping the dough a few times and rolling in all 4 directions, create a rough circle, into a fairly thin sheet.

With Ravioli, there is a top and a bottom with your filling inside. Once the dough is rolled out, gently fold it in half so as to create a crease. Then flatten it back out. Using a sharp knife, follow the crease line and cut your pasta into 2 separate pieces. Now you have a top and a bottom for your ravioli! Using a pastry brush, gently sweep any excess flour off of your top and bottom sections. You will also need a small bowl of water with an applicator brush (I use a silicone basting brush), your ravioli stamp, a large plate with wax paper and your filling.

A note on ravioli cutters: There are a lot to choose from and not everyone uses a cutter at all. You can use a knife and freehand cut your raviolis. You can use a hand crank pasta machine with the ravioli attachment, which is a quick method. Some prefer the hand made attention that goes into each ravioli as you prepare the dish.

Now that the pasta dough rolled out and cut into 2 roughly equal halves and all excess flour has been brushed off, take your stamp and gently imprint the shape into one side of your dough. This allows you to see how many raviolis will fit on the pasta you have rolled out while also marking where you will place your filling for each one. Imprinting is not cutting, so don’t press all the way down as to cut the raviolis out of the pasta.

Using a small spoon, place a liberal amount of filling into the center of each ravioli imprint. More is better when using a hand stamp, just be sure not to overflow onto the edges of the imprint, keeping a clear space around each filling.

Once you have placed all of your fillings onto the scored bottom piece of pasta dough, its time to move your attention to the top piece. Using your applicator brush and small bowl of water, brush the top of the other pasta dough half so as to cover its surface area. D not soak the dough, just get the gluttons going and creating a sticky surface. Taking your time, carefully flip the dough over so that the wet surface is facing down above your fillings. Align your bottom and gently place this top layer onto the bottom later. Do not press down on any edge just yet. First make sure that you are covering all sides, adjusting your dough as necessary. Then, beginning on one side, use your fingers to press the dough edge together and begin moving between all of your little filling mounds, pushing the dough together while moving any air bubbles out towards the other side.

Once you have completed this step, take your ravioli cutter and begin stamping out each ravioli by aligning the stamp with the center of your filling and pressing straight down, cutting all the way through to your work surface. Then you can twist your cutter left and right, gently, so as to free each ravioli. Be sure to place a single sheet of wax paper on a plate and then place each ravioli onto the sheet. Do not let them touch or they will stick together. You may stack them with a sheet of wax paper between each layer, but do not stack higher than 2 levels as they will crush each other.

Once you have cut all of your raviolis you can then move onto the other dough ball that you separated out earlier, repeating all of these steps. This dough recipe with a 2”ravioli stamp should yield between 20 and 30 individual raviolis depending on how thin/thick your pasta dough is and how close together you place your stamps. You may refrigerate your finished ravioli until you are ready to boil them (do within 15 minutes of plating). They can also be frozen for later use, which should be done at this point, not once they are cooked. Store them sealed in a single layer (use a vacuum press machine, for maximum freshness).

To cook the ravioli, simply take a large pot, add water, a pinch of good salt and a few drops of extra virgin olive oil. When the water comes to a boil, add your raviolis one at a time. Stir the pot gently. When the raviolis float to the surface of your water, they are done and can be plated. Fresh pasta cooks much faster than dry pasta, so your raviolis will be done within 3 to 5 minutes once they enter the boiling water bath. Plate, and add your sauce or oil topping and garnish.