Almond Ricotta and Roasted Garlic Ravioli
Vegan ravioli stuffed with sweet, roasted garlic and creamy, salty almond ricotta. They're smooth and so flavoursome they don't even need a sauce, just a little garlic oil and some fried sage leaves.
Servings: 3
Ingredients
For the Almond Ricotta
- 150 g flaked almonds
- 750 ml water
- 3 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 2 tablespoon liquid glucose
- 45 g white vinegar (Apple cider vinegar also works)
For the Filling
- 2 heads of garlic
- 2 shallots
- 5 sage leaves
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- pinch flaky sea salt
For the Pasta
- 100 g semolina flour
- 100 g type "00" flour
- 110 g water
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
Instructions
To Make the Ricotta
- Place the almonds in the cup of a high-speed blender along with the water, salt and liquid glucose. Blend until very smooth until you have a white milk.
- Strain the almond milk through a fine nut milk bag, discarding the almond pulp. Transfer the strained milk to a saucepan.
- Place the milk over a medium/low heat and gradually bring to 85 degrees c, stirring constantly. At 85c, add the vinegar and stir to combine. Cover with a lid and leave to cool down to room temperature.
- Place a clean nut milk bag in a sieve and place the sieve over a saucepan. Pour the liquid through. The bag will catch the almond milk curds. Cover with a lid or tea-towel and place in the fridge to allow the liquid to drip through. This will take a few hours.
- Using a teaspoon, pack the curds into a cheese mould. Place the filled cheese mould on top of a folded sheet of kitchen towel and place on a plate. Put in the fridge for at least 24 hours to set.
To Make the Filling
- Preheat the oven to 160c. Line a small roasting tray with baking parchment.
- Slice the top few millimetres off the top of the garlic heads and place in the roasting tray. Slice the shallots in half and add to the tray. Top with the sage leaves and a drizzle of olive oil. Sprinkle with the salt and place in the oven to roast for around 30 minutes. After 30 minutes check that the garlic is done - the cloves should be very soft and lightly browned. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.
- Once cooled, squeeze the cloves of garlic out of their skins and into the cup of a high speed blender. Add the sage leaves and shallots too but be sure to peel off any crispy, burnt layers of the shallots.
- Add the ricotta and blend until smooth. Cover and transfer to the fridge to cool.
To Make the Pasta
- Place all the ingredients into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook. Turn to medium speed, making sure that you stop occasionally to scrape all the flour down from the sides.
- Allow the dough to knead for roughly 8 minutes or until the dough is very smooth and springs back lightly to the touch. Wrap the dough with cling film and leave on the counter to rest for 10 minutes.
- Set up a pasta machine on its widest setting and fix it to the counter. Slice the dough in half and wrap one half back up in the cling film.
- Liberally flour the surface and the rollers of the pasta machine. Using a rolling pin at first, roll the half of dough until it's just under 1cm thick. Flour the pasta and pass it through the machine on its widest setting a few times until you have a smooth, thin sheet of pasta.
- Drop the setting on the pasta machine by one increment and run the pasta through, catching it on the other side with your hand, to make sure it doesn't fold and stick together. Drop the setting again and repeat the process until the pasta is thin enough to see your hand through (on my machine this is setting number 3)
- By now you should have a very long, thin ribbon of pasta. Cut it in half down the width and lay both sides separately on a floured surface.
- Making sure you leave sufficient space between each ravioli, pipe or spoon the filling onto on half of the pasta sheet. Brush off the excess flour between each blob of filling with a pastry brush. Dip the brush in a little water and gently wet the pasta around the filling.
- Gently lay the second half of the pasta over the blobs of filling and carefully push out any air bubbles with the side of your palm until you have a bunch of neat little mounds of filling. Using a pasta wheel or a ravioli stamp, cut out the ravioli and reserve the offcuts of pasta. Repeat with the second half of pasta and remaining filling.
- Allow the ravioli to sit, uncovered, on a plate for an hour or so. This helps them to dry out a little and makes the ravioli a little more robust when boiling.
- Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Working in batches of around 3 or 4, add the ravioli to the pot and boil for around 3 minutes. Meanwhile heat a frying pan with a little olive oil, some crushed garlic and some sage leaves. Using a slotted spoon or spider, remove the ravioli from the pot and into the frying pan.
- Fry the ravioli in the garlic/sage oil, being careful not to burn the sage, until the ravioli is lightly browned. Serve with sprinkle of flaky sea salt.