Pumpkin Ravioli - Mofo Post #2

Day 2, post 2. I'm doing okay so far! Actually I cooked and wrote this on Sunday, but shhhh. Don't tell!

Like I mentioned in MoFo Post 1, I've been dying for fall to be able to cook all things apple and pumpkin. I've already done an apple post so here goes my first pumpkin one of MoFo and the season.

I can't think of a better way to spend a Sunday than watching football, cooking, cleaning and drinking beer. All while in a hoodie, leggings and tube socks. During football seasons past, I would only watch the Patriots games and then either before or after, I would spend a bunch of time in the kitchen cooking something awesome. This season I have joined two fantasy football leagues so I pretty much need and want to watch every game, all day. But I also want to be in the kitchen all day. My need to be in the kitchen won over the need to watch football, though I did pop back into the bedroom every so often to get updates.

On the menu was Pumpkin Ravioli, Roasted Garlic Butter Sauce with Sage, Lemon Scented Green Beans, Tofurkey Sausages and Garlic Bread. OMFG. All in all, everything I made literally takes 10 minutes or less to cook but prepping the ravioli took a long ass time. I started the night before by making Cashew Ricotta so all I had to do was add pumpkin puree and some nutmeg.

Initially I had planned on making homemade pasta sheets to make the ravioli with but I knew as soon as I went to bed the night before I wouldn't be up for it. Luckily, I had about 60 round fresh wonton wraps in the freezer that I got from the Asian market not too long ago. Wonton wraps are a fantastic stand in for homemade pasta. But really, nothing beats homemade.Though it is nice to have perfectly round pieces to work with.

I made the Cashew Ricotta  from Veganomicon with a few changes. I used 1 cup cashews, instead of basil, I subbed dried sage and thyme and added about 1/4 cup of nooch. That alone was worthy of any ravioli, lasagna, or just eating it off the spoon. That good. But adding a can and a half of pumpkin puree and 1 1/2 tablespoons of nutmeg really made it go from delicious to amazeballs. It also made WAY more than I needed for 30 ravioli so I tossed it in the freezer. I will be making a lasagna with it very soon.

It took forever to prep each ravioli and by the time I was done I had to do some stretching. Being hunched over the table for an hour killed my shoulders and neck. But every second was worth it once these babies were cooked. I put about a tablespoon of ricotta on each wonton wrap, wet around the edges with water and placed another wonton wrap on top. While gently pushing any air bubbles out, I pressed the edges together to seal them up and then went around them with fork tines just to be safe. There is nothing worse than your ravioli filling seeping out while cooking.

After I was done filling them all, I put them on a baking sheet and left them to sit for awhile in the fridge so I could take a breather. And by breather, I mean I spent another hour cleaning the kitchen on top of the two I had spent prior to even starting the ravioli.

Finally it was time to start cooking everything. While I was bringing a huge pot of water to a boil, I started everything else. These little guys took only 5 minutes to cook and because I filled a few a little too much, I ended up with a few casualties, but it was like 4 out of 30. Not too bad.

I don't really have recipes for anything I cooked today, just kind of winged it. For the butter sauce, I threw a bunch of Earth Balance in a pan with roasted garlic and fresh chopped sage. The lemon scented green beans were just steamed beans with the juice of half a lemon, a few cloves of roasted garlic and a sprinkle of sea salt. The garlic bread was melted earth balance and roasted garlic spread on them. The tofurkey was well, just that. Tofurkey. All in all, asides from all the prep time for the ravioli, it really was a simple meal. And fuckin' tasty too.